The way we were — the 1963 Apple Festival parade

After a one-year hiatus because of COVID-19, Westminster looks forward this week to the return of its largest outdoor gathering—the 60th Apple Festival, a celebration of this year’s crop of apples.  Something old, something new this year:  the return of the “Honey” apple mascot.  One of the traditional festival events is the Main Street parade, which rolls through at 5 o’clock Friday evening.  You can get a glimpse of what the Apple parade was like in its formative years by going to the website of the Oconee History Museum and watching a seven-and-a-half-minute color film of the 1963 parade.  The parade is a reminder of an earlier innocent time, a couple of months before a U-S president was assassinated while riding in an open-air vehicle through the streets of Dallas, Texas.  In the 1963 parade, the procession of visiting dignitaries read like a who’s who in state government, starting with Governor Donald Russell and working its way down to several state cabinet members.  The 1963 parade featured a lot of floats, bands, horse-pulled carts, and wagons, for which a lot of thought and time went into. And the dress of parade participants and crowd watchers.  Many of the women wore dresses; many of the men in jackets and ties.