They wore stars and stripes, military uniforms and face masks. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Memorial Day parade in Florence was a quiet affair, featuring a convoy of cars driving along the normal route through the center of town, as well as some scattered spectators.
It was quite a different scene than the one in 2018, which marked the 150th Memorial Day parade in Florence and boasted a longer parade route, nearly 1,500 marchers and a fighter jet flyover.
This year, no one spoke at the event, which started at 8 a.m., though there was a prerecorded celebration. Those in attendance Monday morning — including the mayor, who laid a wreath at the veterans memorial in Park Street Cemetery — recited the Pledge of Allegiance and listened to taps on the lawn.
“It was definitely bittersweet not to have the community gathering to commemorate Memorial Day, which has been a long tradition in Florence every year, with people lining the streets,” said Mayor David Narkewicz. “But at its core element, I think veterans in Northampton just wanted to make sure we did some sort of ceremony to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice … to make sure that some kind of commemoration hap pened to carry on that tradition.”