Longest July 4 Parade ever at Crescent Bar
Organizer Bob Duda, center front row, leads the first-ever color guard at the Crescent Bar Fourth of July Parade on July 3. There were 12 marchers carrying the U.S. Flag, flags of the military branches and military campaign flags borrowed from the Quincy post Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 24. Duda carried the MIA/POW flag. Wes Prinzen carried the U.S. Marine Flag to honor his father, John Prinzen, who served 11 years as a Marine and died 36 years ago on July 3.
CRESCENT BAR - Residents of Crescent Bar and friends from around the area staged their biggest Fourth of July Parade yet on Sunday, July 3.
The weather was perfect. It was warm enough for beachwear and breezy enough to keep you from over-heating.
The parade was so long that it backed up against itself with a logjam that lasted a good five minutes. According to organizer Karen Wirta, the front of the parade had to wait to re-enter the staging area while the back of the parade came out.
"Maybe we'll need to add a street to the route next year," said color guard marcher Bob Duda. "That will stretch the parade out."
Led off by its first-ever color guard, the parade counted 73 judged entries and several more that were not judged.
The theme of the parade was "Our American Heroes." The top award - Judges Award - went to an entry that depicted Captain Sulley's crash-landing of a U.S. Airways airliner into New York's Hudson River in which no one died.
Another attention-getter was the entry by the Cool Kids from over the Mountains (Sumner). They organized a marching band and paraded behind a golf car they turned into a military tank.
The Cool Kids donned military fatigues for the parade and took first place in the Best Costume category. They played a couple of numbers, but spectators will likely remember only "Tequila".
The rest of the award winners were:
Best Golf Car: 1. Poole family, North Park; 2. Cline family, Crescent View Condos; 3. Calender family, Sunserra Homes.
Best Car/Truck/Boat: 1. Nunemaker family, Crescent View Condos; 2. Oswald family, Sunserra Homes; 3. Kyle family, South Park.
Best Costume: 2. Richard Hanson (Uncle Sam), North Park; 3. Melle family, North Park.
Best Float: 1. Kingham family, North Park; 2. Harris family, North Park; 3. Lien family, North Park.
Best Bike/Trike/Scooter/Roller Skates-Blades: 1. Gilman family, North Park; 2. Dzingle family, Sunserra Homes; 3. Tana Gridley, CB Campground.
Best Display of Patriotism: 1. Torgerson family, Sunserra Homes; 2. Johnson family (George Washington and Betsy Ross), North Park; 3. Yeates family, Quincy, U.S. Marine veteran with military vehicle.