Steven Henshaw: Return of Mohnton Memorial Day parade a welcome sight for residents
May 30—Julia and Errol Kaya and their extended family were looking forward in October to taking in Mohnton's Halloween parade from the porch of the stone home they are restoring along East Wyomissing Avenue in the borough.
But the parade was canceled due to inclement weather.
"They didn't reschedule it," Julia said, "I was so bummed because our agent said there are parades all the time down the street, so we were looking forward to it."
The Kayas bought their home, the oldest portion of which dates well into the 19th century and was once a hat shop, in August 2020, during the height of the pandemic.
No parades have passed by their house since they've lived there — until Monday morning's Memorial Day Parade.
In a sign of a return to normalcy, Memorial Day parades and services took place throughout the region over the weekend. The Mohnton Area Memorial Day parade was among many that endured a two-year hiatus.
Though a relatively short procession, it was laden with tradition and patriotism. Starting at VFW Post 9045 on West Wyomissing Avenue, the parade followed a serpentine route to Mohnsville Cemetery, where a memorial service was held
Cub Scouts from Pack 241, Knauers, carried a huge American flag to lead the parade under the arch formed by extended ladders from West Reading and Adamstown fire company tower trucks at Wyomissing Avenue and Church Street.
There Sandra Reitz, 80, of Mohnton, watched this year's edition of an event she co-organized six decades ago. With her was her granddaughter Erin Keller, 35, and great-grandchildren Everett, 8, and Finnigan, 6.
Keller, who along with her children wore red, white and blue from head to toe, said it's an important tradition to bring the community together, but she said it was a little disappointing to see a sparse showing of spectators along the main drag.
They weren't the only multi-generational group of spectators.
From her parents' porch that sits well above the 200 block of East Wyomissing, Jen Woods of Sinking Spring, her daughter Sarah, 14, and her son Jack, 18, had premium seating. All gathered with Jen's parents, David and Lindsay Mogel.
From the shade case by the De Met's candy factory at East Wyomissing Avenue and Main Street, Mohnton resident Ray Slichter, 91, a Navy veteran, watched the parade with friends Jerry and Louise Sanders, both 83, of Wyomissing. Jerry grew up in a nearby home.
Slichter wore a baseball cap bearing the name of the ship he served on shortly after World War II and then during the Korean War. USS Ellyson, a destroyer converted to a mine sweeper. Slichter called it a "tin can."
The parade featured three bands: the marching unit of the Reading Buccaneers Drum & Bugle Corps, Pretzel City Dixie Land Jazz Band and Happy Dutchmen. The latter two performed aboard floats.
As the Mohnton VFW Auxiliary float passed by, volunteers tossed candy to children.
Mohnton Fire Company's fleet of trucks joined the procession along with a truck from Brecknock Township.
One of the floats from Patriotic Order Sons of America Mohnton Camp 211 had several vehicles in the parade.
State Rep. Mark Gillen handed out small American flags to spectators. Gillen, who founded the Berks County Military History Museum in Mohnton, pointed out that two World War II veterans, Matthias Gutman and Loucin Fici, rode the parade route.
Also aboard one of the floats was one of the women who worked in a factory that supplied weapons for that war. Berks County resident Dorothy Trate, who turns 100 in July, wasn't just dressed up as Rosie the Riveter; she's the genuine article.
Trate worked as a punch press operator at the Doehler-Jarvis die-casting plant in Pottstown, which was then in the building behind the current Pottstown Library. Now Pottstown Precision Casting in Stowe, the factory produced nearly 10,000 parts for the war effort.
Trate said she feels honored to be invited to participate in events such as the parade as a representative of her cohorts who did their part to help win the war.
