Janis Constantine remembers the first of the Warwick Neck July 4 parades when there were virtually no spectators, since most of those along the route made up the parade.

That’s changed in 25 years, but a lot hasn’t, too. The eight-foot tall Statue of Liberty that made the first parade was there Tuesday, as a police motorcycle detail led the line of march that took the parade up Narragansett Bay Avenue past the Warwick Country Club to Warwick Neck Avenue and then back down Kirby to Bill and Madeline Nixon’s home overlooking Greenwich Bay.

The statue was part of the inspiration of that first parade. It belonged to Howard and Delores Haronian and was a natural for the parade. Actually, the idea for a parade germinated when the Haronians, Bill and Barbara Riggs and the Nixons sailed to Stonington, Conn. the year prior.

It was the Fourth of July and there was a parade, but, as Bill Nixon recalls, there were only a few participants so they joined in to march and wave. They thought if it was easy to marshal a parade they could do the same thing for their neighborhood. They printed up about 100 flyers and passed them around, not knowing who might show up.

“It was amazing how many turned out,” said Nixon, who served as the first grand marshal and has been organizing the parade ever since. He recalls only one family turning out as spectators for that first year.

The parade quickly caught on with the core group of organizers growing. In those first parades, Bill Riggs wore an Uncle Sam suit and rode a bicycle as Jack Henriques, dressed as a wounded patriot with a red-stained bandage, limped along with a cane.

Months in advance, Nixon is on the phone lining up participants. About 10 years ago he invited Scott Avedisian to march and the mayor showed up in a suit.

“I told him he can’t come back if he wears that,” Nixon said. The mayor was in shorts this year.

As he has done for every parade, Bill was in the lead of the parade with a vehicle wired with speakers blasting patriotic music. He annually hosts the post-parade assembly on his lawn where the tradition is lemonade, cookies and watermelon, along with a ceremonial raising of the flag. Certificates are also distributed to the outstanding marchers – which were so numerous this year that Janice Place had everyone sing out a “hip-hip hooray” for the collective winners and then passed certificates out individually.

New, too, this year was the choice of grand marshal. The distinction went to Ann Gooding, president of the Warwick Neck Improvement Association and the first woman to hold the title. In brief remarks she recognized elected officials attending, including Councilmen Ed Ladouceur and Joseph Solomon, Rep. Joseph Solomon Jr. and Mayor Scott Avedisian. And she didn’t forget former Mayor Joseph Walsh.

Such protocol has seeped into the parade, but it seems the only hard and fast rules are to have fun, celebrate the 4th and meet your neighbors.