Sunday, July 1, 2012

Fourth of July Parade in Watts Hillandale

Despite the sweltering heat and unpredictable weather, the city and the neighborhoods adjacent to the Ninth Street Shopping District will be out in force on Wednesday, July 4th to celebrate the annual Independence Day Parade (now in its 63 year!).

Among the highlights: the parade is led by kids and features flags from all  50 states and many countries and lemonade is generously served, compliments of Watts Grocery.

The parade will start at 10:30 a.m. at the intersection of Club Boulevard and Oakland Avenue (see map below) and will last for approximately an hour and a half. The route will take the revelers and the onlookers from the Center of Club toward Oval Park on Alabama and Woodrow streets

To learn more about  the history of this wonderful neighborhood tradition and much more background, read on after the break. 
Watts-Hillandale July 4 Parade - A Long Tradition - Everyone is Welcome
On Wednesday, July 4, the Watts Hospital-Hillandale Neighborhood Association will host the neighborhood’s 63rd annual Independence Day parade.  It is the neighborhood’s great convocation and Durham’s longest running Fourth of July celebration.  The event which today attracts hundreds of people from all over the city and the world, began as a simple diversion for a handful of hot, sweaty kids.  Over the decades, the essential elements of the event have remained unchanged, but as the years have passed, the celebration has grown and with it the traditions have evolved and become richer.
The Essentials
            From that July morning in 1950 when Alice and Tom Walker coaxed half a dozen neighborhood kids to march down the Club Boulevard sidewalk the first time, certain things became immutable elements of a Watts-Hillandale Fourth.  First, the parade must be led by kids with flags.  Today it's as true as it was then and we’re lucky because the Walkers have donated those original flags to the neighborhood and they’re still out front, just like they always were.  Look for the original 48-star, 49-star and 50-star U.S. flags that Alice and Tom provided for the parade in its earliest years.  Second, kids decorate their bikes, trikes, and wagons with red, white, and blue to carry them around the parade route in patriotic style.  Then there must always be the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and patriotic songs.  These things abide today little changed from that first parade so many years ago.  Last, there’s got to be a cold drink.  It’s Durham in July.  It’s hot and a cold drink refreshes now just like it did in the un-airconditioned summer of 1950.  From these essentials the neighborhood has expanded, added, and enriched this great tradition.
More Flags
As more kids, parents and adults joined the event, Tom Walker urged the newcomers to bring the flags of their home states and countries to illustrate the melting pot that is not only our country, but our neighborhood.  This tradition grew with the event until the 1980s, when neighbors began to get up early to festoon the Oval Park with flags.  Every year, more flags have been added until it hard to get them all up before its time for the parade.  Even though there are now literally hundreds, we still add more. It’s a game each year to try to spot the new ones.
A New Route
            At first, the kids marched along the sidewalk on Club, but before too many years passed, the sidewalk just couldn’t hold the crowd.  Tom Walker talked the police into closing the street for the parade and providing an escort for the marchers.  The kids loved the thrill of marching down the middle of the wide boulevard which was usually off-limits.  The Walkers had one rule: the parade was for pedestrians.  No cars, go carts, or minibikes were allowed.  Only the policeman could ride his motorcycle up at the front.  In time, however, the Fire Department wanted into the act and the neighborhood was delighted to let them bring a shiny pumper truck to join the motorcycle at the head of the march.  Eventually, there were so many marchers that the parade route simply wasn’t long enough to accommodate them all.  Tom and his new helper, Phil Lehman, organized a new route which still took everyone down the center of Club, but then turned them back to Oval Park on Alabama and Woodrow.  This has been the unaltered parade route since the 1970s. 
Mr. Holmes’s Ideal Sundry Lemonade
            In the early years, the Walkers and the other parents bought bottled soft drinks for the marchers.  This was back in the day when there were literally dozens of different flavored soft drinks.  You remember, there were Nehi, Trueade, Royal Crown, Cheerwine, Sundrop, and a bunch of others, in addition to Cokes and Pepsis.  The parents traded off who would be responsible for the drinks each year and if it was your turn, you had to ice the bottles down the night before so they would be ready the next day.    When the number of participants grew from twenty to over a hundred, this system became impractical.  At this point the folks at the Coca Cola plant on Hillsborough road stepped in and supplied cold cokes for a few years.  Soon, however, the event outgrew even this supply system.  Then, in the late 1980s, the neighborhood association approached Bill Holmes about supplying his famous, secret-recipe lemonade for the event.  Bill was a neighbor who for many years ran the Ideal Sundry on Hillsborough Road.  Although he had retired form the sundry business, he had not retired his lemonade.  It seemed like a natural fit and Bill’s lovely, slushy lemonade became an essential part of a real Watts-Hillandale Fourth of July.  When Bill could no longer supply his Ideal Sundry concoction, Amy Tornquist of the celebrated Watts Grocery on Broad Street saved the day.  For the last few years, Amy has supplied not only lemonade but hundreds of her famous to-die-for cupcakes.  The tradition is sustained, but evolves.
New Additions to Ancient Traditions
            In more recent years, our wonderful neighborhood event has been enhanced by newer traditions.  While we still sing patriotic songs, we are blessed to be led by neighbor Dave Dodson and his choral group, “The OK Chorale.”  Their version of the “Star Spangled Banner, sung from atop an Oval Park picnic table, is a show stopper.  And now, when the parade is over, kids in the neighborhood beg the guys on the fire truck to provide a giant spray of water to run through and frolic in.
            The Watts-Hillandale July 4 Parade has imprinted itself on the hearts of hundreds of current and former residents of the neighborhood and of Durham.  It is not unusual to see families represented by four generations of participants.  There are grown children who do not come home for Christmas who would not think of missing the Fourth of July in Oval Park.
So come, be a part of this glorious tradition.  What began with 6 kids over 60 years ago is now an event involving hundreds and hundreds.  Everyone is invited and everyone is welcome.  This is real patriotism - the quiet kind, the modest kind with the open hand.  Built on community, it is fun and thoughtful. 
The parade starts at 10:00 a.m. sharp at the intersection of Club Boulevard and Oakland Avenue.  Flag hanging in the adjacent park starts at 8:30 a.m.  Decorate your bikes and trikes, your wagons and strollers.  Bring your flags.  Wear red, white and blue or, even better, that old Watts-Hillandale t-shirt.  If you don’t have one, bring a few bucks and buy a new one.  They will be on sale.  Invite your friends from around town and from around the world.
The Neighborhood
            Watts Hospital-Hillandale is a Durham, North Carolina, neighborhood developed in the years immediately following the First World War.  Its streets are named after states and heroes like Woodrow Wilson and General John "Black Jack" Pershing.  The modest bungalows that line them are occupied by every sort of citizen form every profession and walk of life.  They are bound together by a strong sense of community and stewardship.  The neighborhood's traditions, like its July 4 parade, are older than most of the neighbors. The Watts Hospital-Hillandale Neighborhood Association is a voluntary, non-profit corporation organized in 1984.
Contact
            For more information about the Watts Hospital-Hillandale July 4 parade and celebration, please contact event coordinator, Tom Miller.  Tom can be reached at tom-miller1@nc.rr.com, or (919) 599-7618.
"This flag, which we honor and under which we serve, is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours."
Woodrow Wilson

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