Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ancients and Horribles on the Fourth of July

Since at least as early as the 1930s, Independence Day parades were traditionally held at The Ladd School.

Little evidence of the earliest of these events exists, however; or at least few examples haves been found, to date. But what rare specimens have survived history, whether by way of the written word or the odd, antiquated Polaroid, seem to suggest that such parades were held in the custom of the "Ancients and Horribles."

In fact, it should be considered hardly a coincidence that the first Ancients and Horribles parade on record in Rhode Island - according to Wikipedia - was held in 1926, in Glocester, while the earliest known photograph of such a parade at the Exeter School can be dated to 1930.

In those early days, on July 4th, costumed Ladd School residents could be observed marching down the institution's rural streets dressed in Indian attire and macabre masks reminiscent of Halloween, led by nurses, horse drawn wagons and the occasional Ford Model A.

Having become fondly anticipated throughout the years, by the 1950s the celebration had grown significantly more elaborate. The revelries spanned two days, incorporating events such as band concerts, a bonfire, field day games, and drum and bugle corps demonstrations. Town residents were as well invited to attend the parade on July 4th, while each year the ever more complex floats - by then drawn by farm tractors and other modern conveyances - were decorated to conform with an annual theme. To commemorate the Ladd School's founding, in 1958 the theme was "The Past 50 Years," for which the floats were designed to depict scenes from the institution's past, and residents were dressed in jumpsuits and aprons; traditional state institution uniforms.

Though no official record exists with which to compare it, the Ladd School's Independence Day celebration may well have reached its pinnacle in 1973. Set atop flat bed trucks on loan from the National Guard, and decorated with paper mache flowers, balloons and banners, a total of 46 floats were displayed, half of which were made by residents of the institution, who rode upon them in elaborate costumes as astronauts, clowns and other characters fashioned to represent various themes.

Community groups from all over Kent and Washington Counties joined the festivities, too, from Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, to Shiners, local fire departments and military troops, who, together, marched and rode from one end of the campus to the other. All told, the parade covered a mile and a half in the span of an hour. And when the precession ended, a customary rifle demonstration by the Quonset Seabees kicked off a night of square dancing and, of course, fireworks.

That year, an estimated 2,500 people from across Rhode Island came out to see the parade; more than any year before. Now, more than a generation since the last Independence Day parade at the Ladd School came to a close, the abandoned, overgrown lots and what few derelict buildings remain along Main Street in Exeter bear nary a whisper of those celebrations long ago. And while there are surely those among us who will still remember the sights and sounds of the old days, the rest of us should be forgiven for feeling as though a part of history has passed us by.

Fortunately, however, we need not rely on our imagination alone to live, or re-live, what may very well have been the grandest of public spectacles in the history of this historic institution: For the first time in over 40 years, a collection of films has surfaced, of the 1971 and 1972 Fourth of July parades at the Ladd School in Exeter, Rhode Island.