It started with a simple typed flyer, signed by a handful of neighbors, inviting everyone to a first-ever July 4th parade. It was 1993 and a week before Independence Day. We’d just moved to Warwick Neck - a place where my husband and siblings grew up - and where we would raise our own five young children. 

Our charge was simple.  Dress up in patriotic colors and be prepared to walk, bike or motor your way around the block: Warner Avenue to Narragansett Bay Avenue, past the Warwick Country Club, to Warwick Neck Avenue, down Kirby Avenue and ending on the lawn of Bill and Madeline Nixon. It was there that the Pledge of Allegiance and flag-raising would be led by veterans and neighbors, speeches made, and children awarded paper certificates for Best-everything. 

Quaint and harkening back to a Mayberry-like time, neighbors responded to the flyer  with as much enthusiasm as questions - could this work? Would anybody even show up to watch?

That first year, dozens of neighbors showed up. Decked out in their best patriotic garb, they marched behind Lillian Clegg’s carefully-held antique (1896) American Flag, flatbed trucks with patriotic music and antique cars, Uncle Sam - Bill Riggs - in top hat and coattails on a bicycle, and dozens of kids on foot and on decorated bicycles and tricycles.

Barbara Riggs and Delores Haronian were founders were founders of the parade.

And while there was only a sprinkling of bystanders that first year, the crowds watching and marching grew steadily over the years, and the tradition is now solidly rooted, even despite last year’s sad but necessary pause because of the pandemic.

This year’s parade was hosted by the Warwick Neck Improvement Association and honored founders Bill and Madeline Nixon, who hosted the annual festivities from its launch nearly two decades ago.  With the return of the event came a new parade route, led proudly by our Warwick Police and Fire Department, and starting and ending at the Warner Avenue entrance to the Our Lady of Providence Seminary. It was there that marchers mustered, neighbors at Presto Strangeo offered free coffee, and Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts led the Pledge of Allegiance with parents, neighbors and friends- and parade founder Bill Nixon.

Given the growing number of new neighbors and spectators, we think this parade has found fertile ground to sink roots. And we are grateful for this small but proud bit of tradition.