Dundee parade a living history lesson
Watch Dundee Township’s Memorial Day parade on Sunday, May 29, and consider it a living history lesson.
Look at the local residents who served in the armed forces during World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars and every battle and peacetime era that followed. Realize they are walking the same path as local veterans who served in World War I and battles before the 74-year-old parade began.
See the American Flags and ceremonial rifles they carry and know they are thinking of their fighting friends who have died in and after the battles have ended.
Any spectator who has watched Dundee Township’s or another community’s Memorial Day parade may notice few differences from one year to the next.
In the 1960s and 1970s, they may have taken note of the dwindling numbers of World War I veterans. And now they are seeing fewer World War II and Korean War veterans.
Some years they may have seen more politicians walk with the veterans. This year, not many politicians are expected to walk along Route 72 from the Immanuel Lutheran Church in East Dundee to Cal Grafelman Park in West Dundee, said coordinator Bobbie Andresen.
“It’s not an election year. Not many politicians have registered to walk,” she said. “But that’s OK; this day is not about politics. It’s about veterans. The attention should be given to them.”
Andresen is a veteran herself. She served in the U.S. Air Force. She and a committee help the parade’s sponsor, VFW post in West Dundee, register and line up the marchers and begin the parade at 2 p.m. Sunday.
This year, the parade and the history lesson will be basic. They will focus on the men and women who serve their country and the local residents who applaud them.
“The basics may be the best message there is,” she said.
Members of the VFW’s ladies auxiliary, local Boy and Girl Scout troops, firefighters, police officers and students in high school marching bands will help the veterans deliver their message by escorting them through the annual living history lesson.
Other groups are invited to do the same, Andresen said. Marching units that want to be part of it should call her at (847) 649-8233.
“This is a community event,” she said. “We’re inviting people to march in it, and we’re inviting people to watch it.”
The same is true for the ceremonies at the end of the parade in the park and those conducted on the following day.
On Monday, veterans will again mark Memorial Day by laying wreaths in the Fox River at 10:30 a.m. and in Dundee Township Cemetery East in East Dundee at 10:45 a.m. and River Valley Memorial Gardens cemetery in West Dundee at 11:30 a.m.