Hundreds turn out for Manchester's Fourth of July Parade

By Douglas A. Moser, Staff writer
The Gloucester Daily Times

July 04, 2007 11:45 pm

— MANCHESTER — The house at 47 School St. with the gray-blue wood siding had it about right. Outside, several American flags lined the lawn. One flapped atop a flagpole and flag banners hung from the posts supporting a deck above the front stoop. And in the flowerpots next to the street were two small Greek flags.
Many of the people lining the route here yesterday morning for the town’s Independence Day parade seemed to be from somewhere else, originally from places like California and Greece. People said they came out and stood through a festive parade on a beautiful morning for two reasons: family and freedom.
“It just means freedom,” said Kosta Roumeliotis, owner of Christo’s Coffee Cup on Union Street, who was born in Patra, Greece, and moved to the United States 27 years ago. “It means doing what you want to do without anyone telling you how to do it. That’s what it means to me.”
Roumeliotis and employees, weathering a slow spurt during the parade, stood outside to see firetrucks, bands and Revolutionary War re-enactors.
“It means family,” said Justin McCarthy, who lives in Manchester. He moved with his wife, Keval, and daughters, Riley and Molley, from the Bay Area in California about a year ago. His family was walking up School Street after the parade.
“The Revolution is taken seriously here. You wouldn’t have that out West. It’s great to see it done differently,” he said.
Keval agreed.
“It means celebrating your country,” she added.
Jennifer Camp, a Gloucester resident in town with her daughter Rachel and son Stuart, said the Fourth represents American independence.
“For us, it truly means a celebration of American culture,” she said, as Rachel agreed.
The parade kicked off at about 9:30 a.m. from Memorial Elementary School on Lincoln Street and marched down Vine Street to Norwood Avenue, then on to Union and Central streets. It wound up Pine Street, Pleasant Street, back to Vine Street and finished at Norwood Avenue in the parking lot at Brook Street Field.
The Boston Crusaders played on Norwood Avenue once the parade wrapped up.
Firetrucks, from Manchester and around the region, headed the parade with police, followed by jugglers, politicians, antique bicycles with large front wheels and the musket-wielding Minutemen.
One group of troops, looking like they just had their toes frozen off at Valley Forge, marched up School Street, paused at their commander’s order and thundered a round of blanks. Right behind them, state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, shook hands next to a Hummer carrying his name and a live band playing blues rock. Behind them a group of older men played Prohibition-era jazz.
James Hewson, a tugboat captain from Beverly Farms, stood on Union Street with longtime friend Whitney Wyhoff, a Lynnfield resident who grew up in Manchester. He said he came out to see the floats and meet friends he does not often see.
“It’s a time to see the people you don’t run into very often, usually just here,” he said. He wore a white shirt and a flag necktie.
The Fourth of July Committee, which organizes the annual parade, raised about $24,000 this year to cover costs. The skydivers, an annual draw, did not fly this year because their landing spot, Brook Street Field, is under construction.

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