NAHANT - Under a cloudless, pale blue sky, hundreds of residents in this scenic seaside town lined its main thoroughfare for the annual Memorial Day parade, featuring the farewell appearance of a World War I machine gun that was part of the town's victory parade for returning soldiers in 1919.
The gun, which war hero Alvin York seized from the Germans in a legendary raid behind enemy lines, was brought to Nahant by a local Army clerk who had snatched it as a souvenir. The gun had vanished from public view for years until it was discovered in the attic of the town library six years ago.
The library is sending the historic Maxim gun, believed to be one of the last remaining from York's famous 1918 incursion, to a museum in Tennessee, York's home state. The library will receive a $10,000 donation.
The gun was towed in a bunting-draped red wagon by three Boy Scouts, re-creating the scene from the 1919 parade.
"This is its farewell tour," said library trustee John Welsh. "A victory lap."
Nahant, a narrow, rocky peninsula that juts into Massachusetts Bay, is the state's smallest town by area. But at a time when many other communities are scaling back Memorial Day parades, Nahant's remains strikingly vibrant, a heartfelt tradition that draws virtually all of the town's 3,600 residents to the main thoroughfare.
"Half the town marches, and the other half watches," quipped Elizabeth Welsh, John Welsh's 25-year-old daughter as she watched from the roadside.
The parade rolled through the flag-lined center of town, passing cottages and Colonials with picket fences and wraparound porches, to Greenlawn Cemetery, where flags and fresh flowers graced the graves of veteran. Lining the street, the crowd applauded warmly as veterans passed by, often calling out to them by name.
Afterward, many said they were touched by the town's appreciation.
"It means a lot," said Phil Joyce, a Korean War veteran. "It really does."
His wife, Gertrud, grew up in Germany during World War II and remembers American soldiers distributing food to her and other hungry children. Every day, she thanks them for what they did, and grieves for what they gave up. Never more so, the 74-year-old said, than on Memorial Day.
"I am ever so grateful, and always will be," she said, her voice quivering with emotion. "All these people had to sacrifice so much."
At a memorial service at the cemetery, Vietnam War veteran Tom Gallery lauded military veterans as "the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest country the world has ever known." He urged the crowd that ringed the brick-walled graveyard to thank veterans for their service. A simple show of appreciation, he said, would mean more than any medal.
Adding to the day's spectacle was the mounted machine gun's final hurrah in Nahant, its home for 90 years after it was captured by York and his men in an odds-defying raid of a heavily fortified German machine gun nest in the Argonne Forest. York was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions, which resulted in the capture of 132 German soldiers and 35 machine guns.
One of those guns was later given to the town in 1918 by Nahant native Mayland Lewis.
After discovering the gun a few years ago, town officials considered selling it to a collector, but were stymied by a law that forbids the sale of unregistered guns, and another that prohibits new registrations on automatic weapons.
Since it was illegal for the library to have the gun at all, it was locked away in the evidence room of the police station, while officials searched for a suitable home. Eventually, they found one - the Museum of Appalachia in Clinton, Tenn. The museum's donation will support a fund for a library addition.
Near the end of the memorial service, sixth-grader Kristian Hosker read Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address from the top of the cemetery. His voice strong, he recited the speech from memory, without a single mistake. The crowd roared its approval, and Hosker smiled. When the ceremony ended, he ran into his mother's outstretched arms.
