Activities planned in Allentown, Upper Freehold, Millstone and Plumsted.
By: Scott Morgan
Yankee pride gets a three-day weekend, and area towns get their chance to celebrate Memorial Day with parades this Monday.
Picking up where they left off last year and in some cases expanding local parade committees plan to pull out some genuinely big tricks and old-fashioned good times.
Allentown-Upper Freehold
Rain or shine, the Allentown/Upper Freehold parade is scheduled to kick off at 10 a.m. Monday. Beginning on North Main Street (Route 524) at Allen Drive, the parade will commence south on Main Street, then left onto High Street and ending at Upper Freehold Regional Elementary School.
Fifty-five participants, from the Allentown Lions Club (which is coordinating the parade) to Valley Forge Fife and Drum, are slated to march.
After the parade, a memorial service is planned in front of the elementary school.
Millstone
The township will hold its second annual Memorial Day parade beginning at 10 a.m. Monday.
Beginning at the Clarksburg Post Office on Route 524/Stage Coach Road, the parade will continue along Stage Coach Road to the Veterans Memorial Monument at the Clarksburg School.
Public parking will be available along Bowman’s Court.
According to parade coordinator Richard Brody, this year’s version of the parade will be "a little bit different" than last year’s. This year, free U.S. and POW-MIA flags and bottled water will be distributed compliments of Veterans of the Vietnam War Inc., Millstone-Jackson Post 3.
Marching this year will be area equestrian club riders, Army National Guard soldiers, veterans, Scouting troops and local community organizations.
But those are familiar things. This year’s parade also will feature a helicopter fly-over salute. The chopper is on loan from the National Guard, Mr. Brody said.
A memorial service, following the parade, is scheduled to take place at the monument. National Guard Col. Leonard Luzky is slated to give the keynote address. Also at the service will be a special ceremony honoring U.S. troops recently killed in the war against terrorism and a special "We Support Our Troops" banner to be signed by township residents and sent to American forces in Iraq.
A free barbecue at the Clarksburg Inn, across from the monument, follows the ceremony.
Plumsted
Sixty-two participants, from horse-and-buggy teams to the Hibernians Pipe Band will march in New Egypt’s Memorial Day parade.
The festivities kick off at noon when the first floats take off down Bright Road, then turn onto North Main, then onto Jacobstown Road and to Meadowbrook Lane at the American Legion Post 455.
Memorial services immediately follow the parade and will be conducted at the American Legion, said Committeewoman Bonnie Quesnel, the township’s parade coordinator.
If you wish to enter the parade, please call Ms. Quesnel by this weekend at 758-7314.

