GLOCESTER – The 99th annual Ancients and Horribles parade is ready to roll down Main Street in Chepachet on Friday, July 4, beginning at 4 p.m., with new and returning participants to include three generations of one family working together to preserve historic music and to share the tradition.
Charlie Wilson of the Town Trader on Main Street is this year’s grand marshal, and with history also in mind he will arrive in a carriage rather than a classic automobile, said Cassidy Greathouse of the Glocester Parade Committee.
Outrageous, over-the-top amateur floats and other “ancient and horrible” tongue-in-cheek exhibits are always expected. Greathouse, who grew up in Glocester, recalls “the craziest” sight he ever saw at the parade was a local gym teacher dressed in a pink tutu “with inflated balloons inside his shirt.”
More likely to be clad in sharp uniforms than in pink fluff in the parade will be Ponaganset High School musicians, Scouts, and the RI Military Vehicle Collectors Club, driving veterans. What’s more, small businesses and other local, town, state, and Congressional politicians are expected to participate in the parade, as well as groups with political points of view, in keeping with the Glocester tradition.
Fourth of July partying aside, a purpose of the parade is “to try to keep our history, the founding fathers of the country, alive,” said Greathouse. “It’s good to remember why we are a free country. People fought for our freedom 250 years ago.”
In 2025, the nation is honoring the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution: April 19, 1775 at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
At Ancients and Horribles, known for floats from the fun to the outrageous, and where patriots are honored, including veterans from recent wars and from World War II, Korean, and Vietnam Wars, historic traditions are brought to life. Returning to the parade is the Bristol County Fifes & Drums.
Perhaps with a tinge of the persevering patience of patriots of old, the musicians will perform on July 4, whether Chepachet is windy and rainy, or hot and humid. The group of 30 or so fifers and drummers clad in red, or black and white Colonial-style garb will play a repertoire of 12 sets, entertaining parade-goers with performances of Yankee Doodle, the Battle Hymn, and other tunes.
“I love when the old vets sing along to the Battle Hymn” said BCFD’s Kara Evans, who plays the fife and is from East Providence. “It’s really sweet to see a guy in a Vietnam hat with his hand on his heart.”
“Share the tradition,” is the motto of BCFD according to Evans. On their website the BCFD states they’re “dedicated to the preservation of historic music,” and strive “to educate through performance and parades.” Keeping alive “folk traditions of fife and drum music,” the BCFD offers parade-goers an entertaining window into the spirit of America, playing Colonial era music that would have been familiar to founding fathers from Rhode Island including General Nathaniel Greene, Admiral Esek Hopkins and General James Varnum.
Evans grew up with music, was taught piano by her mother and played the flute in middle school, when she made an easy transition from flute to fife. The hardest part of learning to play the transverse instrument is to blow across and not into the fife, she said, likening the process to “blowing across not into a bottle to create sound.”
Kara’s mother, Jenay Evans from Seekonk, is originally from Albany, N.Y., where she played fife as a youngster as a part of the family tradition. She later played flute and was in an orchestra that performed at community theater and elsewhere.
Years later, Jenay Evans again took up the fife. She had taught music to her children, taught art at a school, and in 2000, living in New England, at the urging of a friend Sharon Clarke, got involved in fife and drum. Largely through the efforts of the two women, in six months a musical group of fifers and drummers, some trained by the ladies, came together, and, clad in Colonial attire, performed as the Yankee Volunteers the song Yankee Doodle at Daggett House in Slater Park in Pawtucket.
Later, Evans saw an ad for Gaspee Days Parade, and she said to her musical group of adults and children “Let’s do this.” She managed to get the BCFD into the parade at the last minute.
Her son, too, started early in music. At age ten the youngster went from a toy drum to a professional Colonial-type drum as a reward for learning music, she said.
The BCFD has gone far since its beginning in 2000. Last year, they brought their fifes and drums to Ireland for a performance. They’ve performed at Jamestown, Va. for its 400th anniversary, and they have played at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. At that mountain where the faces of four presidents are carved, the stirring patriotic music played in the stone amphitheater brought the crowd of 1,000 to their feet with their hands over their hearts.
“Very memorable,” BCFD founder Evans said.
BCFD brings their music and its history to various locales as part of their mission as a 501-C3 non-profit organization. The BCFD “is always invited back,” Evans said.
As another part of their mission, each year they offer music lessons to everyone, beginner or experienced.
The historic tradition will continue this year as several family members take part, including Jenay’s granddaughter Addy, age 12, who will perform at Ancient & Horribles, as will the musical family’s youngest member, the grandson.
“We like to get together to make music,” said Kara. “We have a lot of fun. We see and go to a lot of places I wouldn’t have gotten to see, but do, because of this group on tour.”
It’s likely the Bristol County Fifes & Drums will stir the spirits of yet more people at the forthcoming parade.
Thanks to months of work by a dedicated group of volunteers, the musicians and others will once again offer a tribute to American independence this Friday. Glocester police and firefighters do their part in keeping everything running smoothly.
Participants can register in person at Town Hall through Tuesday, July 1, online through Wednesday, July 2 or even by showing up to the Town Hall lawn on the day of the event from 10 a.m. to noon. More information for those hoping to take part can be found here.
