Memorial Day Routine

Parade front banner



Antique Car



Obligatory fire engine

Ready to cross the Delaware

   Here are a few of my photographic memories of this year’s parade.   Like most people, I guess, I love Memorial Day.  Not just because it is a day off, and not just because of the picnics.  And it is not just because it’s a kind of gateway to the summer.   I live in Langhorne Borough, which runs a parade every Memorial Day, weather permitting.   Since our house is on the parade route, we invite a lot of people, and we have many regulars who I see on Memorial Day, but rarely or never see any other time.  Most of the people who show up are my brother’s friends, since he has plenty of old childhood friends for the area that he keeps in touch with.   People come from all over the area (and some from afar) to see the parade.  It also brings back the kids who grew up in the neighborhood, and now have children of their own.  Every Memorial Day they come back and bring their kids.

   As usual, the weather was hot and humid this year.  There have been rainy days, there have been cool days, but sunny hot and humid seems to be the norm for Memorial Day where I live.  And, as usual, there is a routine.  After all the fixing and cleaning the house, and the shopping, the day finally arrives and we set up the front lawn.  Every year, most of the time is spent sitting on our lawn chairs, waiting for the parade to arrive, while the shade slowly rolls away.  By the time the parade comes around, most of that shade is gone, and we are baking in the open sun.

  There is also a routine to the parade itself.   It has generally been the same parade every year.  We know which bands will be marching in it.  We know which fire companies will bring their engines, which scout troops will be there, and which athletic groups will bring their teams.  There was one really unusual thing, which I hadn’t seen in any parade before.  A few people had the idea of walking along the side of the parade in Sasquatch suits.  However, it seems that the Sasquatch is turning up everywhere today, especially in tv commercials.  Those guys in the suits probably sweat off a few pounds, as did the firemen, who marched and rode their trucks in full dress uniform, and the revolutionary war re-enactors, who wore their full continental army uniforms.

  Once the parade has passed by, everyone picks up their chairs and everything moves to the backyard.  I think this routine is duplicated in every house in Langhorne, and probably thousands of homes all across America, as they all have their own parades and backyard barbeques.  It’s a routine that I like, and here are some of the pictures from that routine.