For the first time since the 1940s, Hollister celebrated a
Veterans Day Parade Monday.
For the first time since the 1940s, Hollister celebrated a Veterans Day Parade Monday.
The mood was both festive and solemn as local soldiers of previous eras and members on active duty were honored for their service.
The chilly gloom of the early morning turned to an appropriately bright sunshine when the 10 a.m. parade time approached. Parade participants gathered along Monterey Street and prepared to make history, in itself a redundancy for many who served in wars past.
Intermixed, a legion of younger generations also marched, including members of the San Benito High School Navy Junior ROTC.
In the audience, senior citizens, the middle-aged, families, teenagers and small children decorated the sidewalks to cheer the local representatives of American history. Hollister’s widest differences, for one day, shared a common sentimentality.
“Look at this,” said Maria del Rey Perezchica, “how the young people are learning patriotism and what it means.”
On this day, American flags appeared like stars in the skies. People sat anxiously outside downtown shops, baited by 50 years of anticipation. Men in wheelchairs sat near toddlers in strollers.
And proving that some things never change, a group of young children on Monterey Street sold hot chocolate and cider for 25 cents. “We’re going to watch the parade while selling,” said 7-year-old Haydn Engl.
Textbooks can’t teach history like this.
Bud Thomas was honored during and after the parade. Thomas served in World War II and was recognized as a former prisoner of war, along with two others – Chuck Williams and Bill Crum. The post-parade services took place outside the Veterans Memorial Building, which is currently undergoing a $3.9-million renovation.
In 1942, Thomas led the infamous Bataan Death March in the South Pacific, after which he spent nearly four years at a POW camp in Honshu, Japan.
Thomas said describing the POW camp conditions would do no justice, evidenced by the U.S. government’s subsequent reluctance to release known photographs of his personal horrors there. When the war finally ended in 1945, Thomas weighed 105 pounds, he said.
Thomas, a Campbell resident, looked healthier than the average 82-year-old. After the parade, he smiled, joked around and shared a historical perspective that almost no one can understand. Above all, he appreciated the gallant turnout.
“When little towns like this come out, it makes you feel really good,” he said. “It shows that people really care.”
Primarily responsible for the turnout were members of the Veteran’s Day Parade Coalition, which include founder Richard Herrera and directors Robert Gonzales, Rich Petersen and Charlie Scott. Their efforts, with help of others, included bi-weekly organizational meetings throughout the year. They themed the 2002 event, “My Country, My Duty, My Honor.”
Other notable participants included members of the U.S. Coast Guard; California Army National Guard; Women Veterans; Once a Marine, Always a Marine; 100th Troop Command; Boy Scouts of America; and local school marching bands.
Hollister Mayor Tony LoBue drove in the parade with his father Sal.
“It was a great duty re-instating this parade after 50 years,” LoBue said.
San Juan Bautista’s 4-H Club also participated. Gathered on the parade’s only float, members stood waving on the truck’s designed platform. A banner on the truck’s back-end read, “We salute those who have served.”
Herrera said Hollister’s event was the biggest Veterans Day Parade on the Central Coast Region.
Along with the Hollister Police Department, the parade included 20 volunteers from San Benito County Ambassadors. They re-directed vehicles from the route and handed out programs. The Ambassadors, according to member Nancy Black, became involved for safety.
Petersen undertook the hectic task of organizing the line of participants beforehand and also the ceremony afterward.
“I was very pleased with the turnout from the Greater Monterey Bay Area,” Petersen said.
The post-parade ceremony also included a memorial prayer by Cal Turpin, former national chaplain of the American Legion.
“We have but one thing in common,” Turpin recited, referring to veterans. “America needed us.”
Visible in Turpin’s background stood the youthful group of uniformed Boy Scouts, eyes closed and heads respectfully bowed.
Then “Taps” – a traditional song at military funerals – finalized the ceremony.
The music stopped and, appropriately, the temporarily somber tone turned once again jovial. People in the crowd conversed and smiled.
Thomas, in particular, went back to his same level of playful mischief. Darlene Williams, wife of former POW Chuck Williams and a friend of Thomas, wasn’t surprised by his happy mood. By now, she’s used to these men and their immense level of emotional resilience.
“It never ceases to amaze me how they come out with a smile, just like Bud,” she said.
