Mary Johnson Photo
There is no program for the Stony Creek Memorial Day Parade. Every person in the village knows the score by heart.
The ritual is learned in childhood and one generation passes it on to the next. Each year new children enter this Norman Rockwell world, a place that seems frozen in time.
So began our story last year on the Stony Creek parade, which began today at 8 a.m. and ended at the village cemetery. Then folks headed into town for the Memorial Day parade on the Green. Last year the town parade was cancelled because of rain. This year it went forward as planned.
At the town parade, Capt. Thomas Yester, the former chairman of the parade committee and an air-force pilot in World War II, received special tributes. He died in February at age 89.
First Selectman Unk DaRos, who presides over both parades along with the veterans of several wars, said the Creek parade is at least 100 years old “and it was an old tradition when I began.” He was about 8 years old when he attended his first parade. “I have been here each year for 61 years,” he said, except for the years he was in service himself.
Mary Johnson Photo
Many in Branford visited family members, veterans who served in war and who are buried in local cemeteries. Mary Johnson, our photographer, saluted her step-father, Basil Cousins.
Click here to read about the Stony Creek tradition.
