Mount Prospect neighborhood parade may be short, but has a long history
The Wa Pella Street Parade in Mount Prospect isn’t exactly a high-profile July 4th event.
You won’t find high school bands marching or politicians tossing candy. Just a bunch of kids pedaling their bicycles and parents walking the route or pulling their offspring in wagons.
It only lasts a few blocks, on Wa Pella between Lincoln Street and Central Avenue, but it has shown remarkable staying power — neighbors and former neighbors have kept its tradition alive for 75 years.
Residents brought out their lawn chairs last Thursday to watch as the parade went past on a stretch of street that was closed off, much as you would for a neighborhood block party. A Mount Prospect fire truck visited, sounding its horn, and the police department’s officer friendly, Greg Sill, handed out stickers to the kids.
Wa Pella resident Karen Brask is one of the keepers of the flame. She grew up on the street and still lives in the home where she was raised — she and husband Paul bought it from her mother in 1987.
“My parents bought the house in 1960. I was born in ‘61,” she said. “My first Wa Pella Street Parade was 1962. I was 11 months old.”
She has the proof — a black-and-white photo of her in a stroller at the 1962 parade.
Over the years, the volume of participants has ebbed and flowed, as children grew older and the population aged, only to be replenished by an influx of new families.
A 1952 article in the Mount Prospect Herald mentions “small floats, large floats, girls’ tricycles, boys’ tricycles, girls’ bikes, boys’ bikes, doll buggies and baby buggies.”
Wa Pella resident Julie Johnson said the parade hasn’t changed much over the years.
“We have tried to keep it pretty traditional,” she said.
This year’s parade drew several former residents, including Judy O’Mara of Arlington Heights, who lived on the block from 1970 until 2015. The parade draws people from outside the area as well.
“Neighbors come from other streets,” Wa Pella resident Lisa Snead said. “Somebody texted me this morning, ‘What time does it start?’”