Lasting memory

KENT — Memorial Day started out with a few thunderclaps and lightning bolts, but by 9 a.m. the clouds began to break and the firehouse on Maple Street was bustling with men, women, children and dogs preparing to march through the village center.The parade took off down Main Street at 9:30 a.m. The American Legion Color Guard took the lead, with veterans in cars and jeeps following.Other groups that participated in the parade were the Kent Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, with the Cub Scouts, Brownies and Daisies. The Kent Volunteer Fire Department and William McCann and his tractor-drawn wagon were at the end of the parade.The first stop was the Veterans Memorial, a monument dedicated Nov. 11, 2009. The Rev. Thomas Berberich gave an invocation, and World War II veteran Robert Bauer placed a wreath by the memorial.“We like to honor our fallen comrades,” Bauer said. “A lot of people forget about that.”The parade continued to the Civil War Monument, where a Kent Center School student recited the Gettysburg Address. The next stop was the Kent Memorial Library, where Berberich gave another invocation and Korean War veteran and commander of American Legion Hall-Jennings Post No. 153 Jerry White placed a wreath for World War I veterans. As First Selectman Bruce Adams read the names of Kent veterans in front of the library, two F15s from the Massachusetts Air National Guard roared over Main Street.“I planned that,” he said, smiling, before finishing the list of names.Just before the parade ended at the Kent Congregational Church cemetery, the sun came out.“It’s a very special day for all the men and women who laid down their lives for our country,” White said.Charleen Robarge was standing by the white picket fence just outside her house with her dog, Mini Cooper, watching the last of the marchers go by.“The parade always passes right by us,”Robarge said. “We watch it every year.”