Spectating Timeless Tradition At Fairfield Flag Day Parade

For the past five decades, Flag Day has come to them.

Saturday was no exception.

Mary and Stewart Moss invited friends to watch the 91st Fairfield Flag Day Parade from their huge front porch.

While Flag Day wasn’t until Wednesday, Fairfield celebrated the holiday the weekend before with a carnival and parade.

The group, which gathers each year, is made up of the Mosses, Stewart’s brother Dick Moss and his wife Carrie, and their friends Audrey and Allen Flaig.

Except for the few years spent getting their own children ready for the parade, the six have gathered to watch the parade together “since forever,” said Audrey Flaig.

The tradition started 50 years ago when Stewart and Mary Moss bought the house on one of Fairfield’s main drags.

They usually hear the festivities before they see them.

A half-hour before parade time, parts of the “Star Spangled Banner” could be heard coming from the Fairfield Post Office.

“We should be standing up,” joked 90-year-old Carrie Moss, a smile sending hundreds of wrinkles across her face.

No one made a move from their plastic chairs.

“If you listen real hard, you can hear the announcer,” added Audrey Flaig.

Soon, scores of antique cars and old farm equipment began filing past. That hasn’t changed much over the years, said 84-year-old Allen Flaig.

“It’s been 80 years since I saw my first parade,” he said. Flaig grew up on a farm five miles west of Fairfield and came to town with his parents each year for Flag Day.

A float from Tekoa went past. It was decorated to look like an old-fashioned drive-in.

“Years ago, all the little towns had floats,” said Marion Bothman, who joined the group after the parade had started.

“That’s one thing that’s really changed,” agreed Mary Moss.

Fairfield itself has gone through a transformation.

“There are so many strangers that moved out here from Spokane, a lot of us old-timers don’t know anyone anymore,” Bothman said.

In fact, for a few years it looked like nobody cared about the annual celebration, which was almost extinct by 1993.

The theme that year was “Keep it Alive,” Rick Loeffler remembers. One of the organizers, Loeffler staffed the Fairfield Service Club grill this year.

The pins on Loeffler’s vest chronicle many past Flag Day themes.

Over the years, the themes have ranged from “Life in the Country” in 1982, to “Loose on the Palouse” in 1994. This year was “Y2K.”

The group on the porch remembers the parades not by the slogans but by the weather. They’ve seen their share of rain and blistering heat over the years.

“This is the coldest it’s ever been for Flag Day,” Carrie Moss said as a trailer carrying the El Katif Shrine Band from Spokane rolled by the house.

Forty-five minutes after it began, the parade was declared “nice” by Allen Flaig, his nose red from the cold.

“Your parade turned out good today,” Mary Moss said to parade organizer Gerry McClean, who stopped by the front porch.

Although the parade was over, the festivities were just beginning. Across the street, the Shrine band had set up in the park, and the smell of hamburgers was in the air.

The group loaded into cars and headed the few blocks to lunch downtown.

As sure as Flag Day, they plan to be back on the porch next year.

Trinity Hartman can be reached at 927-2164 or by e-mail at trinityh@spokesman.com.