Price Hill’s traditional Thanksgiving Day Parade is still accepting last-minute entries this week. You can enter to walk or ride in the parade using an online parade entry form; email or mail the form to the Price Hill Civic Club by Sunday, Nov. 18 to participate.
This year is the parade’s 22nd occurrence “in the modern era.” The parade actually got its start more than 80 years ago as an impromptu march by fans from Western Hills High School to Elder High School’s football stadium for the annual rivalry between the two schools. In the next few years, the parade was organized into a formal parade, and many local families, businesses, politicians, and civic groups participated.
But in 1979, the Elder-West Hi football game was moved to the beginning of the season and the parade was abandoned. Then in 1991, the Price Hill Historical Society revived the Thanksgiving Day parade and ran it for several years. The event is now sponsored jointly by the Price Hill Civic Club and the East Price Hill Improvement Association, and although the two high schools do not play a football game at all any more, the parade remains a Price Hill tradition.
Even if you don’t choose to participate in the parade, it’s a great way to start the holiday, with hundreds of people lined up along the route, which still starts at Western Hills High School on Ferguson Road in Price Hill. It moves down Glenway Avenue, past Elder High School, to Warsaw Avenue, where it wraps up at the St. Lawrence parish hall with cookies and hot chocolate, and of course a visit from Santa Claus.
As they have for most of eight decades, families, clubs, businesses, and local politicians will all march in the parade, some with elaborate floats, some with cars with hand-painted banners. There are marching bands from Elder and West Hi, a grand marshal, and the King and Queen of Price Hill are crowned at the start of the parade.
It’s a great tradition, a way to kick off the holidays with a local twist. And it’s not too late to participate—get that entry form sent in and enjoy a brisk walk through Price Hill before sitting down to your Thanksgiving turkey this year!
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