The Labor Day Parade Has A Long And Memorable History

By Dani Villa

 The Labor Day Parade was all “Spirit And Fire” as the headline read in the September 7, 1962, edition of The Newtown Bee. Unlike more current editions that feature on multiple pages the full spectacle of pride and fanfare at the annual parade, that first look had two photos and one paragraph:

“The smart-stepping girls’ color guard of The Vista, NY, Fire Department, shown in the picture above, pass by the reviewing stand for the Newtown Progress Days Labor Day Parade, evidence of the spirit and alertness of that happy occasion; while the picture below of The Newtown Board of Fire Commissioners award-winning float displays, true to life, the injunction of that board, ‘save your home — be fire conscious.’”

With 4,000 onlookers at that original parade, the Newtown Labor Day Parade, as it later became known, grew to be a massive extravaganza that enthralls countless spectators from across the state. Now people line the streets with chairs to save their spaces days before the parade participants step foot on the parade route.

The parade really got started not on Main Street in 1962, but in the kitchen of one Newtown couple.

Early in 1962, the Rotary Club of Newtown decided to orchestrate a Labor Day parade, hoping to promote the business community, and the first parade design was discussed in the kitchen of resident Natalie Giifford.

“We wrote everything out right in my kitchen,” recalled Ms Giifford on Thursday, July 8.

In a November 2009 interview with Bee Reporter Nancy Crevier, Ms Gifford said, “My husband was a volunteer fireman, and he and a representative from each of the five fire companies got together.”

After months of planning, on September 3, 1962, the inaugural parade kicked off under clear skies and thousands came out to witness the festivities.

“There were so many people out; the streets were lined. It was wonderful,” Ms Gifford said recently.

Led by Lee Glover, the Newtown Hook and Ladder Co. 1 Chief, 41 units marched in the parade, including, as reported by The Newtown Bee, “many floats and spirited bands and marching units, political party candidates, clowns, decorated bicycles, and mounted 4H riding units.”

The units began at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument and continued down Main Street, eventually ending at Dickinson Park. Ms Gifford said in 2009, the 1962 parade was a “doozie.” She remembered, “the Masons were there in their little cars, there were horses, floats, and drum corps.”

The first parade was such a success that the Newtown Rotary Club decided to make it an annual event. It continued to grow in popularity and size, causing the parade route to be changed to its current form. The 41 units that made up the inaugural parade have now become more than 200 units, making Newtown’s the largest Labor Day parade in the state.

Eventually political floats entered the line of march.

“It’s a big showcase for politics — locally, statewide, and even nationally,” says Steve Bigham, the vice president of the Labor Day Parade Committee. Labor Day typically coincides with the start of campaigning, and the parade has become a vital stage before Election Day. Every year, candidates from multiple parties take the time to walk or drive the route, meeting and greeting potential voters.

“A couple of years ago, there was a bit of a scuffle between two politicians. It made the national news; CNN even reported about it,” says Mr Bigham.

 In 2006, The Bee reported parade fans were polite, but many were miffed by prevalent politicking when, “As the statewide endorsed primary winner, Democrat Ned Lamont was welcomed to march beside fellow party leaders from local and state offices including Mr Rosenthal, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, and Lt Governor Kevin Sullivan.

“But a hastily dispatched invitation from a member of the local Democratic Town Committee to Senator Joseph Lieberman, who was running for reelection as an independent after losing the primary to Mr Lamont, set off a sequence of events that landed Newtown’s annual Labor Day rite in the pages of newspapers across the nation, along with broadcast reports on CNN and ABC News.”

During another year’s parade, politics grew beyond the human scale. In 1979, the local Republican Party managed to work a 1,300-pound elephant into the parade, ridden by then-town clerk Mae Schmidle, who was also the 2008 Newtown Labor Day Parade Grand Marshal, wearing a golden safari outfit.

An elephant-riding town clerk is not the only memorable happening of the parade from that year; 1979 was also the year that parade marshal Lee Davenson roller-skated for the duration of the event in a gorilla suit.

Another memorable parade for Mr Bigham was in 2001, when the parade lineup included three massive American flags, walked down the course by a throng of people, providing a “powerful, unbelievable image.”

In 2002, helicopter rides were offered to the public.

One constant in the parade has been the Newtown High School marching band. Since the 1960s, the band has performed for the crowd. Though their outfits have remained much the same, the talent of the band continues to improve.

The 2010 parade, the town’s 49th celebration of Labor Day, centers on the theme “On Stage In Newtown,” and honors Marge Rogers, a Newtown resident and member of the Local Theater, as its grand marshal.

 Parade committee members are working tirelessly in the last remaining weeks until the parade, hoping that the necessary funds come through in time. Committee President Beth Caldwell said this week that although she is nervous about meeting the approximately $20,000 needed to ensure the parade’s survival, she is confident that the community will step up in time.

As Mr Bigham notes, “The parade mirrors the growth of the town. Newtown has become one of the fastest growing towns in the state, and it really shows when you see the parade.”

To help support the Labor Day Parade, see the donation coupon in this issue of The Newtown Bee.