By Betsy Scheinbart
As a high school marching band, a Boy Scout troop, a soccer league and other young people lined up at the start of the Laurelton Memorial Day Parade, World War II veteran Jacob Wade recalled the day one of his friends was killed at his side.
“He was a Mormon from Utah and we had just been talking about what it would be like to come back, and he didn’t come back,” said Wade, a Flushing resident who fought in France and Germany.
The 12th annual Laurelton Memorial Day Parade in Laurelton was a mixture of youthful energy and somber remembrance as veterans recalled the anguish of war and neighborhood children were free to celebrate the holiday. About 200 people participated.
“Sixty years ago young men and women went to fight for our freedom,” said the Rev. Albert Love, a chaplain for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “Many did not return, but those of us here today did return and it is out mission to remember.”
The IS 59 Steppers were among the first to arrive at the parade’s starting point, the intersection of Merrick and Francis Lewis boulevards, at 9 a.m. The sixth, seventh, and eighth graders put on quite a show during and after the parade, despite the fact that their first practice was only a few weeks ago. They stomped, clapped, chanted and danced their way through the parade route and on stage afterwards.
Also lining up at the start of the parade was a curious vintage vehicle — a 1958 Oldsmobile driven by Nick Silano with a well-dressed plastic skeleton riding shotgun. “He’s the original owner,” Silano said.
Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts from Troops 333 and 316 of Cambria Heights, Kickers Junior Soccer League of Laurelton and the Laurelton Academy Girl Scout Troop 4100 added to the young faces in the parade.
The parade was sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Garden Club of Laurelton, Federated Blocks of Laurelton and the Laurelton Lions Club.
It traveled across a commercial strip of Merrick Boulevard with very few spectators before turning south onto 225th Street, a residential area where many waved from their homes. It concluded at Veterans Memorial Triangle at North Conduit Avenue.
The Campus Magnet High School for Humanities and Arts Marching Band from Cambria Heights set the pace for the parade behind the flag and rifle-bearing members of Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion.
Lester Muse was one of many Vietnam veterans to march in the parade. He is a veterans liaison to state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans), who also walked the parade route.
Muse said many things come to mind when he looks back on his three tours in Vietnam, particularly race relations in the war, which stand in sharp contrast to the present day.
“In Vietnam, there was no color barrier. We all just came together like a fruit salad,” Muse said. “I can’t believe the difference.”
As a black man, Muse said he still sees prejudice today in this country, an issue he never faced in the armed services.
“War has a flavor that the protected will never know,” said Muse, reciting one of his favorite quotations.
Major Harry Love’s B-17 U.S. Army Air Force plane was shot down over Germany in World War II. He spent nearly a year in a Germany prisoner-of-war camp.
“You must have lost freedom in order to understand it,” Love said. He was liberated by Gen. George Patton’s army on April 29, 1945.
The Rosedale Parade was sponsored by the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Jewish War Veterans.
Reach reporter Betsy Scheinbart by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 138.
