Editorial: Southold’s self-evident spirit

Southold showcased its small-town charm and big-hearted hustle within a span of a few hours on the Fourth of July.

It started with the annual parade and ended with highway crews clearing roads into the wee hours, after a blistering heat wave gave way to a lightning storm that rivaled the Macy’s fireworks show.

But for a few charmed hours, the skies held, Main Road filled and Southold got the hometown parade it deserved. Families claimed their favorite spots along the curb. Children scrambled for candy. Veterans were applauded. Fire trucks rolled by with lights flashing. Year-round residents waved to second homeowners.

And in the middle of it all, George Washington cruised down the thoroughfare aboard an East Marion Fire Department boat.
Kevin Webster has been portraying the nation’s first president in the parade for about a decade, greeting spectators, posing for photos and delighting children who shout, “Hey, George!” as he passes by.

This year, instead of riding on a float, the former East Marion fire chief climbed aboard the rescue boat — a fitting nod to Washington’s famous crossing of the Delaware.

“It kind of brings a new little fun to the parade, which it should be anyway,” Mr. Webster said.

He is right. The Fourth of July is, of course, about celebrating the birth of a nation. But in towns like ours, it is also about celebrating the people who keep that nation — and this community — stitched together.

The volunteers who organize the parade. The firefighters who leave the station long enough to wave from a truck before heading back to answer the next call. The civic groups and community organizations that show up year after year because traditions do not survive on their own. They survive because people make the time.

This year’s parade marked a changing of the guard. After nearly three decades under the care of Joan Tyrer and Carol Scott, new stewards helped carry the tradition forward, including Town Clerk Denis Noncarrow, Denise Schlachter of Griswold Terry Glover American Legion Post 803 Auxiliary and Cutchogue St. Patrick’s Day parade organizers Joe Corso, Jerry Siani and Paul Romanelli.

The result was a parade that felt both familiar and renewed, mainly because of the decision to expand the invite list to all corners of Southold Town, from Laurel to Orient.

Mr. Noncarrow estimated roughly 70 groups participated this year, about 40% more than usual, with crowds numbering in the many thousands. All of Southold Town seemed to have a place in the procession. “Everybody came together,” he said.

After the parade ended, Mr. Webster stood near the American Legion Hall and read the Declaration of Independence aloud — all of it, from beginning to end.

George Washington never signed the document; he was leading the Continental Army in the field. But it felt appropriate that our hometown George would give those words another voice nearly 250 years later.

Some truths remain self-evident. One of them is that Southold is a special place.