Heat can't scrub liftoff of lunar parade

By JOHN HOWELL
Posted 7/23/19

By JOHN HOWELL So, what do you do as a follow-up to the country's only parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of the historic landing on the moon? Lonnie Barham isn't lost for words, although some of those who helped him stage the event on Saturday that

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Heat can't scrub liftoff of lunar parade

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So, what do you do as a follow-up to the country’s only parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of the historic landing on the moon?

Lonnie Barham isn’t lost for words, although some of those who helped him stage the event on Saturday that offered its own record as the hottest day of the year weren’t exactly cheering his suggestion.

“Do you think you’ll still be married?” joked one of the group of volunteers. Virginia Barham, Lonnie’s wife and president of the Conimicut Village Association that sponsored the parade, chuckled.

Lonnie suggested another parade in three years. Virginia had heard of this idea and so had others who staged the mile-long parade from Winter Street – a touch of irony given the temperature that by 11 a.m. Saturday was in the 90s – down the center of West Shore Road to the American Legion Shields Post. Three scheduled parade participants – the Clydesdales, Miss Rhode Island and a Cub Scout troop – cancelled because of the heat.

What’s the magic to three years?

2021 will mark the 50th anniversary of the last time man stepped on the moon and the end of the Apollo program. Of course, after successfully staging what villagers recall as Conimicut’s first and only parade, organizers weren’t prepared to instantly sign up for another extravaganza. Rather, they paused to reflect on what had just transpired. Lonnie estimated 1,500 to 2,000 spectators, strategically sitting on the curb and lawn chairs in the shade of store fronts and trees, cheered the two musical groups, the 88th Army Band and the Pawtuxet Rangers, who appropriately traded their red woolen uniforms for cotton whites.

“Yes, fortunately, Conimicut is very shady,” Lonnie said to the group’s amusement.

As an added measure of relief, parade organizers left cases of bottled water at several locations for spectators and participants. Some of the marching groups had “misters” who followed along with their cooling spray.

The heat didn’t appear to slow down Rhode Island’s only astronaut, Sherwood “Woody” Spring, who served as the parade’s grand marshal and gave a vivid account of his nearly week-long flight aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1985, during which he spent 165 hours in space and over 12 hours of Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA), also known as space walks.

Spring had been scheduled to fly again, but that flight was scrubbed following the Challenger tragedy in 1986, which grounded the country’s shuttle program for two and a half years. Spring described the jarring pressure and exhilaration of being thrust into orbit followed by the tranquility and beauty of Earth once in orbit. Spring followed Mayor Joseph Solomon as the two speakers at the Shields Post, where tables and chairs arranged under umbrellas faced a stage.

Solomon spoke of the significance of the American achievement and how it “showed the ‘can do’ spirit that makes our nation great.”

As mementoes, Lonnie presented Solomon and Spring pens that could write upside down that Fisher Pen Company had designed for the space program.

Despite the relief of shade, no one lingered too long, retreating to the air conditioning of the Post, where there was footage of the lunar landing and Moon Pies – tasty chocolate-covered graham cracker cookies with marshmallow filling.

And what lunar landing parade would be complete without a rocket and a scale model of the command module? The parade committee had planned for that, too. The Warwick Area Career and Technical Center and Marine Trades Toll Gate students designed and built the module. Conimicut Boys Scouts, with the help of John Roberts of the parade committee, built an 18-foot long replica of the Saturn V rocket that blasted the lunar assembly into orbit. Roberts also filled the role of announcer, reading off pertinent information of each parade participant as they passed though the village center.

Individual donations and grants from The Rhode Island Foundation and a legislative grant from Senator Michael McCaffrey underwrote the cost of the parade.

Soon after arriving at the Shields Post, the command module took off for an appearance at Saturday’s WaterFire that also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing. From there, Lonnie couldn’t say where the module might “splash down.” The natural history museum at Roger Williams Park seemed like a possibility. The rocket landed back where it was built at the nearby former St. Benedict School.

And where might the module eventually land?

Three years doesn’t seem like too long a wait for a Conimicut reentry.

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