One of the things I always loved in the summer was parades. I inherited my love of parades from my mom who also loved parades – big or small. Of course growing up in North Minneapolis in the 1950s and early ‘60s meant going to three parades each summer. There were the two Aquatennial parades downtown and the Northside parade on Broadway.
The Aquatennial Grand Day Parade was held on a Saturday afternoon in July. Back then, the parade route started at Parade Stadium, then winded up to 12th St. where it went east to Nicollet Ave. and then turned north. The YWCA building sat on the NW corner of 12th and Nicollet, and my family always sat on 12th St. across from the YWCA. By sitting there we would be on the shady (cooler) side of the street when the parade started and we could run across the street to use the Y’s bathroom if we needed. We would get downtown hours before the 2 p.m. start time to get a good curb spot for viewing the parade. My parents had wooden folding chairs to sit on and us kids would sit on a blanket on the curb. Lunch always consisted of homemade tuna salad sandwiches, jars of Kool-aid and maybe some potato chips; all of which was carried in shopping bags because we didn’t own a cooler. On the following Wednesday mom and us kids would go to the same spot for the Torchlight Parade but we’d have to take the bus because my dad worked two jobs so we were on our own on weeknights.
Each of the Aquatennial parades had a Grand Marshall, usually a famous celebrity, some well-known elected official or a local TV or radio celebrity. My favorite memory was from 1956 when I was 5 years old. The three main stars of the very popular Rin Tin Tin TV show, were in the parade! It was the only time that my family actually paid to watch the parade at Parade Stadium. I remember being so excited to see this famous dog and the two TV characters in person. Of course as a kid, the other people we were excited to see were the local kiddie show stars like Axel, Clancy the Cop and Casey Jones. These local celebrities often got more applause than the national celebrities and almost always more applause than elected officials. The first unit in the parade was always a military color guard and everyone stood up when the U.S. flag went by. The parades had a number of fancy floats that were sponsored by local businesses and also floats from other towns in Minnesota. There were also a number of high school bands.
The other summer parade we went to was the North Side Parade which was part of a community celebration that was known as the North Side Picnic. There was a carnival with rides and fireworks at North Commons Park as well as the parade. The North Side Parade was a big deal and there would be people three and four deep lined up on the sidewalks along the West Broadway route to watch it. Many of the floats and bands were the same ones from the Aquatennial parades. Both the North High and Henry High bands marched in the North Side Parade as well as often being in the Aquatennial parades.
Many years later after my husband and I bought our house in Camden in 1979, we took our young son to watch the Camden Showboat Days parade.
Unfortunately, the North Side, Showboat Days and Aquatennial Grand Day parades no longer exist and the Aquatennial Torchlight Parade has been scaled way back these days, but the memories of those fun parades still remain.