Well, it’s been a long time since I have sat on the sidelines for the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
But that’s where I’ll be as the parade rolls out this Thursday morning at 9 a.m. I’ll probably take a few pictures to add to the ones that reporter Bob Burns will shoot for the paper.
I have been in most of the parades over the years since it was started in 1984.
I was the first parade marshal and daughter Holly was the grand marshal one year when she was appearing in the Broadway Touring Series production of the “Will Rogers Follies.” It was playing at Gammage auditorium in Tempe at Thanksgiving time, so she and other cast members were able to be in the parade.
I thought I would give you a little history of the parade since I’m not participating this year. The following is reprinted from the book compiled by myself, Jerry Miles and Jean Linzer, “Rising above the Rest, The story of Fountain Hills.” It reads:
When new resident E.J. Goodwin called the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce and asked the time of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, she was told there wasn’t one.
She and her family moved to the community from Detroit, Mich., which traditionally had a Thanksgiving Parade. When she found that it wasn’t just Fountain Hills, but no town or city west of the Mississippi River held a parade on that holiday, she arranged a meeting with Chamber President Alan Cruikshank to start one.
The first response from the Chamber board was not too enthusiastic.
“Many felt holding a parade on Thanksgiving would take away from family activities,” Cruikshank said. “E.J. persisted, and the result was a big success that could become a great family tradition – attending the parade together as a family each Thanksgiving.”
Goodwin agreed to chair the planning committee for the Chamber, which she did for many years. She named the event, “Parada de los Cerros (Parade of the Hills).”
Close to 50 entries participated in the first Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, Nov. 22, 1984. Cruikshank was the first Parade Marshal and the Grand Marshal was Ladmo of the “Wallace and Ladmo Show,” a popular afternoon children’s show on Channel 5 that was the longest continuously running television show in the country. Channel 12 helicopter pilot Jerry Foster, another popular local television personality at that time, led the parade riding his black Peruvian horse.
There were two bands, one being the 18 Fountain Hills members of the Coronado High School band, and another was the Creighton Middle School band from Phoenix. Many local groups and businesses participated as well.
The top prize for floats was presented to the Village Bazaar Merchants Association, which converted a pleasure boat into a replica of the Mayflower and each of the merchants dressed as a pilgrim or Indian. Santa Claus was the last entry in the parade.
To this day, the Thanksgiving Day Parade continues as a longtime tradition. In recent years, Chamber Special Events Coordinator Sharon Morgan has been the parade organizer. The parade averages more than 80 entries each year.
And families attending the parade together has also become a tradition.
