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PHS ROTC cadets color guard steps smartly. More pictures below. |
What a pleasant surprise Plainfield's 90th Independence Day Parade was!
It has been in such a steep decline over the past several years that I dreaded it would have sagged even further, but that turns out not to have been the case.
There were plenty of floats and marching groups and everything moved along briskly once it got going.
But the best part for me was the marching bands. What is a parade without a marching band? And there were three: Plainfield High, Pleasantville High and Camden High. Though all were excellent, the Camden group wowed the audience with both their playing and their drill routines. Bravo!
Surprisingly, the only patriotic music that I heard though, came from Democratic mayoral candidate Adrian Mapp's sound truck, which followed on behind a walking contingent of supporters.
Was this year's parade better because it was Sharon's last? Or was it because it was freed from the grasp of its former chief organizer?
Whichever, it was better.
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PHS Marching Band doing its routine. |
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Pleasantville HS Marching Band. |
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Camden's snappy Marching Band. |
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Democratic mayoral candidate Adrian Mapp and friends. |
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Freeholder Chairperson Linda Carter and sorority sisters. |
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On the sunny side of the street. |
-- Dan Damon
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6 comments:
I cannot speak to other Plainfield parades, but this one had its share of fun and spirit. Let's hope for more of this and more in general next year.
4th of July surprise? I was surprised that after the parade committee said that the parade was to start a 10AM that they did not start on time as advertised. How much MORE overtime do the tax payers have to pay because the mayor did not show up on time? The Police,Fire Dept, CITY Hall employees,Starting the parade over 1 hour late was very disrespectful to the citizens who were waiting in the extreme heat for the parade to start.
Dan Why did the parade start so late? Who is paying all the extra overtime for the PPD and parade employees? Doesn't the parade have a budget to stick to? I heard that some people got sick and one fainted because of the heat. Glad the mayor is on her way out because if she cant even run a parade on time or on budget, she should not be allowed to run the City of Plainfield.
How much does the parade cost the taxpayers? How much overtime did we have to pay because the Mayor was over an hour late starting the parade? Can the next Mayor ever recover a hold on the budget after this Mayor has overspent every chance she gets?
The Mayor should be ashamed of herself for making everyone wait for over 1 hour in 98 heat! The weather alerts were out telling everyone especially seniors and children to stay out of the heat. The poor Police, Public works dept. employees, and parade people had to suffer because of her lack of respect for the people of Plainfield.
At Richmond Towers, there was a loudspeaker and a woman announcing each group as it they went past. Was it Her Honor, herself, doing the honors?
Of course, the marching bands were the best. But I wish there were more step dancers. And although the vets were there, does the military no longer want to show off their hardware to the people who pay their bills?
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