Yankee Doodle Comes To Town - In Droves 4th Of July Festivities In Cda Awash In Red, White And Blue

If it was red, white and blue, it was here - swimsuits, baby clothes, hair bows, hats and paper chains.

Even for people who didn’t come bedecked in patriotic colors, the first entry in Friday morning’s American Heroes Parade filled in nicely.

Women ran from the Exchange Club’s pickup to the crowd, passing out handfuls of miniature American flags while strains of “Dixie” whistled from the truck’s loudspeaker.

The 560th Air Force Band, part of the Washington Air National Guard, drew immediate applause. And the American Ex-Prisoners of War drew vigorous approval.

The crowd was early and extensive. The city’s annual holiday traffic jam was well under way by 10 a.m., several blocks up Northwest Boulevard from the parade route. Cars were backed up on the Interstate 90 offramp at 15th Street.

The jam of people intensified on Sherman Avenue, where negotiating a sidewalk was more dance than stroll. Especially for those laden with hot dogs.

Seattleites Gary and Shirley Jacobson wandered into the masses just for fun. They were passing through town - with Shirley’s mother, Cecilia Kilwine - and wondered whether the traffic meant festivities.

“We didn’t know there was a parade,” Gary Jacobson explained.

“We’ve been coming here for 30 years,” Shirley Jacobson added. “We just love it here.”

They planned to catch the parade, shop, eat lunch and keep traveling - every downtown entrepreneur’s dream customers.

“Hey Vernon,” erupted from several people in the crowd when parade grand marshal Vernon Baker and his wife, Heidy, rolled by. Baker, of St. Maries, has become a familiar face since President Clinton draped the Medal of Honor around his neck in January.

A white BMW unintentionally started the entertainment on the west end of the parade route by somehow getting past all of the barriers and driving up Sherman Avenue, against the direction of the parade. Whistles, catcalls and a parade official finally stopped the astonished driver whose car sported Kootenai County license plates. He backed out to more applause from the crowd.

The heroes theme, a Coeur d’Alene tradition, ran the gamut from Mormon Pioneers to a John Wayne impersonator. Move over Elvis.

There were plenty of military motifs, but Huckleberry Wholesalers, a Coeur d’Alene area nursery, saluted Mark Twain as “America’s Literary Hero” with its float. Tom Sawyer, of course, rode along with his picket fence and whitewash.

When it came to the Kootenai Sheriff’s Posse, even the dog was riding a horse.

The offbeat? You bet, right down to the marching twirling umbrella team from Harpers, the Post Falls furniture manufacturer. The team even had a drum major.

Above the din of marching bands and cheering crowds, a mother’s voice arose. “Do you know why we celebrate the Fourth of July?” she asked.

“Yea,” a young voice responded. “It’s the birth of America.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo