Community continues 111-year-old tradition with a long weekend
of activity
Marching bands, elaborate floats, fire engines, antique cars and plenty of red, white and blue – an Independence Day Parade is a thick slice of American pie. And Morgan Hill’s annual Fourth of July procession is considered one of California’s best.
Just ask Trish Turpin, a personal assistant at Sigma Properties, a South Valley real estate agency. Lately, Turpin and others in her company have been hard at work constructing a cinema-themed float for this Monday’s parade. Weeks before the fireworks start exploding, she boasts she’s already been having a “blast.”
“We decided we were going to be in the parade this year,” she said. “It’s a good way to get our (company’s) name out there and it’s a good Morgan Hill activity. We watch the parade every year and we just decided to be part of it. We’ve had so much fun with building the float. We’re having a blast!”
Mary Barger, owner of Sigma Properties, describes the float as representing the historic Granada Theater in downtown Morgan Hill. Husbands Mike Turpin and Mike Barger have been helping with the hammering and painting to create a float that conveys the notion of “Going to the Movies.”
“We were trying to think of ways to reflect the overall theme of the parade – which is ‘Home, Sweet Home.’” she said. “We kept thinking about personal homes. But then we realized it – Morgan Hill is our home sweet home. So we decided to take one of the businesses of downtown. And I can’t think of one more prominent than Granada Theatre.”
A replica of the well-loved hometown cinema will sit on a trailer pulled by a truck. The distinctive theater marquee and ticket booth will be prominent. An old projector will be focused on a movie screen complete with curtains on the side. Two ticket takers – dressed as Uncle Sams – will add a patriotic ambiance to the project.
“We have some rows of seats with real people sitting in them,” Barger said. “It’s really cool looking and we’ve had the best time doing it.”
This is the first time Barger has ever been in a parade, and after leaving a float-making workshop a few weeks ago, she for a moment doubted whether she could successfully handle the project.
“This was going to be a bigger deal than I thought it was,” she said. “I didn’t want it to look terrible like a homemade thing. But (parade organizer) Maureen Hunt gave me a pep talk and said ‘Oh yes, you can do it.’”
One night, Barger’s husband woke her up in the middle of the night and told her his idea about using the Granada Theater as the float’s theme.
She thought the concept was perfect.
As the event’s organizers for many years, Morgan Hill husband and wife Bob and Maureen Hunt have served as an integral part of the parade. They have a combined 45 years of experience in helping put the popular procession together. Bob started out with “small jobs” in 1973. Two years later when she came into his life, Maureen got involved, too.
“She’s been working side-by-side with me every year since,” Bob said.
Both consider themselves patriotic Americans, so the time and energy put into the parade is really a labor of love for them. Plus, they also love their South Valley community.
“I lived in Europe for three years and from the traveling I did (there), I found that nothing can compare with America,” Maureen said. “And there is no place that compares to living here in Morgan Hill.”
Bob added, “We think Morgan Hill is the best place in America. Period.”
Thanks to the Hunt’s diligence in striving to improve the parade every year – the Sunday following Independence Day they always host an annual pot-luck dinner for volunteers to discuss what can be done better next year – Morgan Hill Independence Day parade was declared “the official Santa Clara County Fourth of July Parade” in 1996. And although the honor is not official, it’s also considered the best Independence Day parade in Northern California.
The Northern California Parade Sponsors Association offers guidelines in how communities can compare their parades with others cities and towns.
For many years, Redwood City was considered to have the No. 1 Independence Day parade in Northern California. But three years ago, the Hunts calculated the total of participating floats, marching bands, equestrian riders and others – as well as the quality of these participants. They saw that the rival neighboring town up north surpassed them in only one category – baton twirlers.
“We ranked ourselves, based on these guidelines which are quite straight forward, against other Northern California Fourth of July parades,” Bob said. “We are No. 1 one of all the (towns) that we’ve been able to make contact with.”
So popular is the parade that people come from all around the state – as well San Benito County, Gilroy, San Martin, San Jose, Los Gatos, Watsonville – to volunteer. One participant even comes from abroad.
Every year, London citizen John Hodgson travels from the island nation of England to fly in a World War II-era Stearman bi-plane as part of the “Freedom Flight” team buzzing over the parade.
Spectators lining the parade routes are also some of the warmest and most enthusiastic crowds Maureen said she has ever seen. They’re especially uproarious when it comes to cheering on the five grand marshals – men who have served their country in the armed forces.
This year’s honored veterans are Billy Tykol (World War II), Bob Bostock (Cold War era), Roger Dahl (Korean War), Dave Thomas (a silver star recipient from the Vietnam War), and Staff Sergeant Camilo De La Cueva (an active Marine who served recently in Afghanistan and Iraq).
Why five grand marshals instead of the traditional one?
“Several years ago,” Bob explained, “we were honoring veterans and we said, ‘You know, we have so many really deserving people, that we’re going to put a grand marshal in front of each of our five divisions in the parade.’”
Now other parades, such as the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena on New Year’s Day, have expanded to five honorees. “So it’s catching on,” Bob said.
Indeed, a hometown parade shows off America at its best on its birthday.
It’s a way for people to feel proud of their country and of their community, said Mary Barger.
“It’s like apple pie,” she said. “It makes you very, very proud to be a part of it – such a great country and, on a smaller scale, our community here. I’ve gone to the parade every year for a long time. I just love to go out there and watch everyone. I love that small-town, homey feeling.”
