(above) War time heroes of days gone by from Cranford VFW Post #335. L to R Joseph Delgrippo, Korean War, Daniel Sullivan World War 2, Peter Klein World War 2, and Arthur Snyder Korean War.
The Cranford Memorial Day Parade Committee encourages all to follow the parade to the ceremony and bring a neighbor
By Don Sweeney Memorial Day Parade committee and Cranford 86 project member
(above) 2018 Grand Marshal James Silkenen greets the crowd and tells of his tour in Vietnam where he served with the Army Postal Service. A humble member of VFW post #335, he told of the many silent support troops that made the war effort bearable for the thousands of American men and woman serving in Vietnam. He told of the most precious delivery that was made during his service. A birthday cake that had travelled from Oregon and reached its battlefield destination in perfect condition.
As a member of The Cranford Memorial Parade Committee and the founding member of The Cranford 86 Project, I am again writing this invitation and heartfelt request that you and your family consider spending Memorial Day morning with us at our Memorial Park on Springfield Avenue as we pay some moments of respect to the 86 men whose names are engraved on the three tablets there. The tablets stand there all year, most time unnoticed as we all rush by on our way about our daily business. If it weren’t for those men’s supreme sacrifice, the language that we speak and the daily chores that we take for granted could be altogether different.
Through the efforts of our committees’ campaigns to “follow the parade to the ceremony,” the number of townspeople in attendance in the past years have been incredibly improved. Last year’s crowded lawn at the park for the solemn ceremony told us that our requests were being heard. Our research of past Memorial Day ceremonies tells us that in 1945, during World War II when our town buried 57 sons of Cranford over a four-year period, the crowds numbered over five thousand. Every street surrounding the park was covered with townspeople there to pay their respects.
The recent upswing in attendance, we are thinking, partly may be in response to the new awareness that our Cranford 86 profiles have created of the faces and life stories of our hometown heroes. Last year for the first time, in addition to our usual respectful program, we told the stories of the first twelve heroes who have been featured in The Cranford Monthly. After the ceremony, we made available the spiral bound booklet that contained those articles and pictures. We are happy to say that they disappeared quickly. Our goal of letting the townspeople know the men behind the engraved names on the monuments is slowly being accomplished. This year we plan to continue with the dedication of banners bearing the images of nine more Cranford Hometown Heroes as well as volume 2 of our ongoing book series.
We hope you will consider making plans for your family to attend this event which makes Cranford so special. If it will be your first time, I assure you that you will leave with a good feeling as you walk home. If you are one of our regular attendees, we ask that this year you invite a couple of families from your neighborhood to join you. My wife Joanne has lived in our neighborhood for her entire life, except for a few years after college. As a kid, her family never missed the Memorial Day festivities, and always watched the parade as a neighborhood unit on the corner of South and Walnut Avenues. This year you will still find her at that same corner surrounded by our new neighbors as well as many of the old neighbors who return to Cranford just to relive those special moments of years gone by.
The parade commences from The Cranford Community Center at 220 Walnut Avenue at 9:00 am and travels through town ending at Memorial Park at 335 Springfield Avenue. The ceremony starts immediately afterward and lasts about an hour. It’s a beautiful morning.
Every year a couple new people join every neighborhood. New residents need to know what they have become a part of by coming to Cranford. They probably don’t know about the little Norman Rockwell scene that happens every year downtown on Memorial Day. Why not start your own neighborhood tradition and get them all out to the parade? Then “follow the parade to the ceremony.”
We’ll see you there.
(above) Cranford Knights of Columbus’ yearly float honoring Father Charles Waters who was awarded The Medal of Honor posthumously for heroic conduct in The Vietnam War on November 19th, 1967.
