Tipton sesquicentennial celebration in high gear

Tipton’s Sesquicentennial Parade on Saturday offered a salute to the town’s past while reuniting some of its present inhabitants with their own history. 

Led by the Tipton police, the parade featured hundreds of participants, from souped-up muscle cars to muscled-up golf carts.

The 1958 Centennial Royalty pulled by a vintage Chevrolet Bel Air rolled ahead of horse- drawn wagons and coaches, commemorating the range of the town’s 150 years.

Bill Hays, whose family has been in Tipton since 1885, sat watching the parade with his wife and daughter. He was 11 years old when the Centennial celebration parade rolled through town.

“Things have made a lot of progress since then,” Hays said. “A big tractor then wouldn’t be a garden tractor now.”

The kids are a little less mischievous these days, Hays said, describing how in 1958 kids pelted the parade with water balloons from atop a nearby building.

Instead of tossing water bombs, kids on Saturday were scrambling for candy thrown from cars.

Courtland Knipp, 7, said the parade was “good, because it has all this stuff in it.”

Knipp said he liked the “tractors, and all kinds of other stuff,” listing the John Deere models as his favorite.

Scores of people spread out over Morgan Street, Moreau Avenue and Moniteau Street for the morning parade, even as distant storm clouds threatened. 

For some the Sesquicentennial was a homecoming.

“It’s great. I’ve got to meet a lot of people I haven’t met for a long time,” Klinton Koechner said. Koechner, 20, joined fellow Tipton High School alumni at the parade, playing saxophone in the Alumni Marching Band. 

Koechner’s relative, actor/comedian David Koechner, rode along in his cousin’s 1965 Chevrolet Impala. “It’s a fantastic parade,” David Koechner said.

The performer, who has appeared in movies and television shows such as “Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy” and “The Office,” played a free show Friday as part of his hometown’s celebration.

“It’s overwhelming really, coming back to your hometown. That’s such an intimate place to begin with,” he said. “It’s so personal and it feels more precious and important. You feel like you don’t want to overstep or disappoint, but the best you can do is be a part of it.” 

The town’s birthday celebration continues at 4 p.m. today with a communitywide picnic at Tipton City Park Lake Shelterhouse.