SAXTONS RIVER — The population of the tiny village of Saxtons River tripled or quadrupled Thursday, as hundreds (if not a couple of thousand) people crowded onto Main Street to celebrate Independence Day and small town life. It was an all-American celebration, and the winner of the pie-baking contest made — you guessed it — an apple pie. The homespun parade, the centerpiece of the day, featured wannabe ballroom dancers from Main Street Arts dancing a waltz in front of the Saxtons River Inn on Main Street with their own bubble machine.
The Friends of the Rockingham Free Public Library, a squad of librarians, armed with their metal book carts, put on a puckish drill demonstration. There was also a kazoo band celebrating a departed village resident. There was a large contingent of children and adults on decorated bicycles, thanks to the Bellows Falls Community Bike Project.
And another form of transportation, electric vehicles, also lined up for the parade, and there were antique cars and trucks as well. The Friends of the Library, pushing metal book carts, made up for their lack of precision with their enthusiasm. And the small kazoo band, assembled in memory of longtime resident and employee at the Village Market, Pearl Bonnet, kept the quirky tunes coming.
As usual, the biggest part of the parade was also the loudest — a cavalcade of more than a dozen fire trucks from Saxtons River, Rockingham, Bellows Falls, Westminster, Grafton, North Walpole and Newbrook. Grafton V.
