Wakeful nights

Do you ever stay awake at night because your brain just won't stop thinking about something? Well, I do. Last night, for instance, I was thinking about what I was going to add to these few blogs I've already posted. I finally fell asleep thinking of the town's annual Fourth of July parade.

Now, remember, this is from when I was a girl, and the parades I remember were in the late 40s, the 50s, and early 60s.

Changes occurred during those three decades. First, the parades were held on "The Pike." Starting down at the Catholic Church (corner of The Pike and Evesham Rd) and moving north on the pike, ending up at 8th Avenue -- after the Little League field was put in, the parades ended there. I think I have the parade going in the right direction. At least my "elderly" brain says that logically it would be that way, since once the parade dispersed the 4th of July town events would begin -- sack races, three-legged races, pie-eating contest, etc., and then the ball games. All the prizes for winning the games were money prizes, too. Wow! For a kid who rarely had money, it was a prize to try to win.

I won several prizes through the years, including the pie-eating contest.

But, I digress. Before the main parade there was the baby parade -- that was held on Clements Bridge Road, and only ran for a couple of blocks -- from Johnson Avenue down to the VFW hall. And then there was the bicycle parade -- once again prizes were money. My mom never entered in the baby parade, even though she had three more after me. But it was fun to see how new mom's decorated their baby buggies (called coaches back then) with crepe paper and flags. It was all very patriotic.

The bicycle parade was something I entered every year from the time I was in third grade (didn't have a bike before that, or even a trike). Anyway, I entered, but don't remember ever winning that contest. So many kids were more artistic than I and my mom and dad wouldn't offer any help other than to say, "That's nice, Judith." I tried the red, white, and blue crepe paper woven in the spokes of the wheels trick. Somebody else did that four times in each wheel. How would my one time through win over that? I tried putting several small flags positioned in various spots on the bike, someone else did the same thing, but they had little 5-flag holders to hold their flags very symetrically on the handle bars, seat, and tail seat. In othose days bikes had a tail seat.

My bike was like the picture at the top (notice the tail seat) except it was used, so it had been repainted, and it was royal blue, not this baby blue as pictures. That bike was mine, then my sister's. I rode that bike to school (after second grade when I was transferred across town -- but that's another story) everyday, until my little legs were long enough to allow me to walk fast enough to get home for lunch and back to school in the space of one hour.

Anyway, back to the 4th of July. As my sister and brothers and I got older, 4th of July changed some. That is to say, I got too old to particpate in the three-legged race, and my brother grew up and played baseball in the Babe Ruth League (playoffs of some sort were held on the 4th of July). But we still had that parade to view. In the late 50s the parade was moved from the Pike to Central Avenue -- because the Pike was one of the main routes to the shore -- that was before the Atlantic City Expressway was finished. So with the parade on Central Avenue, we had more time to do other things on the 4th. So, the 4th of July became a family day -- Mom's family day, that is.

I'll talk more about my mother's family in future BLOGs.

At the end of the day, we'd all head down to the ballfields, again, to watch the fireworks. We could see them from our house, at least the high ones, because they were higher than the highest trees, and the houses, but going to the ballfield gave you such a great view. Right underneath the sprays.

We'd ooh and ahh until the show ended. It always started at exactly 9 pm, even though we thought it was dark enough before that, and ended at 9:45 pm. Then we'd walk the 7 blocks back home. Yes, in those days, we walked, we didn't drive. Some rode their bikes, I suppose, but most people walked.