July 4 parade has small town charm

By Jeff Walker
Features Editor

Martindale June 24, 2008 10:43 am

— Martindale resident Barrie Hamilton just loves the Fourth of July parade every year in her little town. It’s so “Normal Rockwell.”
“There aren’t any real ‘floats.’ The parade is kids on tricycles decorated with red and blue streamers,” Hamilton said. “Everybody here spends the first week of July deciding what they are going to do for the parade.... It’s just one of those little towns where it seems like progress has driven by. It’s really enabled people in this town to get a whiff of the simple pleasures.”
This year’s parade will kick off on Friday, July 4 beginning at 10 a.m. It will start on Main Street in downtown and from there meander all around the city. There will be vehicles new and old, tractors, bicycles, horses dogs and plenty of people walking. You may not see any expensive floats, Hamilton said, but you’ll find a town filled with American pride.
The parade was started in 1990 by Jane Latham, and has grown in size every year since.
“They didn’t have the parade in the San Marcos River that year because the water was low, and we were all sitting around, and my shy daughter in law said’ let’s start our own parade,” Latham said. “We did and next year people called and asked ‘are you going to have a parade again?”
Latham says the idea behind the Martindale parade is simply anyone can get involved. There aren’t any pretenses or special requirements: Anyone can line up and join the Martindale Fourth of July parade.
“It’s exciting to see this Martindale tradition grow,” Latham said.
Residents are invited to bring lawn chairs or blankets, or just to jump on a hay wagon that has some extra room. The public is welcome.
“It’s like taking a step back in time to sweet memories of a simpler life,” Hamilton said.