It’s Been Special for 90 Years! The Hollyhock Lane Parade!

It's been a local 4th of July tradition for 90 years, and shows no sign of slowing down. It is the Hollyhock Lane Parade in Grand Rapids, and it's special!

The Hollyhock Lane Parade is every bit Americana as apple pie and Chevrolet. It's neighbor and neighbor getting together, families and folks from all over creating the parade to celebrate the 4th of July, and is the longest-running continuous Independence Day parade in Michigan!

We all know why we celebrate the 4th, right? Actually, I think many of us may have lost touch about why we celebrate the 4th of July. We just want to eat hot dogs and blast off fireworks.

Seriously, we are celebrating Independence Day, marking the anniversary of the Second Continental Congress adopting the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the document that declared independence from Great Britain. So there!

The Hollyhock Lane Parade, which began in 1934, has been a fun celebration every 4th of July morning in the Ottawa Hills neighborhood since.

The Ottawa Hills Neighborhood Association website says it all began as a bike parade for kids in 1934 as a way to entertain them during the Great Depression. It just kept growing from there in the Calvin-Giddings area of the Ottawa Hills neighborhood.

So get ready for the beginning on Thursday, July 4th at 8:30 am. It has all sorts of marching units, bikes, of course, kids’ floats, antique cars, Scouts and church groups, and fire and police vehicles.

Hey, who doesn't like a parade, right? And, if you like it so much, if you show up, you can actually be in the parade. How fun would that be?

There will even be entertainment with a jazz combo. They'll have coffee and cookies for the grown-ups, popsicles fore kids, and cash prizes for the best kids' floats.

The entire event is paid for through a door-to-door collection in Ottawa Hills and the neighborhood to the west, and by a donation from the Ottawa Hills Association.