When Mike Tirone and I were writing our book about the history of the Willimantic Fire Department, we noticed how important parades were as a source of entertainment. From the 1800s through the WWII period, community events were the main source of  social activities and parades were a part of many of them. In 1911, there were no fewer than 12 parades in Willimantic.) Mike and I found that in the first decades of the 1900s, it was not uncommon for fire companies from different towns to travel in order to attend parades, balls, or other special events of out of town departments. This was done to "show off" a new apparatus, or participate in those special events. Whenever Willimantic’s Fire Department left or other departments visited, there would be a parade to (or from) the train station. These annual parades were often elaborate with several civic groups and one or more bands participating. The fire department’s annual Spring inspections were also preceded by a parade. But in the city’s early years, almost every civic and social group hosted parades.  The late Chronicle publisher Mrs. Lucy B. Crosbie said that parades were a prelude to many local activities since a parade called attention to the event. Some examples. General Baldwin’s “Putnam Phalanx” came to Willimantic in 1891 for their annual field day. A drum corps “discoursing the regular old-fashioned martial music” led them from the train station to the Natchaug Rifle Range.  In 1893 the Thread City Cyclers held a bicycle race open to “all the bicycle riders of the city”. They began with a short parade led by the Thread City Band. One of many 1895 parades was held by Willimantic’s National Guard companies as they met for their annual target practice. We mustn’t forget the 1905 parade that concluded the two day celebrations of the French-Canadian “Saint Jean Baptiste Society”. Besides marchers from French-Canadian societies, many other civic and social organizations joined in. A special feature was that about fifty members of “The Venerable Club” (Seth Hooker’s club for those over 80 years old) gathered in front of the Hooker Hotel to review the parade. One band halted in front of them and played “Auld Lang Syne”. It was said of the parade that, “it was the most picturesque parade which has appeared in the streets in several years. The parade route would oftentimes be short and direct, but at other times would wind through the streets of the city. The line of march for the Fire Department’s Labor Day parade of 1903 started at Valley and Bank Street where the units marched to “Church Street to Main, up Main to Windham, to Valley, down Valley to Walnut, up Walnut to Prospect, down Prospect to Jackson, down Jackson to Union, to Main and up Main to Bank.” And the Chronicle reported that even this “was not the longest firemen’s parade which has been seen in the city. “What was Willimantic’s largest parade?”, one might wonder.  Arguably, it was the 12 division, 340 unit (almost 5 hours) Loyalty Day Parade of May, 1964 which was said to have drawn 100,000 spectators and 20,000 marchers. The parade route was from Recreation Park to Holbrook Avenue. But that was really a statewide event. As far as community-based parades goes, the largest parade was probably the one held as part of the Old Home and Old School Week . Besides an enormous number of bands, civic, social and military groups there were also hundreds of automobiles.”      The parades held on July 4^th, 1910 and 1911 were also described as “mammoth street pageants”. These parades were held as part of the day long Independence Day celebrations in those years. The 1911 parade combined the July 4^th festivities with the Franco-American Brigade of New England’s field day which was being held in town. The parade consisted of 5 divisions. “Willimantic thronged with 10,000 visitors who came by train and trolley. The city presented a gala appearance. Nearly every building, business block or residence along the line of march of the parade was decorated, many showing American and French flags side by side.” Today’s 1895 photo was a favorite of Mrs. Cosbie because she felt that it was a spontaneous idea to take a photo. Since the exposure could have taken as long as two minutes, several people and a wagon moved on before the photo was set and it left the ghostly images that are seen in the photo.  We’ll take a further look at Willimantic’s parades next week.