Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

To­bag­o­ni­ans lined the Claude Noel High­way near Scar­bor­ough yes­ter­day as pa­tri­o­tism and pride were on full dis­play in the an­nu­al In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade.

Par­ents brought out their chil­dren, clad in na­tion­al colours, from as ear­ly as 8 am, se­cur­ing a van­tage point to catch the pro­tec­tive ser­vices as they marched through the streets fol­low­ing the tra­di­tion­al 8.30 am in­spec­tion at Pa­rade Grounds, Ba­co­let.

Uka­nia Jack-Den­nis, a moth­er of four, was ea­ger­ly await­ing the pa­rade to see her sis­ter, a po­lice of­fi­cer, par­tic­i­pate for the first time.

She said it was im­por­tant for the chil­dren to ex­pe­ri­ence the cel­e­bra­tions.

“They need to know where they’re from, as a peo­ple, what in­de­pen­dence means to us,” she said.

How­ev­er, the late start to pro­ceed­ings left some peo­ple frus­trat­ed, with one woman not­ing Trinidad’s of­fi­cial cer­e­mo­ny had prob­a­bly end­ed be­fore To­ba­go’s even be­gan.

As gov­ern­ment-is­sued SU­Vs whizzed along the high­way, she fumed even more.

“Watch them, late as usu­al and speed­ing,” she re­marked.

How­ev­er, the sound of horns and the thud of drums in the dis­tance im­proved her mood as the mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices hit the street for the an­nu­al pa­rade.

The po­lice ser­vice, reg­i­ment, fire ser­vice and prison of­fi­cers, with their but­tons shin­ing, marched in uni­son ac­com­pa­nied by the var­i­ous bands, salut­ing Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine, who took up a po­si­tion along the route af­ter the of­fi­cial in­spec­tion.

Mar­vin Williams, who was spec­tat­ing with his fam­i­ly, used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to show his one-year-old grand­son Naej’on Ot­t­ley a few march­ing drills, which had the tod­dler stomp­ing his feet ex­cit­ed­ly. Williams told Guardian Me­dia that Ot­t­ley’s fa­ther is a mem­ber of the reg­i­ment.

Mean­while, the sound of sirens and the sight of the var­i­ous pro­tec­tive ser­vices as­sets de­light­ed the crowd, par­tic­u­lar­ly the chil­dren.

Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Rod­hil Kirk, perched in the tray of a po­lice van, waved to the crowd.

The ve­hi­cle was part of a large po­lice con­voy, which in­clud­ed mo­tor­bikes, bi­cy­cles and oth­er as­sets.

But the ex­cite­ment reached an­oth­er lev­el when the fire trucks start­ed spray­ing wa­ter in­to the air as chil­dren and adults danced in the street.

“The peo­ple want wa­ter,” a woman shout­ed, quot­ing for­mer So­ca Monarch cham­pi­on Neil “Iw­er” George.

One To­bag­on­ian said she was pleased to see the young mem­bers of the var­i­ous ser­vices par­tic­i­pat­ing.

“It’s very ex­cit­ing. It’s a day we cel­e­brate our coun­try’s in­de­pen­dence from British rule. We have come a long way, and we have to be proud of our coun­try,” she said.

The cel­e­bra­tions con­tin­ued through­out the day with sev­er­al oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties in­clud­ing cy­cling races, power­boat rac­ing, a 5K run, a cul­tur­al show and a grand fire­works dis­play at the Scar­bor­ough Es­planade.