Brandon’s Independence Day: A look back, part I

By JANET MONDLAK

VIEWS OF EARLY Independence Day parades in Brandon. Though the parade now begins at the intersection of Park and High Streets and heads up Park Street into downtown, it used to run in the opposite direction. Here you can see St. Thomas Episcopal Church on the right.

I’ve been thinking about how and when Brandon started celebrating the nation’s Independence Day in such a big way. The Brandon Museum has a wealth of +100-year-old photos and, perusing their archives, I found a number of pics with parade floats and assume they are from Independence Day parties. It seems to me that our little town has always been patriotic!

Besides looking at pics, I also spent some time reading through Mim’s Dateline newspapers and I believe, and you old-timers out there can correct me if I’m wrong, that the current version of the parade and associated festivities ramped up in time for the country’s Bicentennial in 1976. We’ve been celebrating ever since! What’s interesting is that the Bicentennial Committee held a kick-off parade in 1974 at the beginning of their planning, did not hold one in 1975, and then hit it big in 1976 for the nation’s 200^th birthday.

The 1974 parade began at the A & P parking lot (now Post Office) and marched south, stopping at the Town Hall to raise new US and Bicentennial flags. After that, wreaths were laid at the Soldier’s Monument (what we call the Civil War Monument). It was a small affair but led to the big party two years later. The 1976 parade started at the Brandon Training School (now Park Village) and proceeded south onto Route 7 and came into downtown. The Bicentennial event featured 52 marching units and a Vermont Air National Guard fly-over.

Sometime around 1980 or so, Brandon started holding their 4^th of July celebration on the “Saturday closest to the 4^th.” This change allowed the planning committee to recruit more bands and other marching units because we weren’t competing with the towns holding their festivities on the actual holiday. We’ve been scheduling like that ever since. Also around this time, the parade route changed from north to south to the marchers starting at the head of Park Street and heading north, ending near Crescent Park.

Brandon’s civic pride has always been strong, and the parade was organized by different groups over the years, including our American Legion post, Brandon Lions Club, Brandon Rotary Club, and the Brandon Area Chamber of Commerce. At some point, the event became its own organization, officially called Brandon Independence Day Celebration Committee (BIDCC). The committee is under the auspices of the Town of Brandon Recreation Department to help cover some logistics and insurance. Committee members are volunteers and work long and hard all year long to ensure that come July 4^th, or more precisely, the Saturday closest to the 4^th, there is a grand show in town.

What is a parade without fire trucks, horses, ambulances, antique cars, and tractors? And what about the clowns, Uncle Sam, animals, unicyclists, roller bladers, scouts, summer campers, politicians, the Shriners mini cars, and bands—lots of bands—and music? Who remembers marching in the school band? There was so much excitement to get to wear a traditional band uniform including a big, feathered hat.

Over the years, there have been so many unusual and interesting attractions, competitions, fundraisers, and all-around goofiness added to the party. Back in the early 80s, there were special Little League and softball games held in conjunction with the celebration as well as Kennel Club presentations. In the early 90s, an elephant came to town for a few years. A ride on top of the largest land animal on Earth, right in front of the Brandon Congregational Church, was a big hit in my household! Vermont Teddy Bear sent a huge cuddly bear named Theodore and an area in Central Park was dedicated to Vermontica, Vermont’s official dairy spokescalf. Barney has shown up, as well as Smokey the Bear and Woodsey the Owl. Brandon, Florida even joined one year with a big float! Another significant event in 1991 was that it was Vermont’s Bicentennial year (1791-1991) and the Parade Committee had a “Down Memory Lane” theme.

The memories go on and on. I’ll stop here for now and will continue in a future edition of this paper. We haven’t even gotten to the super popular street dance or fireworks! In the meantime, if you would like more information on how you can be a part of putting together the magic, contact Bill Moore at the Brandon Town Office at bmoore@townofbrandon.com or by calling 802-247-3635 ext. 213.