John Eaton is proud to be a Marine.
He’s also proud to help people remember Marines and members of the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force who have passed away. He’s glad to help everyone remember Memorial Day.
As chairman of Scotia’s annual Memorial Day Parade, Eaton helps assemble the march that will begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The parade will form near North and South Holmes Streets and Mohawk Avenue in the village and proceed east on Mohawk to Collins Park, where memorial services will be held. Eaton, who lives in Scotia and is a Marine himself, offers facts and opinions about the parade.
Q: How long have you been involved with the parade?
A: I’ve been on the committee for about 24 years and I’ve been chairman for the last three or four.
Q: How long has the parade been going on?
A: This will be the 86th. It’s been canceled three times, as far as we can tell. Last year was the first time it had to be canceled due to weather in 37 years. We had to cancel early because of the severe thunderstorms that rolled through. All the weather models, including the National Air Guard’s and the National Weather Service’s, all said we were going to have severe storms right around the kick-off of the parade.
Unfortunately, we could not re-schedule. Because we’re the first parade, many of the groups we have in the parade, the bands and such, do other parades in Rotterdam, Troy, Cohoes has one. Some of the groups we have, like the Schenectady Pipe Band, they play in a lot of those different parades.
Q: Who is in the lineup this year?
A: We have nine or 10 musical units, the city of Albany pipe band, the city of Schenectady pipes, the Scotia-Glenville pipes. We also have the Galway Central School Band, the Schalmont Central School Band, the Capital District Marching Band and the Scotia-Glenville High School Band. This year the grand marshal is Commander Vincent J. Perry of the Navy Operational Support Center in Glenville. The parade starts forming at 5:30 – 1730 hours if you’re military time — and it steps off at 6:10. The parade is about an hour and a half long, there are five divisions.
Q: After 80-plus years, why do you think people still come to the Scotia parade?
A: Some people come out to see their kids in the parade, some people come to see the bands, some people come to remember a veteran they may have known or they had a veteran in their family. Some people come to see the fire trucks. Everybody comes for a different reason. We have some people who marched in the parade years ago as kids, they’re calling and want to be in the parade because they’re now adults and they have either a business or an interest.
The reason for the parade is to get people there — it’s a military-type parade, we have military units in the parade, from the Air Guard and the Navy, we’ve had Marines in the parade, we’ve had Army reserves and regular Army people in the parade. We have a lot of veterans who are in the parade, but the parade is set up to bring people into the village and down to the park, where we have a memorial service to honor those vets who paid the price so we can have freedom of the press, freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
Q: Why did you get involved in the first place?
A: It happens around the time of year, the end of May, Memorial Day, that’s when my brother died, Frederick G. Eaton, from Cobleskill. He was the fifth one of us in my family to be in the Marine Corps and he died in a civilian place crash in Chicago in 1979. Every year at Memorial Day is the day I remember him. And there were a lot of World War II vets in our Rotary Club, they went through hell on earth so we could be free, so guys like me could go about our lives.
Q: What are the best ways for people to remember veterans who have passed, and veterans who are still with us?
A: When you get up in the morning and you realize you’re above ground and nobody’s shooting at you, whether it’s raining or sunny, snowing, the wind is blowing or it’s hot or cold, there’s a veteran somewhere on the face of the earth that’s representing our country and helping to keep you safe. Just say thanks when you see a veteran — and when you see a veteran in uniform, buy him dinner.
Categories: Life and Arts
