Springfield hosts 56th Alumni Parade

Springfield High School's 56th annual Alumni Parade had it all – including a pink Jeepster and Elvis. Floats were built around the theme of TV classics, with each class choosing a television show from its school years.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100627/NEWS02/6270402

Published June 27, 2010 in the Rutland Herald

Springfield hosts 56th Alumni Parade

By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD – Springfield High School's 56th annual Alumni Parade had it all – including a pink Jeepster and Elvis.

The Saturday morning parade was a trip down memory lane for the thousands of graduates of the high school, with reunion classes and their unique floats the centerpiece of the event.

Downtown was closed to traffic for about an hour as antique cars and trucks, farm tractors, fire engines and marching bands made their way up Main Street.

Floats were built around the theme of TV classics, with each class choosing a television show from its school years.

There was a float lauding "The Mickey Mouse Club," from the Class of 1970, with alumni sporting mouse ears and custom T-shirts with their first names printed on the back.

And the Class of 1975 yukked it up in memory of "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," complete with the proverbial "fickle finger of fate" looming over them.

The Class of 1980 chose "Gilligan's Island," with class member Bob Flint dressing up very convincingly as Gilligan, in his trademark red rugby shirt and white bucket hat. (Flint's day job is executive director of the Springfield Regional Development Corp.)

The float even had a grass hut and palm trees.

The Class of 1985 paid tribute to the Christmas classic "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," with dozens of class members and their families wearing Santa hats and reindeer antlers following the float, which showed the Abominable Snowman. Instead of candy, class members handed out puffy red noses.

The Class of 1960 took on "Happy Days," re-creating a soda counter, with a twirling dancing couple taking center stage. A large contingent from the class, celebrating its 50th reunion, followed the float.

The United Methodist Church also got into the spirit of the television theme, and its float was a scene from "Little House on the Prairie," complete with a church full of sunbonneted children listening to a stem-winding minister.

Members of the classes of 1990, 2000 and 2005 also marched.

Convertibles were abundant, ferrying the members of the oldest classes in the parade, 1933 and 1938, as well as the salutatorian and valedictorian of the Class of 2010, the alumni queen and king, and local officials and notables.

Elvis, complete with white spangled jumpsuit, rode in a convertible with New Hampshire license plates reading "ELVIS." Despite riding in the parade, he never attended Springfield High School.