70 years of celebration
Ruby Palacios had hip surgery two weeks ago, but that didn’t stop her from joining High Point Terrace’s annual Independence Day parade.
Instead, the 82-year-old was pushed along the parade route in a wheelchair by her son, starting and ending at her house, where the tradition itself began 70 years ago.
Palacios has lived in the neighborhood for about 17 years (she says it feels more like “a million”). She bought the
house, which sits where Aurora Circle meets Mimosa Avenue, because a family that had previously lived there had started the parade with a simple walk around the neighborhood wearing patriotic colors.
Today, the parade has grown to hundreds of people: A few floats, dozens of strollers decked out with American flags, bikes with streamers, dogs wearing red, white and blue bandannas and golf carts dangling with tinsel. When the fire trucks leading the parade complete the loop, they turn on their hoses as children (and a few adults) splash and dance in the spray.
It still starts on the doorstep of the house at Mimosa and Aurora.
“It’s just a part of us. I wouldn’t miss it for anything,” Palacios said. “This is a wonderful neighborhood, the best that I know of.”
Before people began to make the loop around the neighborhood, Shawn Kelly told the story of the family who began the parade 70 years ago.
“They played some music on the radio, they marched around the street pushing their strollers and walking their dogs, and I imagine they were grateful, not just that the war was over and they were safe, not just to live in the United States, but to live in this brand new neighborhood which at the time was at the outskirts of the growing city of Memphis,” Kelly said.
Today, High Point Terrace is in the heart of Memphis.
Traci Strickland, a member of the neighborhood association that organizes the parade, said they believe theirs is the oldest parade in the city. It’s also a casual parade, with children biking along and very few formal floats, giving it a community feel.
“It’s a very casual way to put some streamers on a bike, hang some flags, put on some red and blue and come be with your neighbors,” she said.
That community feel is something that has drawn Guy and Jeanne Faries to the parade almost every year since 1982. This year, they came a few blocks from their home with their dog, Sandy.
Over the years, they’ve watched babies in strollers in the parade grow up, Jeanne said. Now, some of those former babies are pushing their own children in strollers in the parade.
“All the people in the neighborhood get together being friendly,” Guy said. “It just feels good.”
Katherine Burgess covers county government, religion and the suburbs. She can be reached at katherine.burgess @commercialappeal.com or 901-5292799.