The Romeo Peach Festival Oral History Collection Part 4 - Richard Cory

The Romeo Peach Festival may be over this year, but the Romeo Community Archives conducts oral histories about the cherished event all year round.

All interviews will be apart of the digital Romeo Peach Festival Oral History Collection. Each will contain the audio and transcript.

Each participant will also be given a sticker for sharing their memories of the festival. Richard Cory, the man seen above, wore said sticker after we interviewed him back in early August.

For those who don't know, Richard Cory has been a prominent Romeoite for decades from his work at WBRW Channel 6 to being the "Voice of the Peach Parade" and the "Voice of the Romeo Bulldogs."

We recently added Richard's interview to the digital collection. He has gone to the Peach Festival many times since he was a child. In our conversation, he shared plenty of fond memories of being at the event from attending the carnival to announcing the parades.

Richard revealed that Channel 6 began reporting on the Peach Festival parades in the late 1980s. They set up their equipment in the alleyway next to what is now the MJC Marketplace around that time, and Comcast put a drop rig, so the station could go live. Along with a modulator, seven cameras, and a lot of people helping, Channel 6 was able to cover the parades with success. They continue to report on them to this very day.

Richard started annoucning the Floral parades right around 1990, and he said that his favorite time to do that was when he was the Grand Marshal of the Romeo Peach Festival in 2009 (note: in the audio, he claims that it was 2010, but an article in The Romeo Observer September 2, 2009 issue proved that he held that title in the latter year). He recalled that the people from the Romeo-Washington-Bruce Parks & Recreation called and asked if he wanted to be Grand Marshal. He initially said no because he felt that it was for older people, but his wife asserted, “Richard, how often is somebody going to ask you to do something like that? You know, rethink this.”

He soon changed his mind. Not only was he Grand Marshal that year, but he also covered the Floral Parade. For anyone else, this would be hard to juggle two big gigs at once, but he was able to pull it off. He explained that as Grand Marshal, all he had to do was sit in a convertible during that parade. It helped that he was in the front in between Peach Queen Kathleen Cieslik and then Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel. Once it ended at the Croswell School, he got into a cart, which drove him back to downtown, so he could finish announcing. He remarked that no one paid attention to him during the parade because he was sandwiched between those two prominent people, but they certainly did by the time he switched to being an announcer. When he came by the Four Corners, his granddaughter yelled "Papa, Papa, Papa," ran out, and grabbed him. To him, it was the best memory of the festival.

Richard also recounted a time, in which a metallic balloon caused a major power outage by hiting the electrical lines over Starkweather Alley. He remembered that when that happened, "there was a big spark and then everything went down."

Apparently, it lasted through the rest of the Floral Parade that day. The Romeo Observer reported on this on the front page in their September 8, 1999 issue.

In addition, he shared stories about his involvement in the village including becoming the director of the Romeo Community Center (now the Romeo-Washington Bruce Parks & Recreation), how Channel 6 acquired their own building on Morton Street, his time at The Romeo Observer, and how the Romeo Bulldogs are involved during the Peach Festival and not just with their Friday football game.

Richard and I had a great time talking about the Romeo Peach Festival. The Romeo Community Archives looks forward to talking to more people about their memories of the Peach Festival and what it means to them at next year's festivities.

It doesn't matter if you're young or old. We want to hear all of the stories about the festival.

To check out the Richard Cory interview, you can go to the Romeo Community Archives online catalog. More will be uploaded in the near future.

If you want to participate in the Romeo Peach Festival Oral History Collection, you can contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org or call (586) 690-4890. We can also conduct interivews outside of Romeo Peach Festival weekend if you feel more comfortable that way.

Images and sources courtesy of the Romeo Community Archives; Romeo Peach Festival Oral History Collection, 2025

RCA Photo of the Week - October 9, 2025

From Sunday, October 5 to Sunday, October 11, it's Fire Prevention Week. Romeo has used this week to educate people on that topic for at least 70 years.

In the October 13, 1955 issue of The Romeo Observer Press, staff writer Bud Bailey penned an article about how anyone can prevent fires and how the biggest factor in most blazes is carelessness. Bailey stressed that while the Romeo Fire Department will always be there to put those out those flames, avoiding them is a "year around job for every local citizen."

To put into perspective, Bailey recounted the history of the Romeo Fire Department. The volunteer fire department began in 1924 after the village council authorized then Fire Chief Willard Pickering to recruit 20 men to fight fires. At that time, all they had "was a Model 'T' chemical hose truck combination and three hand-drawn hose carts."

In 1928, the department modernized and became a more efficient organization. Two hundred farmers bought shares in the local department and purchased a pumper, and each one received personal fire protection through a group effort. This also benefited the community at large because the village defrayed two-thirds of the expenses. Ten years later, it was voted "to provide fire protection to anyone in the Romeo area that called for help."

By 1955, the Romeo Fire Department had 24 firemen on the force, two tank trucks, and a rescue truck. One of the tank trucks can be see in the photo above. It was taken for the article, and it shows Fire Chief Walter Werth on the right checking a fire hose nozzle to see if it's in working order. Other firemen Roy Hillman and Joe Gould look on.

It seems that the nozzle is working because how else would Werth be in a jovial mood? If it didn't work, the fire department could call on other towns. According to Bailey, the "Washington, Bruce, two-thirds of Ray and part of Oakland townships are now under contract with Romeo for fire protection."

Fire prevention is a community effort because anybody can actively take caution. How? It's through better housekeeping. According to Bailey, ninety percent of fires could have been prevented if there was better housekeeping. How can this be done? Bailey asserted that one should keep "basements, attics, and other parts of a building or dwelling clean. Keep them free of rubbish or anything inflammable. Check home wiring....Watch extension cords lying under rugs; see that they don't fray and wear through from the many steps people implant upon them while walking from one end of the room to the other."

While the Romeo Fire Department has now been combined with the Bruce Township one to make the Bruce-Romeo Fire Department, this advice can easily be applied to today as fire prevention is still a big deal in any community. Take caution, or people will lose their valuables and/or their lives.

To learn more about the Romeo Fire Department, you can contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org or call (586) 690-4890. If you want to search for articles on that topic, you can find the Romeo newspapers like The Romeo Observer on the Suburban Library Cooperative's Local History Digital Collection website.

Images and sources courtesy of the Romeo Community Archives; Melvin E. and Joan D. Bleich Collection, The Romeo Observer Press, October 13, 1955, p.II-1 and p.II-6