As usual, folks from Chesterfield and surrounding towns set their lawn chairs in the generous shade and clapped heartily for the participants.
CHESTERFIELD – Whether real live nieces and nephews of Uncle Sam or distant admirers of the guy, everyone along Main Road in Chesterfield has a little Yankee Doodle Dandy in them Monday as the classic small-town July 4 parade rolled on by.
As usual, the town’s 64th annual Independence Day Parade was replete with classic cars, fire trucks and tricked-out bikes, as in bicycles and tricycles. As usual, folks from Chesterfield and surrounding towns set their lawn chairs in the generous shade and clapped heartily for the participants. And in what has come to be another Chesterfield tradition in recent years, visitors from foreign countries stood among the locals, beaming and shaking their heads in wonder at this slice of America they never imagined.
As the holiday crowd settled in, singer Susan Angeletti and guitarist Bruce Korona warmed them up with some hot blues. Sisters Sarah and Alyssa Labrie of Goshen then literally brought everyone to their feet with a moving a cappella rendition of “The National Anthem.” Then, preceded by a couple of state police cruisers, the parade was under way.
Color guards. Marching bands. Waving politicians. Home-made floats. The Disney sweetness of it was a far cry from the turmoil in Iraq and Pakistan, where many of the exchange students staying at the University of Massachusetts for part of the summer hail from. UMass student Timothy Shea, a mentor in the Civic Initiative program, said the group has been touring the eastern seaboard from Washington, D.C., to Amherst. As in past years, they took a ride up to Chesterfield to take in America’s Independence Day festivities hilltown style.
“It’s amazing how Americans celebrate the victory that won their freedom,” said Taher Abdair, 21, an Iraqi who is studying to be a doctor. He stood elbow to elbow with fellow Iraqi exchange student Mohammed Ibrahim to take snapshots of the classic cars and fire trucks. Ibrahim, 27, a law student in the U.S. for the first time, said he didn’t expect anything like the Chesterfield parade as he was preparing for his visit.
“It’s just unbelievable,” he said. “If you want to talk about the difference between this and Iraq there is a lot to talk about.”
Their reaction was not unlike that of Jessie Krug, a Westhampton resident who has been coming to Chesterfield for the Fourth of July since 1962.
“It’s country at it’s best,” said Krug, 83. “We just love it. It says, ‘This is the way it really ought to be.’”
Wilson Tamfuh, a professor from Camaroon who is also staying at UMass for the summer, was inspired by the event.
“It reminds me of the need for many nations to seek independence when
oppressed,” he said. “That’s what July Fourth is all about.”
Monica Valiton of Cummington moved to the hilltowns from the Worcester area two years ago and deemed the parade more low-key than the bigger one in Fitchburg.
“This is one of the smaller ones I’ve been to, but that’s what you get here,” she said. “Everything is more countryish here.”
Solin Ahmad, another Iraqi student, was simply amazed that people in the U.S. still drive cars from the 1930s.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said. “This is the most amazing country ever.”