Everyone welcome, leave instruments at home
Written: Oct 16 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A real community spirit.
Cons: Windham is kind of a remote place to make the trip just for this, but if you are in the area it's worth it.
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| etain's Full Review: Connecticut |
Review Topic: Sights & Attractions
I grew up in Windham, Connecticut, a rather small town that, on the surface, seems somewhat sleepy. However, it is now NATIONALLY known for one unusual and home-grown annual event -- the Boom Box Parade.
The high school doesn't have a marching band, so for years, there was never any parade in town. In 1986, a local woman finally became frustrated at the town's parade-less status, and took action: she applied for a parade permit on July 4th, talked the local AM station into broadcasting an hours' worth of marching music, and rounded up her friends; they gathered on Main Street, dressed in red, white, and blue, everyone bearing a portable radio; precisely at noon, they switched the radios on, tuned them all into the local station, and held their own parade up Main Street to the accompaniment of their radios.
This has become an annual event, and has become a wonderful come-one-come-all parade. There is almost no restriction on people who want to participate -- pretty much all they ask is that you show up at the parade route start about 20 minutes beforehand. People are encouraged to come in costume, but effectively if you're there, you're in. People are also encouraged to bring their own radios, but everyone else watching also brings their own as well, so you wouldn't be out of the loop if you didn't have one. Every year the sportscaster of the local station is the Grand Marshall, and usually makes the journey up Main Street in some spectacularly goofy fashion (one year it was on skates, another it was in a cherry picker driven by the Fire Department), and behind him comes an eclectic mix of kids on bikes, families who've turned the beds of their pickups into floats, local politicians, dogs wearing red ribbons, clowns, the Society for Creative Anachronism, members of the VFW, dancers, a van advertising a local thrash-metal club, a group calling itself the "Fishhead Party," and some guy who shows up every year with a watering can offering footbaths to people who look a little hot.
Only once has a group been dissuaded from participating; and even then only gently so. A marching band from Venezuela turned up one year and offered to play, but when the town gently explained what the idea behind the Boom Box Parade was, the band members amended their offer to a request to show up with their own radios. They did, and had a great time.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
etain
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Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 1 member
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