Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams rode in an antique car in last year’s parade.
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
Cabot’s parade starts at 3 p.m., Sunday with a theme of “A red, white and blue Christmas.”
Grand marshals will be Cabot veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom.
The Arkansas Military Vehicles Preservation Association will have a number of jeeps and vintage military trucks in the parade.
For the first time, the Arkansas Tech University band will be coming to Cabot’s parade along with some other new additions.
Cabot City Beautiful took over the parade from the Jaycees in 2000. “We basically started from scratch,” said Matt Webber with the city’s beautification group. Webber said before his group took over the parade it was averaging about 20 to 30 entries and was about four blocks long.
“Our parade now travels a 1.5 mile route,” he said.
Each year, the number of entries seems to grow, Webber added.
The last few years the parade averaged about 70 entries. That number or more is expected this year.
“We started the grand marshal tradition and created separate categories of judging. We have different dignitaries each year to act as judges. We started giving trophies, too,” he explained.
The Cabot High School band has traditionally led the parade. Other high school bands will also march this year.
“Don’t get me wrong; we love Mr. Trusty and the Cabot band. We are just looking for more music and fun,” Webber said.
So besides the Cabot High band and the ATU group, parade-goers will also enjoy bands from Lonoke and North Pulaski high schools.
The Scimitar Temple Shrine will also be a part of the parade. “We don’t know yet if they’ll bring clowns or funny cars, or both,” Webber said.
