La Verne is a small town in the megalopolis that is greater Los Angeles. It sits almost at the edge of LA County, nestled between Claremont and Pomona, some 24 miles east of Pasadena.
Until the pandemic, La Verne had been staging its own Fourth of July Parade and in 2021, they brought it back (but on July 3 because La Verne never marches on a Sunday…)
It was definitely a community event with nearly every youth sports team, a huge motorcycle contingent, a jeep club, veterans groups, police and firefighters, the city council, the mayor and an honorary “Outstanding American,” who was actually the Volunteer of the Year in 2020 when there had been no parade.
It is definitely a small town vibe, with residents, friends and relatives lining the streets to cheer the marchers on and to holler “Happy Fourth!”
And at the end, the Parade route was cleaned by the streetsweeper (even though there had been no equestrians this year) and by a tired and hard working water boy.
