On Saturday, January 13, the Romeo Community Archives hosted a Scanning Party, in which people received high-quality scans of their photographs. They even had a chance to donate their digital copies to the archives. One patron Joanne Caruana did just that by giving copies of pictures she took at the Romeo Peach Festival Children's Parade years ago to our digital collection. This is one of them.
This very picture is from the Children's Parade at the Peach Festival that took on place on Monday, September 3, 1990. It shows a group of children preparing for the parade. Thanks to Joanne, we know the identities of 6 children present. They are Amie Norman, the tomato; Joshua Hayes, the pizza; Zachary Hayes, food packaging; Phillip Hayes, the pig; Clayton Hayes, the raisin; and Sergio Casadei, the boy walking behind his mother Marva, who's in the polka-dotted dress. Joshua and Clayton are Joanne's sons, while Zachary and Phillip are her nephews. Sergio would also be in the parade dressed up as a pizza box, hence why his mom is holding said item.
The theme for that year's Children's Parade was "Show Business." But wait! I bet some readers are asking right now, "If the theme was show business, then why are they dressed up like food?"
Don't worry, I had that same question. Luckily, there's a simple explanation. These kids were a part of the float that the Romeo District Library created to celebrate their Summer Reading program. That float in question was a banana split, hence the food-inspired costumes. According to the September 12, 1990 issue of The Romeo Observer, it won first place in the Large Float catagory!
People can view this picture and others on our online catalog at https://rcarchives.pastperfectonline.com/
We hope to have another Scanning Party soon!
To learn more about the Children's Parade and the Scanning Party, you can contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org or call (586) 690-4890.
Source: The Romeo Observer, September 12, 1990, p.1-B