Dylan Erni ‘21
December 12, 2019
Numerous local communities and groups participated in the Beverly Holiday Parade last weekend, which kicked off on December 1st. Local residents marched and drove through the streets of Beverly, starting at BHS and ending at the post office near the Depot train station. The first group stepped off at around two, and the parade ended at about four. Over the two hours, the cold and wind set in, leading BHS student Nick Pratt to complain “It was ridiculously cold!… It felt like negative ten degrees Fahrenheit.”
Parade members began to rally in the late morning at around eleven AM in the BHS parking lot. As groups, they began to arrange their formations into order based on their positions in the parade. Complete with three full marching bands along with their color guards, a dual horse-drawn sleigh, a musketeer unit, as well as other organizations. BHS’s own Marine Junior Officer Training Corps’ cadets volunteered to help by guiding cars into the parking lot, as well as to carry the banners of other groups.
Embracing the giving and kind spirit of the holidays, the U.S. Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program collected toys in their float to donate to children whose parents could not afford to buy them anything. Likewise, other groups collected canned goods along the parade route, and various other approved goods to be collected and used to aid financially disadvantaged families.
Glover’s Marblehead Regiment, a reenactment group portraying the US’s first navy during the Revolutionary War, marched in the parade as well. Sporting flintlock muskets and blunderbusses, as well as an abundance of black powder, the group fired numerous volleys of blank rounds down the path.
A highlight of their attendance was a seemingly impromptu, as the Captain put it, “raiding,” of a resale store specializing in “British & Irish food and gifts,” named the Union Jack. However, Seamus Daly later wrote the event was indeed “with the assent of the owner.” Following the rough plan, Daly ordered his men to halt their march, and then commanded a detachment of three men to commence their incursion. The three sailors hurried to the entrance and began to “liberate” the store, taking down British flags, making quite the scene, and getting quite a number of laughs from the crowd. Nearing the end of the raid, Private Greg Howard escorted a cardboard cutout of Elizabeth II, victoriously exclaiming that he had “collected a high-value target!” The Captain was thankful his regiment was invited, writing “Crowds loved it. We also used the parade as a drilling opportunity,” and “we raised $500 towards regiment funds.” A youth member of the regiment, Corporal Andrew Rucco, summarized the event, saying “We did a little reenacting, did a little shooting, and brought freedom and liberty to the town of Beverly.”
