Amador County – The Amador County American Legion Post 108 is planning a Veterans Day Parade for 10 a.m. Thursday, November 11th in downtown Jackson, with groups welcome to come early to sign up and participate.
Grand marshal of the parade Tony Mathos said organizers have about 20 groups signed up so far for the parade, set on Veterans Day and dedicated to showing respect for those that served in the U.S. military.
Mathos is the current president of the American Legion Employees Association, and is a member of Sons of the American Legion and is also past president of the American Legion Riders. He said all three of those groups are among those who will participate.
The groups include American Legionnaires, the Legion Auxiliary, and potentially every fire brigade in the county. Civic groups committed to the parade this year include the Boy Scouts of America and the Cub Scouts. The parade will also include American Legion Ambulances and personnel, who operate from four locations in both Amador and Calaveras counties.
Mathos said a car club from Calaveras County will bring its antique Jeeps from the World War II era, and there will also be floats, including one with Legion members.
He said the parade will be without a marching band this year, as the Argonaut and Amador high school combined band is not active this year.
Mathos said any group can come and sign up to march in the parade. They must arrive by 8:30 a.m. Thursday (November 11th) and sign a waiver to participate. Those already signed up will start staging at 9 a.m. on Main Street at California Street, just off Highway 49 in front of the TSPN TV studios, and Hein & Company Bookstore, at 206 North Main Street in Jackson.
The American Legion Color Guard of six to eight members will lead the parade, which starts at 10 a.m. and marches down Main Street, and will turn at Water Street and end at Bank of America.
Veterans Day got its start on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, with a “temporary cessation of hostilities” in World War I, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website. Seven months later, the Treaty of Versailles ended the war.
In 1926, Congress proclaimed it a holiday, and in 1938, a law was passed to make it a legal holiday, “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day.”
After WWII and the Korean War, the law was revised to call the holiday Veterans Day.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
