As always. almost anything goes in Johnson on the Fourth of July (w/video)
More than 1,000 turn out for annual Independence Day Parade
Johnson's rural fire chief, Lester Erwin, says only 175 people live in the tiny town located just south of Pullman.
Come Fourth of July, however, the town balloons as people from all over the Palouse flock to Johnson for its annual Independence Day Parade. More than 1,000 turned out this year to celebrate the nation's 238th birthday and to watch the townspeople, political candidates, schools, different organizations, local businesses and families parade down Johnson Road.
"There's no organization. The people who set this up just wait for people to show up and put them in the parade," Erwin said.
The majority of the parade on Friday featured home-made floats to represent different parts of the community.
The parade's roots sprouted in 1967 when the children from the Druffel family decided to play parade in the street. What started out as children on tricycles, bikes and in funny costumes has grown in the past 40 years and is now a great tradition loved by people from all over the Palouse, Erwin said.
"On Fourth of July the kids used to hang around and pester Mom and Dad, so Mom and Dad said, 'go down on Main Street and have a parade,' and it just grew from there," Erwin said.
Erwin said there are no rules or restrictions on the parade, other than floats stay family friendly. Erwin said as the parade evolved and word got around, bigger and bigger crowds started to show up.
"People started showing up year after year. Now a 1,000 people show up," he said.
One of the more creative floats was, not surprisingly, driven by the Druffel family. Their float looked like a circus tent complete with acrobats, clowns and an elephant.
Before the parade the local firemen held a breakfast 7:30-9:30 a.m. The proceeds will be used for a variety of charities.
"It goes back into the fire department. We use it to help out families at Christmas time, (and) we donate it to welfare. We give to fallen firefighter funds, (and) it goes back into the community," Erwin said.
Erwin said after the Johnson parade many of the floats drive down to Albion to be a part of its parade, which started at noon.
Danielle Wiley can be reached at intern1@dnews.com
