Dear George,
The Fourth of July is
definitely the best holiday of the year for fireworks and parades. We didn’t go to the fireworks this
year, but I did finally get to the Northside parade. Northside is the neighborhood just northwest of
Clifton. Lots of artists and
writers, a big LGBT community, good restaurants and bars, and an overall hippy ambience. As you might expect, the Northside
parade has a local, quirky flavor.
There are dogs and horses, motorcyclists, unicyclists, floats
advertising local businesses, beauty queens, antique automobiles, numerous
politicians – mostly Democrats (I got to shake hands with gubernatorial
candidate Ed Fitzgerald), the Lawnchair Ladies Brigade, 5 or 6 marching bands
plus 5 or 6 dance teams, social movement groups, and lots of enthusiastic kids.The
parade route ran along Hamilton Ave. for roughly 20 blocks, and I would guess
that there were 3 or 4 thousand spectators. The Northside parade first began in 1854 when the women and
children rode in boats along the Miami and Erie Canal while the men marched
alongside them on the banks. Today
it’s the largest parade in the Cincinnati metro area and precedes the Rock ‘N
Roll Carnival in Northside’s Hoffner Park. Here’s what just some of it looked like.
Love,
Dave
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