28 MAY 24, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
A tradition of pride in Ridgewood & Glendale
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
They call it the “unoffi cial start of
summer,” but to anyone who has
ever served in the Armed Forces
or knows someone who has, Memorial
Day means much more than just barbecues
and fun in the sun.
You’ll see its meaning across our
neighborhood this weekend, when
communities mark Memorial Day
with parades around town and solemn
ceremonies and public memorials honoring
those who, as President Abraham
Lincoln said in his Gettysburg
Address, “gave their last full measure
of devotion” in defense of our freedom.
Memorial Day is a particularly special
time for the neighborhoods of Ridgewood
and Glendale. Every year, the two
neighborhoods come together as one to
commemorate Memorial Day with a
parade hosted by the Allied Veterans
Committee of Ridgewood and Glendale.
The parade, which will be held for
the 80th time on Monday, May 28, has
a wonderful history of its own that
editor Robert Pozarycki documented
in the May 16, 2013, issue of the Ridgewood
Times. We are proud to bring
you excerpts of that article, and we
invite you to come out and enjoy this
year’s parade:
In the aft ermath of the First World
War, the Ridgewood and Glendale
memorials — located at the respective
corners of Myrtle and Cypress avenues
and Myrtle and Cooper avenues
— were erected to honor residents in
both communities who served and
died in “the war to end all wars.”
According to local historian Maryellen
Borello, the Glendale monument
was funded by the citizens of the
The P.S. 68 contingent at the 2011 Memorial Day Parade
community, while the Ridgewood memorial
was paid for through fundraising
eff orts by the Gold Star Mothers,
the organization of mothers who lost
sons in combat.
In the years that followed up until
1938, each community held separate
Memorial Day commemorations,
including parades and placing fl ags
on the gravestones of soldiers at local
burial grounds such as Cypress Hills
National Cemetery, Borello stated.
The reasons for why veterans in
Ridgewood and Glendale decided
to join together for a Memorial Day
parade were not made immediately
clear. However, from the fi rst joint
march in 1938 through the 1980s, the
Ridgewood-Glendale parade was a
lengthy aff air that included stops at
many tributes to fallen soldiers in
both communities.
Borello noted the parade generally
started at the former home
of the Garity Post at the corner of
Fairview Avenue and Woodbine
Street in Ridgewood, then proceed
eastward to Prokop Square, located
at the corner of Fresh Pond Road and
Cypress Hills Street. The march then
continued into Glendale, heading
down Cypress Hills Street, Central
Avenue and 71st Street to the Glendale
Memorial Triangle.
After a brief ceremony at the
Glendale Triangle, the march then
moved west along Myrtle Avenue to
the Ridgewood Memorial Triangle.
During the 1980s, Borello stated,
the parade was shortened to its
present route on Myrtle Avenue between
Cypress and Cooper avenues.
The starting point of the parade
alternates each year: Glendale in
odd-numbered years, Ridgewood in
even-numbered years.
Share your history with us by
emailing editorial@ridgewoodtimes.
com (subject: Our Neighborhood:
The Way it Was) or write to The Old
Timer, ℅ Ridgewood Times, 38-15 Bell
Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. Any mailed
pictures will be carefully returned
to you upon request.
Photos via Ridgewood Times archives
Members of the St. Pancras School marching band are pictured at this Memorial Day Parade in the 1970s.
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