HAPPY 4th of JULY!
Every 4th of July I think back to the celebrations when I was a young boy and we visited my maternal grandparents in Cumberland, Rhode Island. We usually had a family picnic out under the horse chestnut tree in the field surrounding the barn and house. But the real highlight of the celebration event was going to the parade held every 4th of July up at Arnold Mills. My mother and her family were long-time participants in the parade and while my siblings and I never walked in the parade, we loved the festivities as wide-eyed observers for several years.
It was not until recently that some family photos surfaced relating to the Arnold Mills parade and one photo in particular finally made some sense to me after reading last year's "Salem Willows Horribles Parade" at Heather Rojo's Nutfield Genealogy blog. I have been waiting a year to publish the following photo of my maternal grandmother, Ruth Eaton [Cooke] Carpenter, taken as she was ready to walk in the Arnold Mills 4th of July Parade sometime in the late 1930s we guess.
Now this photo never struck me as a particularly representative one of my grandmother . . . and in fact I would not have recognized her if my mother did not identify it as her mother and it was confirmed by the description on the reverse side of the photo (shown immediately below).
Nothing about my grandmother's attire shouts "patriotic." And one wonders what the cape, the hat, the gloved hands, and the . . . well, what appears to be a hot water bottle and tube with a bulbous end looking for all the world like an enema bag . . . is supposed to mean. It was all very puzzling and my mother did not recall exactly what her mother was supposed to be or what she was conveying in walking in the parade in such garb.
But then Heather's post made it all clear. What I always thought of as a fun, patriotic 4th of July celebration when I was a kid of less than ten was actually that and much more. It was part of a regional New England tradition known as a "Horribles Parade." Heather explains it all and I urge readers to check out the link to her 2015 post as well as her post from today! After reading Heather's post from last year and seeing Arnold Mills listed among the communities in New England (largely Massachusetts and Rhode Island) that carry on the Horribles Parade tradition, my grandmother's getup will begin to make a whole lot more sense; but I still wish I knew for sure what amusement she was seeking to convey in what looks like a nurse's uniform and a . . . medical implement.
The 4th of July parade tradition continues to this day in Arnold Mills, Rhode Island and today is the 90th year for the holiday celebration. As stated at the Arnold Mills Parade website . . .
"The origin of the Arnold Mills Parade is the theme of 'Ancient and Horribles.' First seen in the histories prior to the United States Sesquentential Celebration of 1926, the ancient and horribles were a grass roots phenomena which highlighted the love of the American people of all things 'wild and wonderful.' It is a tradition to which Arnold Mills Parade Association hopes to encourage with its reintroduction, in 1994, of awards for ancients and horribles entrants."
You can read more about the history of the Arnold Mills 4th of July parade tradition here and view some of the more modern entries in the Arnold Mills Horribles Parade here.
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American flag .gif file from a Google Images link to what is stated to be a forums.anandtech.com image.
Photograph scanned from the original snapshot in the author's collection.
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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew
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