[Knight Marks Festive Day: Plymouth native Ted Knight, left, nationally known as Ted Baxter, the anchorman on the Mary Tyler Moore television show, waves to festive crowd from his open convertible during Saturday afternoon's bicentennial parade on Rt. 6 in the Terryville section.]
PLYMOUTH - About 50,000 persons lined Main Street in the Terryville section from Harwinton Avenue to Riverside Avenue Saturday to watch the hourlong bicentennial parade.
Nationally known television personality Ted Knight, grand marshal of the parade in his home town, was the afternoon's main attraction. Crowds of people pressed around him, taking pictures, seeking autographs and asking the twotime Emmy award winner if he remembered them.
The parade moved swiftly after its 2 p.m.. start, with 16 floats, 11 drum corps, three bands, color guards, Cub Scouts and Brownie troops, boy and girl scouts marching by the Connecticut Parade Association judges.
An operational water wheel from a Naugatuck Water Shed, a 100year old spinning wheel and a 1774 wheelcannon, used in New Haven harbor during the Revolutionary War, decorated the prizewinning Bicentennial Committee float entered by the TerryvillePlymouth Chamber of Commerce. The cannon had been discovered in a farmhouse chimney in Plymouth.
Other floats depicted Betsy Ross sewing the first flag, religious unity and recreation between 1776 and 1976. Students from Harry S. Fisher Junior High School won the first prize for best youth float with their entry, "Education Is The Key To Freedom."
[Among the marchers were the Terryvillettes Color Guard, center, which drew the attention of...]
Horses, pony carts and an 18oxen drawn wagon also marched along the twomile parade route. Twenty vantype vehicles driven by members of the Central Connecticut Coachmen's Club and antique cars filed down the street, as well as area fire companies and their apparatus.
Major George Ford, a former Terryville resident and classmate of Ted Knight, marched in the parade representing the Governor's Foot Guard. Thomaston's Bicentennial Queen Kathy Brown and her court rode in the line of march.
After the parade, Knight helped judge 27 contestants in the beardgrowing contest Hundreds of onlookers gathered around the reviewing stand in Baldwin Park as the celebrity presented certificates to the winners.
[...Paula June Perbeck, who will be 4 years old today, waving her bicentennial flag.]
Dr. Joseph Rich won the best beard and mustache prize, while Gerald Doty was judged to have the best Lincolntype beard. Other winners were Andrew DellaVechia, best mustache; Edward Kamens, Van Dyke, Armand Scoville, best bushy beard; and Gerald Williams, best connected sideburns and moustache.
Sevenyearold Michele Rockwell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Rockwell of Arrow Drive, was hit by a car about noon as she crossed Main Street while people and cars jammed the area before the parade. She was treated at Bristol Hospital for knee injuries and was released.
No action was taken against the car's driver,
police said.
[The Hartford Courant, Sunday, June 13, 1976]