Few things in the American experience are held so dear by so many as the parade. From the smallest rural towns to the heart of New York City, Americans have long held celebrations by parade.

Reasons for parades are as varied as the communities in which they take place. Perhaps the most widely celebrated type of parade is the Independence Day or July 4 parade. New York has its St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Left Coast has its parades of bacchanalia and pride. America’s heartland gathers for high school homecomings, Memorial Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving and special-themed parades such as the old Circus World parade in Milwaukee.

High school and college marching bands are a frequent source of parade entertainment. Other favorite parade participants include brigades of toddlers on tricycles, doll buggies pushed by little girls and the myriad parade floats and displays honoring the nation’s military.

Parades have long been used as a way to project military might, such as the goose-stepping Nazis of Germany or the show of ballistic missiles in Communist Russia. In America, ticker-tape parades became a favorite way to welcome home troops and war heroes such as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Admiral Chester Nimitz. The original ticker-tape parade was held in New York to celebrate dedication of the Statue of Liberty. A memorable parade in summer 1969 honored the Apollo 11 astronauts.

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©2014 The Hanneman Archive

David D. Hanneman prepares to ride a horse in a Mauston parade, circa 1942.

David D. Hanneman (at right) and other boy scouts before a parade in Mauston in the early 1940s.

Mauston Boy Scouts enter the parade line, circa 1943. The town’s military honor roll can be seen on the side of the building.

A marching band in downtown Mauston in the late 1960s.

A fire truck heads down the parade route in Mauston in the late 1960s.

Residents of Mauston, Wis., mill about the downtown area during a parade or community festival in the mid-1940s. Smith’s IGA market is visible across the street.

David D. Hanneman (1933-2007), a member of the Mauston High School Marching Band, poses outside his Mauston home in 1948. Hanneman, who later in life became mayor of Sun Prairie, Wis., played bass drum and trumpet.

The Mauston High School Marching Band performs in a parade in downtown Portage, Wis., ca. 1948. In the foreground is bass drummer David D. Hanneman (1933-2007) of Mauston.

Sun Prairie Mayor David D. Hanneman waits to enter the parade route in Sun Prairie, circa 2003.

Sun Prairie Mayor David D. Hanneman rides in a local parade, circa 2004.

David D. Hanneman in what appears to be a drum and bugle corps uniform, circa 1948.

The Mauston High School Band after leaving the football field during a homecoming game in the 1940s.