28 times • JUNE 11, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.timesnewsweekly.com old timer The lost rite of summer in Ridgewood Thanks to the Woodhaven riding on colorful floats and Cultural and Historical Society, singing or performing hymns we were able to present last on instruments to the cheers of week a fond look back at onlookers. Woodhaven’s Anniversary Ridgewood’s parade was Day Parade, a celebration of always special and, for a time, the founding of local Sunday celebrated by tens of thousands. schools. This week, we look The New York Times back on Anniversary Day reported on June 5, 1959, that celebrations of yesteryear in 25,000 participated in Queens, Ridgewood, now a lost rite of but that was just a fraction of summer. the 150,000 who participated Children from local Protestant in the Brooklyn Sunday School churches — and, in later years, Union march across the border. from area Catholic schools — The first-ever Anniversary looked forward every year to Day parade in Ridgewood the first Thursday of June. It took place on June 6, 1929, wasn’t just a mere part of the under the sponsorship of the annual countdown to summer Ridgewood Sunday School vacation. Rather, it was a day of Union. It started in two points: music and fun while promoting on the east at the corner of Van their faith through local streets, Cortland (now 71st) Avenue and Fresh Pond Road, and Musicians from St. John’s Methodist Church in Ridgewood line up at the start of the 1992 Anniversary Day Parade. on the west at Putnam and Onderdonk avenues. The divisions marched through local streets and met at the corner of Fresh Pond Road and Catalpa Avenue before turning back to their local churches. Among the congregations that participated in the 1929 march were Ridgewood Presbyterian, St. John’s Evangelical Bible (now Methodist), Lutheran Church of the Covenant Glendale Methodist Episcopal, First German Baptist, Glendale Evangelical, Glendale Baptist and the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. Church members carried flags and banners representing their congregation and wore sashes labeled with that year’s parade theme, such as “Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace” or “Though Many, We Are One in Christ.” Throughout the years, parishioners at each church would decorate floats, using brightlycolored streamers, that adults would pull and children would ride. Musicians would play hymns such as “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” and the “Hymn of Joy” on recorders, glockenspiels, drums and other instruments — sometimes aided by sheet music written on the back of floats ahead of them. Once the fun was over, the children would return to their local churches for lunches that generally included hot dogs, ice cream and cake. As the years went on, however, the congregations dwindled — as did participation in the Ridgewood Anniversary Day parade. The 100th Anniversary Day march in 2009 was relegated to a portion of Catalpa Avenue between Onderdonk Avenue and Fresh Pond Road and attended by only a few hundred. The 2009 parade turned out to be the last of its kind. The Ridgewood Sunday School Association canceled the 2010 march due to declining interest and reductions that year in police coverage at public events. “We did it for 100 years. We were happy to get to that point,” Wayne Vandermark, president of the association, told the Ridgewood Times in a May 20, 2010, article. He noted that the association would consider alternatives for another celebration the following year, but it never materialized. Even so, for those lucky enough to have participated and enjoyed those parades, they are left with memories and good feelings that will remain with them forever. A float at the 1959 Ridgewood Anniversary Day Parade. American flags and church banners were carried proudly during the Anniversary Day parade in Ridgewood in 1929. “Christ the Great Teacher” was the theme of the Anniversary Day Parade in Ridgewood in this photo taken during the 1940s. If you have any memories and photos that you’d like to share about “Our Neighborhood: The Way it Was,” write to The Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times, 62-70 Fresh Pond Rd., Ridgewood, NY 11385, or send an email to [email protected]. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned upon request.
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