What a difference a year makes.
When the 172nd annual Greenport Fire Department Washington’s Birthday Parade steps off at 1 o’clock this afternoon, skies will be mostly sunny and the temperature will be about 50 degrees. That’s a far cry from the frosty 21 degrees — accompanied by 21 mph winds — that descended on the little seaport village on the North Fork on parade day last year.
But the weather never stops fire departments and pipe bands from across Long Island from marching in the February parade, a tradition begun even before our nation’s first president had a national holiday established in his honor (in 1879). The parade dates back to 1845 — the year after the Greenport Fire Department purchased its first engine.
There aren’t many communities in the U.S. that celebrate our first president’s birthday with a parade. There’s not much in the way of historical documentation of how Greenport’s unusual tradition got started. Maybe it’s because the father of our country, then an army colonel, stayed here in 1757 on a trip to Boston.
For more than a century, Greenport’s parade took place on February 22 — no matter what day of the week that fell on. Now it’s held on the Saturday before President’s Day — no matter what the forecast.
The parade route takes marchers in a loop through the village, down Front Street, across Main to South Street and winding up at the Third Street fire department headquarters.
Everyone is invited back to headquarters to warm up with clam chowder and hot dogs. Each year volunteer firefighters and members of the auxiliary cook up about 100 gallons of clam chowder and 1,000 hot dogs for the free after-parade meal.
