CATLETTSBURG — There actually were three parades in Catlettsburg Monday morning — the cars streaming in and turning normally quiet streets into long parking lots was one; the families, many of them toting lawn chairs, walking from their homes and cars to find good viewing spots downtown was another.

Of course, the main attraction was Catlettsburg’s annual Labor Day parade.

By 10 a.m., the official kick-off time, one could see the first bands and floats massed down the road, red and yellow lights flashing on the police and emergency vehicles, motors ticking over.

It was still relatively quiet. The bands were saving their thunder for the reviewing stand in front of the courthouse. The firefighters hadn’t yet flipped the switches that would set their sirens screaming for the duration of the parade.

Then came the first float, the grand marshal’s float.

This year the entire Thomas R. Brown High School class of 1957 was grand marshal.

In between tossing shiny strings of New Orleans style beads, class members called and waved to old friends in the crowd, and their friends hooted right back.

It’s their 50th reunion year, which fits right in with the spirit of the annual three-day Gate City festival. The high school was closed and torn down in the early 1970s, but the classmates — there were 56 who graduated that year — remain friends to this day, they said.

Cynthia Henry, for instance, came into town from her home in Tucson, Ariz., for the reunion and parade.

“We’ve stayed in touch,” she said. “We’re like a family.”

Henry grew up on Oakland Avenue and misses the sound of the trains rumbling by. Her father, Jack Wilson, was a mayor in Catlettsburg in the early 1950s. But she doesn’t have family left in the area, except of course her high school friends.

In fact, she’s talked about them so much her adult daughters, one from Minnesota and one from Washington, accompanied her to Catlettsburg.

“They know I love these people and they wanted to meet them,” Henry said.

Near the head of the parade route, an extended family gathered on the cool shady porch of Randall Peterman, who was marching in the parade.

Gathering to watch the parade is a yearly tradition, said Walter Peterman, Randall’s brother. “I’ve been coming ever since I was little.”

Another relative, John Fitzgerald, came up from Grayson, where he now lives, for the holiday. His children, 11-year-old Zack and 8-year-old Brittany, watched the parade with a sharp eye out for the candy that rained from many of the floats.

“I come down here every year and get candy,” Zack said. “I like the part with all the sirens.”

“I like the cheerleaders,” his sister said.

The parade kicked off the final and biggest day of the annual festival, which culminated with a concert by country superstar George Jones.

Jones has made Catlettsburg his Labor Day destination for eight years.

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.