OLD LYME—5/27: UPDATED with additional photos. Some marched, some danced and some rode as the Memorial Day Parade wound its way down Lyme Street Monday morning.
The community trek took marchers and parade-goers alike to Old Lyme’s Duck River Cemetery for a solemn ceremony in remembrance of the nation’s fallen service members. A plaintive rifle salute and two trumpets sounding Taps replaced truck horns, sirens and marching bands.
Lyme First Selectman David Lahm, a retired U.S. Army colonel and member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1467, acknowledged the uneasy peace between festivity and solemnity when he asked the crowd to consider the words of one soldier to his parents regarding the holiday.
“Let people have their barbecues and fun,'” he recounted the man saying. “‘That’s why we fight.”
The soldier later died in Afghanistan, according to Lahm.
“Please join us in keeping the memories of our fallen servicemen and women, and Gold Star family members, alive,” Lahm said. “They are not forgotten.”
The Day in Pictures
A smiling Lahm (second in line behind the flag-bearer) marched with members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post (VFW) 1467 to lead off the parade under a sunny sky with just enough cloud cover to keep temperatures comfortable.
Old Lyme Board of Selectmen members Jude Read (left) and Jim Lampos (second from left) march with First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker and State Rep. Devin Carney, R-Old Lyme.
The US Army half-track vehicle belonging to Bruce Noyes (driving) remains a parade mainstay and a fitting escort for veterans and service members. His wife Tammy stands atop the vehicle to the right.
The sound of the Lyme-Old Lyme High School Band is one of the first indications that the parade is on its way.
Lymes’ Youth Service Bureau gives everyone a place to shine amid red, white and blue-festooned bikes, scooters, wagons and strollers.
The Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School band keeps the music playing.
Boy Scouts are well represented in the parade and at the ceremony.
Young lacrosse players briefly trade in their Ticks sticks for a banner.
The Old Lyme Visiting Nurse Association carries on their community commitment with a spot in the parade.
The Old Lyme Land Trust blends into the Lyme Street greenery.
Dan Stevens (right) leads the Nightingale’s Precision Marching Ukulele Band, which lends an air of homespun harmony to the event.
The Old Lyme Historical Society has front row seats …
… for the show-stopping Techno-Tick representing the robotics team from Lyme-Old Lyme and East Lyme High Schools.
It’s a banner year for the Lyme-Old Lyme Lions Club.
The Lymes’ Senior Center dancers consider themselves “aged to perfection” starting at 55 years old.
The modern day reincarnation of Phoebe Griffin Noyes, otherwise known as Mary Dangremond, travels in style as part of the Old Lyme-PGN Library contingent.
Antique cars bring smiles for passengers and paradegoers alike.
The Carousel Shop on Hartford Avenue in the Sound View Beach area looks forward to the 100th birthday of its namesake amusement ride this year.
The New London Firefighters Pipes & Drums Corps show some leg on Lyme Street.
The Old Lyme Fire Department arrays itself behind the flags and fire axes.
Fire Department officers march with bouquets from Old Lyme Landscape in their ceremonial trumpets.
Volunteerism in Lyme and Old Lyme spans generations.
Gators like this one from the Lyme Fire Department have been put through the paces in numerous brush fires across the region and state over the past year.
Lyme Fire Department turns out as polished and shiny as ever.
Members of VFW Post 1467 lead the ceremony in honor of Memorial Day.
David Griswold, at left, and a fellow Veteran lay a wreath at the Duck River Cemetery war memorial.
VFW member and former Old Lyme First Selectman Tim Griswold rings a bell for each military veteran from Lyme and Old Lyme, who died in the past year.
The flag is duly raised from half staff at the conclusion of the solemn ceremony.
Elizabeth, thank you for your efforts to capture the essence of this signature event for the Lyme/Old Lyme community. It is a day that unites us in commemoration and brings out the best in all of us.
Th warms my heart. Nice to know some things never change (or at least only slightly)