Christine Whelan FEO, August 17, 2023, VOL. 4 ISSUE 26

Crystal Beach will be celebrating a long-standing tradition.  On Saturday, September 2nd, Friends of Crystal Beach (FOCB) will be hosting the annual “End of Summer” Parade. 

This parade was once one of the highlights of Crystal Beach living, in the days of the amusement park, before 1989. It also represented the annual crashing end to the wild and wonderful days of summer. Cottagers returned to other lives and children began the next grade of school, memories tucked away, never to fade. It made sense that this event’s activity was symbolized each year, by a casket.

It Started in the 1950s

Each Labour Day weekend held anticipation for that parade of decorated cars along Ridgeway Road. For following after, past the park as its doors were shutting for another year and over the hill to witness the sending-off of another summer with a burning casket floating out, on Lake Erie.

Gary Pooler described the parade in his book, Crystal Beach: Out of the Park, (Friesen Press, 2021), as “a simulated funeral procession for “Old Man Summer”. Vehicles are decorated, some with their witty cottage names on them, then a parade ensues through the streets of the village, like a regular funeral cortege, only happier. The last vehicle in the parade carries a casket containing a dummy or mannequin dressed up as the deceased Old Man Summer.

“In the old days, the event would culminate with the casket being set on fire, then set adrift out onto the lake. However, this was changed to a backyard bonfire at a selected cottage in order to cremate Old Man Summer. This came about after some residents became concerned about the burning casket polluting the water.”

Residents and Guests Remember

Some who were in “the Beach” during the days of the amusement park and the outstandingly unique, yet glaringly bittersweet Labour Day weekend activities have reflected on a wide range of memories over the years, often shared on several social media posts.

While one remembers “people wearing black with veils, wailing”, role-playing mourners, and “someone played an undertaker who gave the eulogy”, another remembers a “casket taken through the streets with wildflowers filling and covering it”.

All seem to remember, though, that the casket was the “centerpiece of the parade” that ended at the lake “where they set Mr. Summer off to sea ablaze” or “…afire like the Norsemen out to sea, to go to their final resting place”.

Over time, especially after the park closed in 1989, the parade went quiet as the rest of the village had gone quiet for a while. But as the village re-awakens in these last several years, so has the parade.

In Recent Years

Friends of Crystal Beach brought the parade back featuring floats and a horse-drawn hearse. The most recent End of Summer Parade was held in 2019 and its theme was the commemoration of the thirty-year anniversary of the closing of the Crystal Beach Amusement Park. It was organized by then FOCB president, Shirley Wallington Grace, who died a few weeks later at the age of ninety-four.

In a story I wrote for the Fort Erie Observer last year, I included that once the pandemic restrictions were lifted, “FOCB could find no one to organize a parade, and hoped for someone to come forward for 2023.” Adding as I was told, “Shirley Grace is a tough act to follow.”

The Parade Returns

So, it was good news to find out that Paul Lewis and Jerry Pequeen will be co-chairpersons for the End of Summer Parade this year.

The Friends of Crystal Beach invite the entire community of the Greater Fort Erie area to join in the fun.  Come and travel the 5-kilometer route through Crystal Beach.

Bring your float, car, classic auto, or motorcycle as the symbolic casket is escorted and summer is laid to rest. The FOCB members encourage local businesses to join in the celebration as a way of thanking the community for their support.

There will be prizes awarded in a variety of categories.  Entrants are asked to meet at the Crystal Ridge Community Center/Crystal Ridge Arena at 12:00 pm.  The parade will commence at 1:00 pm, ending at the Crystal Chandelier where the official burial ceremony will take place.

As this tradition continues, the members of Friends of Crystal Beach hope you will be a part of this family-friendly event.

To participate, please register at either focb.net or call Jerry at 905-894-2642. 

Photos provided by Jerry Pequeen, a former member of the Friends of Crystal Beach