A tradition marches on

By John Howell
Posted 7/5/16

They remember how it started, although when it started is fading with time.

That’s not the case with the Warwick Neck July 4th parade that is as strong as ever. Yesterday brought out the new and …

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A tradition marches on

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They remember how it started, although when it started is fading with time.

That’s not the case with the Warwick Neck July 4th parade that is as strong as ever. Yesterday brought out the new and the old timers as well as the brightly decorated lawn tractors and bicycles. The red, white and blue decorations didn’t stop there. Some faces were colored and even a dog, Annie Hodge, demonstrated their patriotism.

“I think it was 24 years ago,” said Bill Nixon, who annually rallies the community for the event and welcomes everyone back to his home overlooking Greenwich Bay to raise the colors followed by watermelon, cookies and lemonade. It’s also in Bill’s yard where awards are handed out to parade participants and neighborhood news is exchanged and people soak up the fun, the view and reflect on the meaning of the holiday.

While Bill isn’t sure on the date of the first Neck parade, he remembers how he and his wife Madeline, the Haronians and the Riggses visited a community parade in Connecticut and came back with the idea, “Let’s have our own.”

Delores Haronian and Barbara Riggs drew up fliers that they circulated. Howard Haronian, with no doubt some help from their kids, loaded a six-foot high replica of the Statue of Liberty into the back of a truck while Bill Riggs found an Uncle Sam costume with a top hat and jacket with tails. Bill rode a bike in that first parade that made the loop up Narragansett Bay Avenue, a block on Warwick Neck Avenue and then back on Kirby to the Nixon home and the start. Bill remembers the outfit as being the hottest thing he’s worn.

“I was in a sweat and I usually don’t sweat,” he said.

Bill Riggs and Howard Haronian were observers yesterday, at least for the start of the parade.

“You were the first,” Howard said of Bill. Bill questioned whether indeed if he was the first grand marshal.

Howard assured him that he was, because he remembered he was next in line.

“I was the second and seconds don’t count,” he said. They laughed.

As it turned out, Bill had the honors of raising the flag. The observance carried on, as did the sense of community that along with the observance of our nation’s independence is the mainstay to the Warwick Neck parade.

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