Franke: Summer Parades
by Mark Franke
It’s officially high summer according to the thermometer and, most importantly, according to the school vacation calendar. In the past that meant lots of community parades on Saturdays, most of which were aligned with that town’s summer festival week. Most of Fort Wayne’s surrounding towns had them. I know, because my Navy veteran father would march with his comrades in each one of them.
The small town parades were special. Civic organizations, major businesses and local politicians all marched. The township fire department put most of its rolling stock in line with the large farm machinery and the oversized trucks sporting flyers promoting one of the festival queen candidates. My children and grandchildren loved going.
Usually there was a wagon loaded with the local high school alumni who came back for their 50th graduation anniversary. Of course that went back to when these towns had their own high schools, many of which were casualties of the “bigger is better” school consolidation mania of the 1950s and 1960s.
I admit to being nostalgic as well as constrained by a selective memory, a memory that mercifully filters all but what I choose to remember. But nostalgia ain’t what it used to be, a quote most appropriate to that 20th century philosopher Yogi Berra but it is author Peter De Vries who gets the historical attribution.
The biggest parade here in Fort Wayne was the Three Rivers one that kicked off a week-long community celebration. We would always arrive early to get a shaded seat along the west end streets where the two-hour parade began. Crowd estimates exceeded 100,000 back in those days, although I don’t how anyone could make an accurate count.
Nearly every Fort Wayne high school sent its marching bands which were interspersed among the politicians, police units, TV personalities and not-for-profit floats. My children liked the horse patrols, hoping the following pooper scooper would get an opportunity to display his skills. My personal favorite was the Baby Bin precision drill team furnished by the city’s garbage collection contractor. Original, to say the least.
Alas, the Three Rivers parade is no more, having died along with the entire festival. I suppose it is a sign of the times as our entertainment-crazed society has many other outlets to satiate its addiction.
Or maybe it is due to our growing apathy toward commemorations of any kind. Attending a parade was part patriotism, part respect, and part gesture of thankfulness toward the parade participants and their service to all of us. Much of each parade was composed of veterans, first responders and public office holders.
And then there were the many floats. While bemoaning the Three Rivers parade demise with my wife, she mentioned the lovingly constructed floats community organizations would build. It was these floats that were missing from the July Fourth parade. Perhaps they have become too expensive to build or, more likely in my opinion, the willingness of volunteers to do the work has dropped below sea level.
At least this year Fort Wayne had a July 4 parade. It wasn’t as long as the old Three Rivers incarnation nor did it appear to draw the same size crowd. We were able to sit streetside, a reflection perhaps of the lower attendance.
My wife’s only negative about the parade was the propensity for parade units to pass out candy. She is a retired elementary school principal and does not think giving children a load of sugar is a good idea at any time. She may be right about that but I worry that it directs the children’s attention away from the marchers and toward the sideliners walking along the edge of the street with bags of candy. The candy may be the lure but at least the children were at the parade. A teaching moment for the parents, to use my wife’s professional lingo.
It was there that we met a true American. As we crossed the street looking for a place to set our lawn chairs, a woman called out “Happy Fourth of July” to us. We asked if we could sit next to her and she welcomed us. We learned that she came to Fort Wayne from Alabama in 1973 and just seemed happy to be here. Her son and granddaughters sat next to us.
Shirley greeted every unit that passed, all 60 plus of them, with “Happy Fourth of July.” It was genuine happiness for the event and for its meaning. She understood why we were there.
Compare Shirley’s perspective with that of the mobs that are defining community participation as downtown takeovers. Note that the emphasis has shifted from gratitude for the service of others to extreme selfishness and self-indulgence. Only a delusional egotism (or is it egoism?) can pretend takeovers are nothing more than the Declaration’s pursuit of happiness.
America needs more Shirleys.
Mark Franke, M.B.A., an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review and its book reviewer, is formerly an associate vice-chancellor at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.
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