Surprise Greets Hawley Along Route of Parade
Source: Sunday Republican (Springfield, MA)
Author: NANCY PALMIERI
HAWLEY, MA – At 4 a.m. yesterday, Steve Grant and his family snuck out into the pre-dawn darkness to plant a surprise for the town on the day of its bicentennial parade.
Grant, chairman of the parade committee, spent three hours placing 1,000 12-by-18-inch American flags along the 1.2 mile parade route that ran from Grout Road along East Hawley Road to the firehouse on Plainfield Road.
“It was a little secret between me and the committee. I thought it would be a nice surprise,” said Grant.
But he didn’t realize how much work he had gotten himself into.
“The ground along the parade route is so hard that we had to first take a narrow pipe and hammer it down about five inches to make holes for the flags,” said Grant.
So Friday night that’s just what he did, spacing them every 12 feet.
Bicentennial gift
Then he wondered how they would see the holes in the dark.
“At first I thought I could use a piece of spaghetti, then I thought it will probably rain and the spaghetti will go limp, so we came up with straws,” said Grant.
The flags were purchased with money the committee made on the parade program. Grant said the goal was to sell enough advertising to pay for the program. But the proceeds exceeded that cost, allowing the committee to splurge on the small flags, a large American flag, a Massachusetts flag and a Hawley Bicentennial banner for Town Hall.
The parade got under way at 11 a.m. and lasted about 45 minutes, with 60 units.
“This parade has been in the works for three or four years,” said Grant.
Some contingents such as the Joanettes all-girl junior drum corps and the Windsor Junior Fife and Drum Corps were booked two years in advance, according to Grant.
Other units included the National Guard, Company B of Northampton, the Shelburne Falls Military Band, Carroll Stowe of Heath with horses and wagon, local Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts, fire trucks from Charlemont, Conway, Ashfield, Buckland, Hawley, Cummington, Goshen, Heath, Plainfield, Rowe and Shelburne, as well as Ashfield and Shelburne Falls town floats.
Now a memory
It is the first parade in town in many years.
“I don’t ever remember a parade and I’m over 50,” said Hawley Selectman Darwin Clark Jr.
“It was a big parade and a beautiful parade, especially for small-town standards,” said Viola Lyons of Shelburne Falls. “You don’t expect a big-city parade when you live in the country.”
“I think it’s exciting,” said Judy Pierce of Rowe. “I brought an older neighbor and we were here at 9 in the morning.”
After the parade, people gathered on the common for a chicken barbecue sponsored by the Goshen Fire Department. The Shelburne Falls Military Band gave a concert and various memorabilia were on display at the Cosmos Dining Hall.
The celebration of the town’s incorporation 200 years ago continues today with a worship service at the East Hawley church at 10 a.m., the 92nd meeting of the Sons and Daughters of Hawley, a barbecue lunch and a performance of “Home to Hawley,” an original play depicting the history of the town, at 2 p.m.
Another bicentennial event, a farmers’ day with field games and an ox-pull among other activities, is planned for Oct. 4.