What if they gave a parade and nobody came? That certainly wasn’t the case last Monday as a crowd of some 5,000 helped celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Florence Memorial Day parade — many setting their chairs out along the route, as seen here on Park Street, several hours ahead of the 1 p.m. start time.
According to organizers of the Florence parade, first held in 1868 on what was then known as Decoration Day, it is “the longest continuously run Memorial Day parade in the nation.” However, organizers in Alton, Illinois, claim their parade, also first held on the same day in 1868, is “the oldest consecutive running parade in the nation.” Perhaps Florence’s is an hour older owing to its location farther east — though standardized time zones would not be set by the all-powerful railroads for another 15 years. For a humorous account of the Haydenville Band being, literally, late to the parade, read the June 2, 1868, Daily Hampshire Gazette article quoted in this year’s official parade program. Haydenville was served by a different railroad than Northampton, so there was a 10-minute difference between the time each observed.
To be fair, I would call the claims to be the oldest parade a tie.
But the oddest thing about the publicity by the organizers and media in each town, including our own Gazette, is that each has consistently latched onto a single, but different, number — even at the cost of being accurate. This year’s celebration in Florence was consistently characterized as either the “150th anniversary” (correct) or the “150th parade” (incorrect). Meanwhile, those in Alton have consistently labeled their parade as the “151st parade” (correct) or the “151st anniversary” (incorrect). “You say tomato, I say tomato.”
Photo and text by Kevin Gutting/Gazette staff