The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Old Glory Day a hit with families
On a day set aside to honor American independence, the spirit of independence was alive and well around Chardon’s square as hundreds of bikers lined up to ride in the name of freedom.
Although the roar of engines with loud exhausts and the squeal of rubber under the power of Panheads and Knuckleheads were conspicuously absent during this run, the same spirit of rugged individualism was alive and well as children from around Geauga County and beyond partook in a bicycle parade like no other.
“This is our best-attended one yet,” said Becky Repasky, Chardon’s event coordinator, about the kids’ bicycle parade around Chardon Square during the city’s Old Glory Day, which families from all over Northeast Ohio have been attending over the last two decades.
Repasky said it’s ironic, too, because the city just posted a new digital message board at
the south end of the square and, for some reason, the popular, family-friendly event didn’t get posted on it.
“It’s funny, ‘cause we just got that new sign board and this is the one event that’s not on it,” she said, adding that her estimate placed the annual bicycle parade’s participation to be around 700 entries this year.
“We usually have around 500,” she said. “But this year, it’s way more than that. So, yeah, I’m gonna venture to say we’ve got about 700 this year.”
One participant — 5-year-old Jase Palmer from Hambden Township — was so excited to get his little motorized tractor into the parade, he could barely keep his foot off the accelerator, even after he cruised the circuit.
“It’s his first time here,” his mom, Sharon Palmer, said after Jase figured out how to negotiate a flowerbed-bordered crosswalk on Short Court Street, between the square and the courthouse lawn. “We debated whether he should ride his bike. But he’s not so sure of himself on that yet.”
She said he’s at home on the little tractor, though.
“Oh, he rides this all around our farm and he ‘mows’ the lawn when his dad’s out there mowing. He rides right along with him. He just loves it,” Sharon Palmer said of the green, John Deere-themed tractor and its accompanying trailer. “So we thought we’d pimp this out for the parade.”
No stranger to parade protocol, his grandparents, Mary and Harold Hedrick — also from Hambden — said he’s had his share of processional attention via the Hambden Township Memorial Day Parade.
“He knows how to wave,” Harold Hedrick said, adding that Jase is a regular in his 1979 Ford F-150, which routinely appears in that event.
But it wasn’t just Geauga County folks who participated in Old Glory Day
around the square.
Beachwood residents Blair and Missy Arbuckle, along with their daughters — 16-month-old Evelyn and 3 ½-year-old Mirabel — and the girls’ grandmother, Lois Abel of Twinsburg, came to the event after Missy Arbuckle learned about it online while searching for a “good, old-fashioned, hometown” event to attend on the Fourth of July.
“I was trying to find parades that would have something the kids would enjoy and that were family friendly,” she said, adding that social media led her straight to Chardon Square, where, as a kid growing up in Russell Township, was a place she and her family would visit often for events like the city’s flagship Geauga County Maple Festival and other signature Chardonsquare events.
Abel seemed to think her daughter made a good score with learning about Old Glory Day, especially where her granddaughters were concerned.
“Necklaces, streamers and bracelets — I mean, c’mon — what could be wrong with that, if you’re a little girl?” she said, looking around at all the good times being had on Chardon Square.
Another Old Glory Daygoer, Jonah Christopher, who brought son Blake, 4, to the event, said he and his family always come to events on Chardon’s square when they’re in town.
“We did this, like, two
years, maybe three years, ago when (Blake) was still in a stroller,” the Chardon resident said. “Yeah — we decorated that and were all in the parade together. It was a lot of fun!”
Christopher said he and his wife just had a baby earlier this year, so his wife was home tending to their 4-month-old and he and Blake decided to come to Old Glory Day together, where Blake was just tickled pink about the new bell he just had installed on his two-wheeler.
Repasky said it’s only through cooperation and community-mindedness that Chardon offers so many events throughout the year on the square.
“It’s really a community thing,” she said as she added up all the entities who contribute: Chardon Square Association, the city’s chamber of commerce, its Kiwanis Club, Rotary, and the city of Chardon, itself, just to name a few.
“I think it’s that hometown feel that makes it such a popular event, along with everything we all do here on the square,” she said. “Families come up here and enjoy being together as a community because, I think, we have such a quaint, hometown, community feeling here,” she said. “This is hometown pride. This is America.”