My father marches with Mayor Lee (to the right of my father) and unidentified others during the Third Annual Freddy Fixer Parade in 1965.

During the '70's, in a city of 150,000, the parade typically drew 30,000 people. Jackie Robinson was the grand marshal of the '72 parade.

Floats, sponsored by social, fraternal, sororal and school groups; black drum and bugle corps groups from all over the northeast; representatives of black firefighter and police organizations from as far away as Massachusetts and New York City; and local high school bands were part of the 60-to-90 units in a typical Freddy Fixer Parade. Ninety-seven units performed in the '74 parade, including seven groups from New Jersey and three from Philadelphia.

A marching unit struts their stuff on Dixwell in a mid-'70's Freddy Fixer Parade.