Ron Ouren honored as grand marshal

In case you missed the memo, I love the Fourth of July ... my favorite holiday! The announcement of each year’s parade grand marshal is exciting and this year is no exception. Ron Ouren, everyone’s favorite (recently retired) banker and a prolific community volunteer will be doing the honors Thursday morning in the Fourth of July parade, accompanied by his high school sweetheart and bride of 54 years, Karen.

Many of you may know Ron in one or more capacities, through Coeur d’Alene Rotary, NIC and CHS booster clubs, the North Idaho Fair Foundation, Kootenai Humane Society or the Panhandle Parks Foundation.

He and Karen are natives of North Dakota who headed west to make a life here in Coeur d’Alene decades ago. We’re sure glad they did.

And remember if you’re spectating in the vicinity of Second and Third streets on Sherman near the announcer’s skybox you’ll be treated to Brandon Michael, musical theater actor and opera singer, opening the parade with “The Star-Spangled Banner,” following the kids street dance party with Scott Hough and me between 9:30 and 10 a.m. Well, Scott dances on roller skates and I cheer him on from the booth. :)

See you all Thursday!

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A few weeks ago I mentioned that after 40-plus years the Post Falls Lions Club will no longer put on its iconic Haunted House. This weekend the club is holding an everything-must-go sale of tools, scary decorations and costumes, concession items and some of the oddest of odds and ends.

The sale, at 502 E. Fourth Ave. in Post Falls, is Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. They will open the doors to the public and take offers on everything, including the pole building!

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Fourth of July parade trivia for newcomers: In June 1977 an article in the Coeur d’Alene Press announced that there would be no marching bands in the Fourth of July parade that year because high school bands were disbanded for the summer months.

So Larry and Sharon Strobel decided they should start a band for the parade, a band that would rely upon former CHS band members, area high school and college musicians, professional musicians who lived local and just about anyone who owned an instrument and was willing to play and march.

The 100-plus member volunteer band is known as much for the outrageous and zany costuming of each member as it is for the surprisingly well-performed music and marching. For more than four decades it’s been a badge of honor to practice a time or two a few days before the parade and then march down Sherman Avenue to the delight of thousands.

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Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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Happy Birthday today to Jeff Ward, Dana Merritt and Mark Durant. Thursday the United States of America, Jedidiah Riley, Brent Regan, Chris Atkinson, Jennifer Locke, Joscelyn Ramsey, Jake Campbell, Keri Roybal, Dan Brockway, Sr., MaryBeth Matthews, Dick Lind, Tyson Chamberlain, Britney Davenport, Jack Smetana, Glenda Johnson, Amber Hunt, Teresa Espe, Orla Kahl and father and daughter, KD and Keely Spalding are celebrating star-spangled birthdays. On Friday Steve Hanson, Laurie Schwenke, John Beutler, Chris Hollibaugh, Kaila Hansen and Amy Dreps blow out their birthday candles. Taking another trip around the sun on Saturday are Alivia Lickfold, Barb McCarley, Bill Brooks, Wade Jacklin, Suzanne Holland and Robin Ducote. Marking birthdays lucky 7/7 birthdays are Becky Lee, Renei Yarrow, Susie Jameson, Devon Dixon, Jeff Populus, Tim Adams and Susie Sullivan. On Monday Taryn Thompson, Samantha Babich, Peter Finney, Bev Hammond, Dawson Brown, Ron Jacaban, Beverly Knapp and Carrie Erickson celebrate. Tucker Morrison, Madison King, Jenny Seaman, Brooke Bowers, Loren Mitchell (80!), Brooke Hell, Jenny Joyner and Renee Christensen have their cake and eat it, too on Tuesday.

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.