Leland parade trades fish chubs for drum lines
Kaotic Drum Line will perform in Leland’s Fourth of July parade for the second year in a row.
From staff reports
Here’s a little-known, fishy fact: back in the 1960s, some kids would throw fish chubs, not candy, in the Leland Fourth of July parade. John Watkins remembers sitting on Steffens & Stallman’s parade float and handing out smoked chub to people along the route. “One year we sat in the dump truck and just threw it out to people,” Watkins laughed.
Alas, some traditions don’t last forever.
Leland’s contemporary parade doesn’t include airborne chubs, but it does feature a drum line—namely, Kaotic Drum Line, which will travel from the South Side of Chicago with between 10 and 15 band members to participate for the second year in a row.
This year’s parade starts at 3 p.m. from Reynolds St. at the south end of town and travels north, up M-22, to the village green. The unofficial theme of this year’s parade is “fish and freedom forever”. Parade royalty this year are three women who’ve long been mainstays in the Leland community: Dorothy Forton, Marie Priest and Angela Maleski.
“Our Leland parade means so much to me,” said parade organizer and Leland native Ashley Cameron-Suttman. “These small towns around the county are part of your blood, your being. It’s all about the sounds of the parade, the smells of Fishtown, the nostalgia that it all brings back to us. One of my goals being part of this parade is to tell our history.”
For some, the Leland parade offers a slice of Americana that can be difficult to find these days. John Watkins’ cousin Randy, who grew up in Connecticut and worked as a banker in New York City, visited Leland once during the parade and loved it so much that he has returned five times.
“It’s just a good hometown parade,” said Jane Lang. “You see old friends and acquaintances, kids walking, just hometown goodness. I’ve been part of my family float in the past, but this year I’ll enjoy just sitting and watching.”
Chicagoan Jamie Poindexer and Kaotic Drum Line were struck last year by how peaceful, quiet and nice Leland seemed. The crowds appreciated the Chicago sound they brought up north with them. The band will stay at the Falling Waters Lodge this year.
Poindexer fell in love with drum lines when he was 10 and his father, a jazz percussionist, took him to a parade on the South Side. “I saw a drum line for the first time, and it spoke to me,” he said. Poindexer attended Jackson State on a music scholarship, and established Kaotic Drum Line in 2001. They play gigs all over the country and toured Europe for the first time 10 years ago.
