The summer of 1976 featured parades. Lots of parades! Every community held theirs on or around July 4th, featuring marching bands, floats, crazy costumes and antique cars.
Hi, we’re Denyse and Lori, your hosts here at Bicentennial Memory Project! Today we’re reminiscing about the local parades in the towns where we grew up, and Denyse teases the special Bicentennial parade that will live forever in her memory (more later on that!)
While we don’t have video of any of the parades Lori marched in that summer, we were fortunate to find this 8mm film of the Lyle, Minnesota Bicentennial Parade on July 4, 1976, digitized by the Lyle Historical Society. What a treasure, and the ultimate memory prompt!
Share Your Parade Memories in the Comments
Now it’s your turn. We’d love to hear about the parades you watched or participated in. Were you in the marching band like Lori? Were you catching candy thrown from the top of a float? Or were you the mayor or Grand Marshall and led the whole thing! Whatever your memories are, we want to hear them.
Share your Bicentennial parade stories in the comments below, and let’s start preserving the history we lived.
Bicentennial Memory Project is a private, nonpartisan grassroots newsletter dedicated to helping Americans tell, share and preserve their stories.
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