Damply Delightful, The 2003 Labor Day Parade Is A Winner

By Dottie Evans

Would the rain hold off? Would the sun actually peek through?

Would the cars still going up and down through puddles on Main and Queen streets slow down enough to stop splashing the spectators?

When would the first float come into view?

Anticipation and excitement mounted as spectators gathered along the parade route, setting up their collapsible chairs, sipping coffee, talking on their cell phones, organizing children and dogs, calling across the street to friends, periodically scanning the skies.

All questions were answered at 10 am Monday, September 1, as Newtown’s 42nd Annual Labor Day Parade stepped off the starting block and headed south down Main Street past the flagpole, led as always by the Newtown Police Department.

The 2003 parade theme was “Faith In the Future: A Celebration of the Youth of Newtown,” and in a broader sense, it was youthful exuberance that ruled the day –– for parade participants and onlookers, the young in years and young at heart.

Parade Marshals Deborah Richardson and Roseanne Loring, director and life skills education coordinator, respectively, for Newtown Youth Services, rode in the lead car and then watched the parade pass by from the review stand on Queen Street.

By 11:30 am it was all over including the shouting, and though the skies darkened and a few raindrops fell from lowering clouds, it never really poured.

As the last marchers passed by the Queen Street review stand and the drumbeats faded, the parade committee conferred briefly before announcing the following winners of the 2003 Awards and Trophies.

Best Musical Entry, Senior –– Mattatuck Drum Band; Runner Up –– Connecticut Alumni Drum and Bugle Corps

Best Musical Entry, Junior –– Grassy Plains Drum and Bugle Corps; Runner Up –– Westbury Drum Corps

Best Float –– Sugar Lane’s Kids from Castle Hill Farm; Runner Up –– 4-H Club

Best Fire Company –– Botsford

Best School –– Newtown Middle School

Best Non-Musical Entry –– 2nd Company Governor’s Horse Guard; Runner Up –– Sandy Hook Fire Department

All American Award (most patriotic) –– TBA

Rooster Award (most crowd pleasing) –– Pyramid Shriners Motor Club