On the morning of Sunday, the Fourth of July 2001, the stretch of Central Street from Bent Park east to Ryan Field was eerily quiet. There was evidence of what was to come a few hours later in the form of thousands of lawn chairs that were in place at curbside. Some of them had been there for three weeks. 

Before many soon to be parade spectators had even awoke, there was a bustle of activity at half a dozen locations around the City. These were the sports and playground venues being setup. By the time the day would be over 500 people will have participated in relay races, one legged races, egg tosses, pie eating and egg toss contests just to name a few.

Back on Central Street, the Parade Team began setting up at 10:00 AM in preparation for one of the largest and longest running parades in the Sate of Illinois. Numbered "parking spots" in the staging area were first outlined with chalk by parade marshals for each of the one hundred-forty entries. The information booth was set up across from Bent Park. This is the place that all of the participants will come to and receive their entry numbers and have any last minute questions and concerns taken care of.

In what seems like a period of just a few minutes Central Street, from Crawford Avenue to Central Park, became saturated with hundreds of parade units comprised of thousands of people. As eager participants put the finishing touches on floats and the bands finished their final practices and got into formation, it was 2:00PM, blast-off time.

The weather could not have been better for a parade that day. The empty lawn chairs were now full with thousands more standing as each entry marched by entertaining Evanstonians of all ages. One minute a sharply dressed marching band with sixty musicians was playing "Stars and Stripes forever" and the next minute a community entry went by. I saw many participants greeting obvious long time friends along the route. It was truly a parade that combined a small town feel with a spectacular array of professional performing entries.

By 4:20 PM the parade was over. The incredible work on the wonderful floats by neighborhood groups had paid off. Many months of planning by the Celebration Team had paid off as well. The long day was not over.

After a brief break the crowd began to gather at the lakefront for the final phase of the day's activities. At 6:00PM, the ever popular South Shore Drill Team wowed the crowd at Dawes Park with a second performance. Soon after that, the sounds changed to that of the Palatine Concert Band's performance of classical and traditional music. With us for many years they played everything from Straus to Sousa.

Mayor Morton gave an inspirational speech during the performance and was joined later by Craig Thompson and Dave Sniader of the Evanston Fourth of July Association.

As soon as the concert was over, there was the traditional mad rush from the reflecting pond to the waterfront. The sky lit up at 9:15 about and stayed that way for over 40 minutes. You could feel the explosions; they seemed to go right through your body. The latest shells from around the world were used. The music was delivered by large speakers placed all around the park as well as the radio broadcast on 90.5 FM. The sounds began with the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey and then went from patriotic to pop to rock. The timing of the fireworks to the beat of the music was perfect. The show had more depth and length than any other. "It was awesome, the best I have ever seen," said one spectator after the show.