Folks in Welch tell me the Veterans Day Parade is scheduled for Monday, November 12, this year, since the 11th falls on Sunday.
Thanks to the gift of my retirement I plan to be in Welch for the parade on the 12th. Hope to see any and all of you who will be there as well. The parade has become a kind of reunion or homecoming gathering for many of us former residents and natives of McDowell County. If you are thinking about it, come on and join us in Welch on November 12.
As far as I can remember, this will be my first time at the parade since 1968, during my senior year at Welch High, when I last marched in the Veterans Day Parade with the Welch High Band. That was fifty years ago.... And this year celebrates the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, with the Armistice that took place on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. This will mark a century of parades in Welch praying for peace, honoring our Veterans, and the memory of those who did not come home.
God bless all of you. Thank you to all of you loyal residents of Welch and McDowell County who have sustained this proud tradition. I gratefully salute you as we together salute our veterans.
