Marching in the Big Parade

Storm Lake’s Star Spangled Spectacular, Iowa’s biggest Fourth of July event, had another successful celebration of our nation’s birthday Saturday. The Big Day was kicked off by the Big Parade in the morning, which entertains 20,000 to 30,000 spectators a year. Nobody knows for sure.

The Times Pilot has had a big hand in the parade over the past quarter century. For eight years beginning in 2004, our late Sales Manager Mike Diercks and I were the parade organizers. We worked months every year setting up the hour and a half event that stretched a mile down Lakeshore Drive and up Hudson Street. We mailed entrants from previous years, ran notices in the paper and called people and organizations to roll with us.

We’d start work about 6 a.m. the morning of the Fourth, setting up markers in the staging area on Grand Avenue through the Buena Vista University campus to indicate where the 120 or so entrants were to line up for the parade.

In 2005 we thought it would be inspiring to have the parade start with an Air Force flyover. It’s a good thing we started early, because setting this up was not quick or easy.

First, you don’t just call the Sioux City air base a week ahead and have them fly by. We had to mail a request all the way to the Air Force at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, more than six months ahead. After months of waiting we were finally approved. But there was a hiccup. Because they had so many July 4 flyover requests from towns around the state, the Air Force couldn’t guarantee what time they’d arrive. Three jets from the Air National Guard in Des Moines were assigned the mission of flying from town to town across the Midwest. Our plane finally arrived about 11 a.m., but it was worth the wait as the pilot streaked low from the west, just above the trees along the Lakeshore Drive parade route.

The next year we were even more thrilled when the pilot arrived at the stroke of 10:30 to start the parade in grand style.

In the early years the start of the parade was signaled by a blast from a National Guard cannon, but that practice ended after a startled horse kicked in the side of a nearby parked car.

To encourage creativity in parade floats, in 2006 the Times initiated the Admiral’s Award, a unique decorated ring buoy presented to the best entry. It’s judged by three prominent local citizens. Dolores Cullen has overseen that since its inception.

My wife Mary also pitched in for several years when she organized the Parade of Nations, featuring representatives of Storm Lake’s many different cultures that have made this community a real melting pot of immigrants. Storm Lake represents all that’s good about America. It was a lot of work for Mary. She’d call representatives of each nationality to invite them to march in the parade.

The Irish were a small part of the contingent. Art and I marched with the colors of the Emerald Isle, sometimes with our kids, along with our sister Ann from Omaha who remembered her Irish heritage despite marrying an Italian. Everyone’s favorite Irishman Joe O’Malley and Steve Hamilton could also be counted on to wear the green to the cheers of many in the crowd as they passed by. I found it ironic that while Germans are one of the largest nationalities in Buena Vista County, we could never get them in the parade.

There was one main logistical problem: the Storm Lake High School band had to march near the front of the parade. Band director Frank Hoskins would not permit his musicians to march behind horses — at any distance. Although we had pooper scoopers in golf carts follow the horses, Hoskins was adamant. He wanted his kids to march eyes forward, concentrating on their performance, not looking down to the street to avoid stepping in something. We always accommodated Frank.

This was the 48th year of the Star Spangled Spectacular. It was the brainchild of Liz Elk and originally sponsored by the Storm Lake Area Arts Council, and thanks to the work of scores of volunteers each year, it has remained privately organized ever since — from the unique Ride/Run to the musical acts to the food vendors to the fireworks. No government money is spent. This year the budget was $50,000 and all of the money came from private donations, large and small.

The Times Pilot is proud to have been a part of this great community celebration over the decades.