2024: A small but eager crowd greets the marchers on Main Avenue, across from Firemen’s Park— heading east. Monday, 5/27/2024. Memorial Day. The parade arrived early and had no music. Paul Goldfinger photo. Blogfinger.net. Click once to enlarge and make the crowd look bigger.
Memorial Day in the Grove. Paul Goldfinger photo. 2013. Blogfinger.net.
OG Memorial Day 2005
And lest we forget, this is what Memorial Day looked like in 2014:
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net:
On May 8, 2025: An announcement from the Neptune Twp Police Department: “This year’s Memorial Day will be different from the usual, with no parades through Ocean Grove or ceremonies at Veteran’s Memorial Park.” How bizarre!
Now, May 21, 2025, an announcement from Neptune Township. (see below) Somehow someone reinstituted a Neptune Memorial Day Parade to be held after all on the actual Memorial Day—Monday, May 26, 2025. See below.
Last year, 2024, the parade was a dud. They didn’t even have music, and hardly anyone showed up.
This year what will the Memorial Day parade contain, and will the locals show up to wave flags, and what military presence will appear besides the usual local color guards? And will the Scarlet Flyers High School Band make some patriotic music? And how about the Neptune High ROTC?
And a “solemn service” at the Veterans Park on Old Corlies Road will occur on Sunday May 25 the day before the actual Memorial Day. (see below)
And on Saturday May 24 there will be a concert in the GA at 7:30 but the CMA calls the event “a concert.” –No reference to American history or patriotism or to Memorial Day. This town is suposed to be about history: It is on the State and National Historic Registers. This is what the National Register of Historic Places says:
“The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.
This town has lost its way when it comes to patriotic events.
Sousa’s “Liberty Bell March:”
Directions: It’s like prior parades: After leaving the Broadway memorials, head north to Main Avenue and then turn east and hope that a few Grovers line the route to Pilgrim Pathway to the Youth Temple.