Ochelata will host a parade on Veterans Day to honor area war veterans.
The parade will start from the Ochelata ball fields -- located east of the post office in downtown Ochelata -- at around 6 p.m. and will travel south to Vera Street where the parade will then head west on Vera Street to Ochelata Street. It will then turn north and head to the post office to turn back east toward the ball fields.
Participants are encouraged to arrive no later than 5:45 p.m. Parade officials said anyone can be part of the parade whether they are walking, riding or driving. Candy may be thrown from vehicles/floats or handed to bystanders.
Nearly 100 people showed up to view the Veterans Day parade held in downtown Bartlesville on Saturday.
The parade featured a number of floats by local organizations and businesses and a few veterans driving motorcycles. Bartlesville Boy Scout Troops 2 and 6 and a local Girl Scouts troop participated in the parade as well.
Both the Bartlesville and Ochelata parades are sponsered by the James E. Bailey Post 989.
Veterans Day, orginally known as Armistic Day, was first a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I.
Whereas World War I did not officially end until June 28,1919 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the fighting had ended seven months earlier with an agreement for the cessation of hostilities between the Allied nations and Germany that went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Web
site, that November when the fighting stopped, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day saying: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"
Congress then passed a resolution in 1926 recognizing the Nov. 11 as a legal holiday.
In 1954, following World War II and the Korean War, Congress struck out the word "Armistice" from the holiday and replaced it with "Veterans" to honor American veterans of all wars.
