Calling Barrington Home
Helsinki International Airport
“... for what ever reason, I am going through an extreme case of homesickness for the United States today. I would just like to be with Americans! It will pass, always does and doesn’t happen often. Maybe it has been too long this time. I won’t see the green, green grass of home until October. I think of and miss the crazy things like the old fashioned parades in Barrington, often on a rainy Saturday morning, composed of the same old wonderful floats and groups, the BHS Pom Poms and football teams, the cheerleaders, the rescue squads and fire engines, politicians, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Indian Guides, Cub Scouts, Brownies, newcomers, and my own personal favorite, the VFW and American Legion with the World War I Navy vet in a car waving feebly at everyone. I will tell you he always has my salute, as do the colors, often with tears in my eyes, and if you take me for an old patriotic fool it is just too darn bad...!”
I wrote this on a laptop in the Finn Air Business Class lounge in Helsinki, Finland, on my way back from business in St. Petersburg, Russia, to my two-year temporary home in Warsaw where my employer, Pepsi Cola General Bottlers, had sent me as vice president of operations for Eastern Europe.
Our parades today are iconic and emblematic of the kind of town we are. There’s greater variety and participation than in my memory of 1997. I do not know the actual numbers but it seems like there are hundreds participating in one form or another and thousands watching from both sides of Main Street. It’s hard to say who is having more fun, those in the parade or those watching from both sides of Main Street often cheering, clapping or calling out to friends in the parade! Just about the whole town is involved in one way or another.
For me the parade starts about 9:15 a.m. on Drury Lane where I park my car at the home of dear friends Carol and Dana Shadrick. We walk together to North Avenue where more than 40 years ago, 9-year-old Lisa Patience (now Bridge) organized the first North Avenue 4th of July Annual Parade – a tradition that continues today. This mini parade is composed of brightly decorated bikes, trikes, wagons and scooters that work their way slowly up North Avenue to arrive on Main Street just in time to get good viewing (and candy retrieval) spots for THE BIG PARADE.
The big parade is about patriotism, service, community and public interest, children, commercial ventures and humor. The various veteran and current military units seem to capture the greatest applause of all. I love the humor seen in the 1930s touring car with inhabitants in period gangster costume and the precision marching brigade of lawn chair soldiers.
Baseball teams, soccer champs, the Barrington High School football team and dance groups and scouting troops abound. Antique and new automobiles and trucks, fire engines and the cleanest garbage truck I have ever seen were all present. Several bands of different types provided musical interludes.
This year’s parade was more than 90 minutes long. I have never felt more joy in this wonderful town of ours than standing on Main Street on that bright beautiful day in early July!
Roger P. Tatum is a Barrington resident, a former lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve and a retired vice president of Pepsi Cola. After retirement, he taught Spanish to elementary and middle school students.