Springfield marks 250 years in Alumni Parade

There were giant birthday cakes galore Saturday as Springfield marked the 250th anniversary of the town’s founding during the Springfield Alumni Parade.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110619/NEWS02/706199938

SHS alumni Published June 19, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

Springfield marks 250 years in Alumni Parade
By Susan Smallheer

SPRINGFIELD — There were giant birthday cakes galore Saturday as Springfield marked the 250th anniversary of the town’s founding during the Springfield Alumni Parade.

There were tributes to Springfield’s history as a machine tool manufacturing center, its worldwide reputation for star-gazing, and even its most recent brush with national attention — the 2007 world premiere of “The Simpsons Movie.”

The weather couldn’t have been better for a June parade — sunny skies and warm temperature. Thousands of people crowded Springfield’s downtown, as the hour and a half parade made its way up Main Street.

Some of the floats made by former classes of Springfield High School drew applause from the crowds, including the Class of 1961’s re-creation of the town seal.

The 50-year class had an enormous contingent marching behind the float, and even dragged a few MIA members from the sidelines.

The Class of 2001 made a giant Simpson-yellow birthday cake as the centerpiece of its float, which was accompanied by Homer, Marge and Bart Simpson.

While it was the alumni parade, community organizations were out in force too — from the Riversweepers, pushing the shopping carts that they pull from the Black River that flows through town, to local Cub Scout Pack 258, to the Springfield Garden Club and many alumni classes.

The Class of 1971’s float commemorated Stellafane, the international star-gazing and telescope convention, which has been held in Springfield for more than 100 years. The float featured planets, stars, and a re-creation of the observatory on the grounds of the Hartness House.

Many of the floats paid tribute to the machine tool industry, that dominated more than 100 years of Springfield economic and social history - Jones & Lamsom Machine Tool Co., Fellows Gear Shaper, Bryant Grinder, and the many smaller businesses.

The Springfield Players, the local community theater group, had one of the largest birthday cakes, along with a re-creation of the first radio broadcast made on Springfield radio station WNIX, which later became WCFR.

Springfield Methodist Church -- the twin-spired landmark stone church in downtown Springfield, had a float paying tribute to its founding of the first hospital in Springfield in 1912.

And Springfield Hospital had a float featuring the first set of twins born in the hospital - in 1922, with a recreation of an old delivery room, complete with doctors and nurses.

Guest of honor of the parade was Springfield Town Manager Robert Forguites, who had been honored on Friday evening at the alumni banquet, along with his late wife Barbara, a longtime teacher in Springfield schools who died this winter after a long battle with cancer.

Virtually every Springfield official marched or rode in the parade, as well as recent graduates, the Alumni queen and king, the Apple Blossom Queen and her court, and school principals, retiring teachers and Superintendent Frank Perotti.

The five members of the Select Board rode on a float with Torrent No. 4, one of the antique fire trucks owned by the W.H.H. Slack Steam and Hose Co., which is now the social organization of the Springfield Fire Department.

The parade started with a long cavalcade of antique and old cars - from Model T’s to 1970s muscle cars, and marked the kickoff of the town’s summer-long, event-packed birthday celebration, which will culminate on Aug. 20 with a day-long festival.