Who put out the first chair for the Upper Arlington July 4th parade? It's a mystery

On the morning of June 4, residents of Upper Arlington woke up to see a red lawn chair neatly bordered off by caution tape, sitting by Donato's Pizza at the busy intersection of Northwest Boulevard and Zollinger Road.

The lawn chair has created buzz around a greater tradition — the town's July 4 parade.

On parade day, the route along Northwest Boulevard is typically packed with lawn chairs and onlookers, cheering on as floats go by. For decades, Upper Arlington residents who live along the route have set out their chairs weeks in advance to make sure they get the best spot.

This year, the red lawn chair is the earliest many parade attendees remember seeing a chair appear along the route — and not even the parade organizers know who put it there.

“I think someone putting the chair out so early this year could be, you know, a little teaser for their neighborhood float,” said Michelle Gdovin, who is a general chair of this year’s event along with her husband Steve. “People definitely will start setting chairs out if you drive down in the next week… but the one that is causing all of the stir this year, they placed it right where we have our bleachers set up normally for judges.”

The July 4 parade first ran in 1923. This year’s centennial event will start with the parade along Northwest Boulevard, kicking off at 9 a.m. Festivities will continue into the night with Party In the Park, an event featuring fireworks and music starting at 5:30 p.m. in Northam Park, 1880 Northam Rd.

The real highlight for many, though, is the range of quirky traditions that come along with the celebration year after year. This year’s parade theme, Upper Arlington Traditions, pays homage to those, the Gdovins said.

From waking people up at 7 a.m. with airhorns to impressing judges with elaborate parade floats, community traditions have kept lifelong Upper Arlington resident Ron Johnson coming back to the parade for over 70 years.

“Big pieces of it have stayed the same, maybe with some revisions and modernizations, but… the real key is, it’s a neighborhood coming together to build floats,” Johnson said. “That still, to me, is the core of what makes [the parade] great.”

Johnson, who served as a General Chair of the parade in 1994, said the heart of the parade is the wide array of parade floats. All of the floats are built by neighborhoods, community groups, sports teams and other local organizations, and the parade typically features over 90 floats.

More: Photos: Upper Arlington Civic Association’s Fourth of July Celebration

Susie and George Pattison, parade chairs of this year’s event, said city blocks throughout Upper Arlington will usually come together to design and build their own float, giving the celebration an authentic feel.

“The positive feedback about our parade is that it feels very different than a standard parade because there isn't the politics or the corporate pull on it,” Susie Pattison said. “It's much more focused on neighborhoods and communities coming together to add their spin on, or maybe a play off a theme.”

As excitement mounts and more chairs begin to appear along the parade route, the Pattisons said they’ve noticed people adding decorations, drinks and other objects to the first chair set out by Donato’s, building anticipation for the parade on social media and beyond.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Who put out the first chair for the Upper Arlington July 4th parade?