Origins Of Labor Day Parade Debated

By Nancy K. Crevier

Stan Verry lived in Newtown from 1960 to 1998, and even though he has called Hampton, Va., home for the past 12 years, he continues to receive The Newtown Bee each week.

"We were in Newtown for a nice long time, and we enjoyed it," said Mr Verry, Tuesday, August 31, in a phone call from his southern home. "I'm seeing fewer people we know these days, though, in the paper,"he said.

One thing that caught his attention in the August 27 issue of The Bee was the article called "The Labor Day Parade Has A Long And Memorable History," in particular, Newtown resident Natalie Gifford's reminiscences on the origination of the first Labor Day Parade around her kitchen table, with representatives of the five fire companies designing it.

Mr Verry's recollection of the impetus behind the inaugural parade is different.

"The episode took place in Dickinson Memorial Park on Memorial Day, in 1962," recounted Mr Verry. "I was scoutmaster at the time for Troop 270, and one of my scouts was Happy Dickinson, the son of the late first selectman Fenn Dickinson. We were raising the flag, along with Mrs Dickinson and Charles Terrell, who was first selectman at the time. I mentioned that the town needed some rejuvenation, and that's when we thought of a parade," he said.

It was too late in the year to plan a Fourth of July parade, so the men decided that a Labor Day parade would be just the thing to perk up the town's joie de vivre. "The first selectman pointed to me," said Mr Verry, "and said, 'You're it.' I was the originator and chairman of the first Labor Day Parade. We got all of the clubs in town, like the Lions and the Rotary together, and the five fire companies. Each fire company was designated to lead a division of the parade."

It may be that what Mrs Gifford recalled was a gathering, shortly after the idea was sparked, of fire company volunteers planning to take part in the parade, he said.

The first Newtown Labor Day Parade went over with a bang, Mr Verry said, and was part of a three-day end-of-summer event. "It began on Saturday evening with a block party at the shopping center on Queen Street. There was a concert in the park on Sunday, and then the parade on Monday," he recalled. "The spirit was great and people created some great floats that first year. The parade really 'made' Newtown," said Mr Verry.

An April 2, 1982 article in The Newtown Bee recognizes Mr Verry, too, as being the "originator and inspiration" behind the Newtown Progress Festival, as the parade and ancillary events were originally called. The 1982 Bee article was published the year that Mr Verry was selected as parade marshal, the 20th anniversary of the end-of-summer celebration.

"I'm so thrilled that this is the 49th parade. I never dreamed it would continue to the extent that it has. I just felt very strongly at the time about finding a way of increasing town spirit. I don't mean to stir things up," Mr Verry added. "I just want to clarify the origin of the Newtown Labor Day Parade."