Monday, November 9, 2009

Weslaco's Birthday Parade

In the fifties, Weslaco used to have big yearly birthday celebrations, complete with huge parades comparable with the Rose Parade. Organizations would work almost the whole year on plans for a special float that would compete with all the floats in the parade. These participating floats were not only from local organizations but even from some outside the Rio Grande Valley itself.
Just like in the Rose parade this floats had moving parts and were usually constructed with millions of flowers. I remember the St. Joan of Arc PTA working on one in the year 1959, when I was in the eight grade in that parochial school. We all helped to put it all together, using crepe paper flowers and real flowers to cover the whole framework. There was a big arch and beneath the arch was a young man with a guitar, depicting Elvis Presley.
Seeing the whole parade was really amazing and I remember sometimes it would take hours to pass in front of our main street with about forty floats, more than twelve bands, both local and from other areas, cars, firetrucks and other vehicles, including some antique cars. People sometimes assembled hours before the parade in order to get good vantage points on the main route. It was an unforgettable memory each year!

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