Penngrove goes all out for 'Biggest Little Parade in Northern California'

The rural town of Penngrove swelled with hundreds of visitors Sunday as several thousand hometown fans and outside spectators gathered for the community’s 39th annual Independence Day parade down Main Street.

But however many more people join the fun each year, what started as an homage to Penngrove’s farming traditions remains a charming, intimate event that’s all about grassroots participation and small-town America.

A parade with so many kids on bikes and in wagons is hardly trying to put on airs.

Staged each year by the Penngrove Social Firemen service organization, what’s dubbed The Biggest Little Parade in Northern California is part of a daylong holiday event that includes an afternoon of games, music and picnicking in Penngrove Park.

“It’s just fun,” said Larry Tausch of Penngrove, “and you see a lot of your neighbors and, more than that, the kids just love it.”

His 3-year-old grandson, Santiago Tausch, who rode in a battery-operated Jeep with a friend, was among several family members who participated in the parade - organized almost on a whim by Tausch’s wife, Joyce, who persuaded several grandchildren to take part with her four mini-horses.

Santiago Tausch added his own special touch: bunnies Star and Twinkle, who rode in the back of the Jeep in their cage.

“It’s just the idea of small town,” said part-time Penngrove resident Stan Brayton, who attended with several generations of his family, including a 9-year-old grandson.

“How often,” asked his wife, Mabry, “do you get to see your dentist in a parade?”

Local business owners use the event to promote their services and support the town - the Twin Oaks Tavern sponsored a tractor-trailer float with live music and line dancers. Family ranches were well represented as well.

There were VIPs like Congressman Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and veterans service groups. One cadre of 11 people paraded an impressively large American flag down the street, each grasping handles that lined its four edges.

Entrants also included a menagerie of animals - chickens, goats, dogs and numerous horses among them.

Young spectators seemed especially smitten this year with an old, authentic Army tank that was among the refurbished military vehicles like Jeeps, transport trucks and half-tracks brought to the parade by members of the North Bay Military Vehicles Collectors Club.

Adam Lemos, 50, of Petaluma, riding astride a bicycle, towed an inventive float he’d fashioned from a bike trailer, a mini-Jeep and a scaled-down, remarkably realistic-looking tank “driven” by his dappled dachshund, Sally. A friend’s dog was at the wheel of the Jeep.

The Nave Patrola, a comic troupe masquerading as wayward World War I Italian infantrymen, made a splash as well, with co-founder Bob Nave, 88, of San Rafael in a wheelchair, issuing orders that had his soldiers barking like dogs at one point and falling over each other the next.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said his brother, Richard Nave, 85, who was pushed in his wheelchair by a granddaughter - one of numerous family members and friends pressed into service during the 45 years the Patrola has existed.

The Early Day Gas Engine ?Tractor Association was out in ?force, with folks like Forestville ?resident Floyd Hammack, 80, who towed a 1934 Maytag wringer washing machine behind his tractor for show.

“Where do all the people come from?” Hammack asked, as pulled off the parade route lined with spectators along several blocks. “All over.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary?.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.