July 21, 2008
www.northfulton.com
Alpharetta will remember 150 years of hometown heroes at the 56th Annual Old Soldiers Day Parade Saturday, Aug. 2.
The annual event put on by the American Legion Post 201 will honor the city's 2008 sesquincentennial anniversary and will recognize all Alpharetta veterans of all wars. "Alpharetta Remembers 150 Years of Hometown Heroes" is this year's theme.
Festivities begin at City Hall at 8:45 a.m. with a performance by the Alpharetta City Band, followed by a program at 9:30 a.m. with introduction of guests. Then, the patriotic summer parade will begin Main Street at 10:15 a.m.
The parade route will begin at City Hall, then turn west on Old Milton Parkway and end at the American Legion Post 201 at Wills Road.
Alpharetta's 143-year-old event is expected to have approximately 185 units in the parade line-up consisting of marching military units, the Shriners, floats, bands, wagons and horses, classic cars, clowns, prizes, and of course, candy. The celebration will continue at the American Legion Post 201 with entertainment and children's activities. The Varsity will serve free hot dogs and Coca-Cola will provide free soft drinks.
The Old Soldiers Day Parade first began in 1865 after the guns were silenced in the War Between the States. The Confederate Soldiers living in and around Milton County, now part of Fulton County, established a time each year to relive a fellowship born of war. Many of them were still living in Alpharetta when the young soldiers of World War I returned to their homes in Milton County. Best evidence would indicate that sometime during 1920 the elderly Confederate Soldiers invited the "young-uns," the new veterans of World War I, to assemble to the rear and parade with them down Main Street of Alpharetta. They marched together for only a few years until most were gone and the event faded.
Twenty-eight years later, in 1952, a small group of men in Alpharetta from American Legion Post 201 re-dedicated the Old Soldiers Day Parade and began having a parade again in downtown Alpharetta. This would be a tribute and a living memorial to All Veterans of All Wars.
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