40-plus years later, narrator, attendees of Cleveland Parade still have fun
Published 12:05 am Sunday, December 3, 2017
A front row seat on the square for the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Ladies from the West Rowan Fire Department in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Patroit Guard unit in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Cleveland First Bapist Church youth in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Gene Kepley in his 1931 Model A Ford in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
1963 Chevy in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
A good day for a blanket. Sawyer Kimmer 5, Gavin 7 and Ganon 5 Wisecarver at the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Kay Settle and Betty Click at the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
the Patriot Guard Unit in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Horses in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Melvin Potts pulling a wagon with a Santa with a gun in his lap in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
The Vette Set Old Chevy Club in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Horses in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Daniel Phifer, on the right, stepped off the sidewalk to join in the dancing The the Hidden Forest entry in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
A ride for Raggy Ann on a patch work quilt in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Woodleaf UMC Pack 320 Scouts stopped to lead the watchers in the Plege of Alliance in the Cleveland Christmas Parade. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
By Jessica Coates
jessica.coates@salisburypost.com
CLEVELAND — After 40 years of narrating the entries at the Cleveland Lions Club parade, Terry Moore is still having fun.
“I enjoy every bit of it,” Moore said from the judging station at the 46th annual edition of the parade Saturday.
Moore said that he has lived his entire life within five miles of Cleveland’s Main Street, where the parade runs.
“And I carried the mail here for 32 years, so probably 90 percent of the people out here, I probably delivered their mail at some point in time,” Moore said.
That makes his job as parade narrator easier — he knows basically everyone in town.
“It’s been in probably the last 30 years that we actually started setting up a…schedule of who comes through, so on and so forth. But before that, shucks, we just looked down the street and said, ‘Here comes Jones. What’s he, oh, he’s got an outhouse. He’s pulling an outhouse,’” Moore said.
Moore, who is one of the longest-serving members of the Lions Club, said that he thinks of the parade as a place where people can come as they are.
“This is just a rural county. …I mean, we don’t put diapers on horses,” Moore said.
Instead of diapers, the dozen-or-so horses that rode near the end of the parade were wearing holiday hats and decorations, while their riders threw candy into the audiences on either side of the road and said, “Merry Christmas!”
Unlike the Holiday Caravan Parade in Salisbury and Spencer, parade entries in the Cleveland parade are allowed to throw candy into the audience. Nearly every entry did.
Parade Chairperson Liz Steele said the fact that the parade allows horses and throwing candy makes it different — and better — than the Holiday Caravan Parade.
“It’s more of a small, hometown-feel parade. You know, one year we had a…goat riding through,” Steele said. “…And we’re a little cheaper than the Salisbury parade, so I think we get some of the ones that just really can’t afford to be in that parade.”
The entry fee for the Cleveland parade is a $10. Commercial entries for the Holiday Caravan cost $250.
“And that’s if they want to be judged. We have a lot of horses that say, ‘I don’t want a judge,’ so they’re just riding through. So the horses ride through. … They just want to do it. It’s something they’ve done. It’s a tradition,” Steele said.
Trevacyia Scales; her sister, La’Andra Rorie; and her three-year-old nephew, Jeremiah, are from Salisbury, but they came to the Cleveland parade to see Scales’ daughter, Nevaeh, walk.
Neveah, 9, is a member of DREAM — Determined to Reach, Empower and Mentor — Girls, which has a branch in both Salisbury and Cleveland.
“She’s an only child, so she’s really trying to get into stuff,” Trevacyia said. “So I’m glad they have the DREAM Girls program for her, so that way she can interact with kids her age, you know?”
Trevacyia said that Saturday was both Neveah’s and Jeremiah’s first parade experience.
“So I’m excited. It’s her first parade and she really likes it,” Trevacyia said.
Steele estimated that this year’s parade attendance was a larger than usual — close to 3,000 people.
The parade began at 2 p.m. and ran from the old West Rowan YMCA toward Highway 70.
Entries for the parade were accepted in seven categories: regular, religious, antique, commercial, king and queen, humorous and horse.
The winners of the 2017 parade were as follows:
- Antiques — D&D Classics’ 1963 Chevy Impala and 1967 El Camino
- Commercial — Daimler Trucks North America (Cleveland Plant)
- Horse — Diane Belt
- King and Queen — West Rowan High School Homecoming King and Queen, Matt Arnsten and Camryn Nooner
- Regular — Kennedy Hall Post 106 American Legion Riders
- Religious — South River United Methodist Church
- Honorable Mention — Boogerwoods Haunted Attraction
The judges this year were Slade Cole, Angie Bogle and Jack White.
Contact reporter Jessica Coates at 704-797-4222.
