Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

I can’t believe Defense Day just happened, and nobody sent me a card.

I’d never heard of Defense Day before, but I stumbled upon it in the archives, and it was interesting enough to write about it. Defense Day was a nationwide thing, but Lock Haven celebrated it in a very big way. It was all over the newspapers at the time, and there was a huge parade for it.

As holidays go, Defense Day was not exactly destined to be the next Halloween. From what I can gather, it had to do with the country’s preparation for a war emergency and a test of the preparation, particularly with interlinked radio communications. While the government was doing this, apparently someone decided it would be a neat idea to connect a huge festival to this whole thing.

Defense Day was September 12, 1924. A Friday, if it matters. There were plans to hold a huge parade in Lock Haven, with over eight hundred people expected to participate. An article on September 10 explained that it was to begin at the corner of Church Street and Bellefonte Avenue, about at the Civil War Monument, and proceed east on Church as far as either Jay or Henderson Streets, depending on the size of the parade. (They seemed to be expecting an enormous turnout.) It was to turn back on Main Street and march up Bellefonte Avenue, concluding at the bandstand that used to be on the corner at Commerce Street, where the gas station stands now.

Just about every community organization was expected to participate: The Knights of Columbus, the American Legion, the Nypen Club Band, Troop F, the Elks, the Sons of Italy, etc. The local Boy Scouts were expected to line the streets and provide some crowd control, which seems a lot to expect—When I was a Boy Scout, I could barely control myself, let alone a huge crowd.

The parade moved out at 7:30 PM on that Friday night under the direction of Grand Marshall T. Mark Brungard. Several local military detachments led the procession, followed by a pretty impressive float. Local woman Vera Gust was dressed as the Statue of Liberty, holding up a torch that was powered by electricity—A reasonably interesting feat at the time, given that many people still hadn’t got electricity in their homes yet. A stuffed eagle was also on the float, on loan from a local store.

There was a car with several local girls dressed as Red Cross nurses, the local Nypen band in red and blue, and a cavalry of mounted local officers.

And all of this wound up at the bandstand, where the big speech was to happen afterward. Local politician Philip Kift, who was involved in everything back in those days, made the introduction of guest speaker Dr. N.P. Benson. Nelson Benson was the city superintendent of schools, so was considered a good candidate to deliver the big speech.

Benson pointed out the Defense Day was held on the anniversary of the Battle of Saint Miheil, a decisive turning point for America during World War I. He suggested that America had learned lessons from the war, and was now taking steps to insure that another war didn’t happen. (I’ll have to dig through the archives and find out how that worked out.) He said that the whole thing wasn’t to glorify war, but to prevent it.

The speech was followed by a quick concert from the local bands. The only negative thing said about the whole event, later, was that it was noted that some of the men didn’t take off their hats during the National Anthem.

Otherwise, Defense Day seems to have been a pretty big deal. I’ll have to remember that for next year—September 12. I’ll put out cookies and milk for Dr. Benson.