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FOURTH OF JULY

Traditional Fourth abides in Key Biscayne

The Key Biscayne Fourth of July parade is a pocket of small-town America in the midst of an international metropolis.
BY STEPHANIE GARRY
sgarry@MiamiHerald.com

When Key Biscayne held its first Fourth of July parade in 1959, the island was an affordable speck of suburbia far from the hurry and glamour of Miami.

Almost 50 years later, the holiday tradition that began with a hodgepodge marching band has grown into one of the area's largest and longest-running July Fourth parades, with a $40,000 budget and more than 40 floats cruising Crandon Boulevard.

''We've gotten a little bit more sophisticated,'' said Mike Rice, vice president of the organizing committee.

Some think Key Biscayne's parade has veered from its hometown feel as it has expanded and become more professional. But others relish the tradition as a throwback to the simplicity and community spirit of the island's all-American youth.

''It's a little slice of Americana,'' said Tim Stickney, master of ceremonies, at a pre-parade barbecue Saturday.

''That we're trying to hang on to desperately,'' added Jane Morris, a parade organizer.

Longtime Key Biscayne residents have seen tremendous change. Many of the island's original single-story houses, sold for about $10,000 in the 1950s, have been leveled to make way for would-be Villa Vizcayas along Biscayne Bay. Some Key Rats, as they're called, have been priced out of the area, but they always come back for the parade.

''People come out of the woodwork to come back to Key Biscayne for the Fourth of July,'' said Ota Zambrano, who owns the Donut Gallery Restaurant on the island with her husband, Nelson. ``It's like a Key Rat reunion.''

Parade founders paid expenses by selling buttons and flags; today's ambitious lineup is funded by grants from Miami-Dade County and corporate donations. Float riders are no longer allowed to throw candy. And professional floats have replaced many of the homemade creations.

''The key's gotten bigger, the companies have gotten bigger, so they've gotten a little bit more generous with what they can do,'' Rice said. ``But there's still the core of the original Key Rats.''

The Donut Gallery Restaurant is one of the few parade participants that still builds a float from scratch. Nelson Zambrano said he thinks it's a way for Key Biscayne residents to appreciate their forefathers. His father Benjamin, a Cuban exile who bought the restaurant in 1973, always sat on the back of the float under a giant umbrella. When he died this year, Zambrano decided to build this year's float in his father's honor.

''My dad did create what you could call the American Dream,'' Zambrano said.

Key Biscayne's first residents were World War II veterans moving to the suburbs to start families and make a living during the 1950s. They bought cheap houses from the developer, the Mackle Co., to raise their kids in an affordable ``island paradise.''

The only way to get to Key Biscayne was over a drawbridge, which would cause half-hour delays when it worked and hours-long delays when it broke down. After it was replaced by a high bridge in the late 1980s, Key Biscayne became one of the most desirable places to live in Miami.

''Folks moved out here thinking they were kind of in Miami but weren't,'' said Melissa Lichtenheld, a longtime Key resident and grant writer for the parade. The '50s -- the era of the Cold War and events leading up to the Cuban Revolution just 90 miles away -- were also a patriotic time, and the parade came about after a few of the key's first residents realized their kids were growing up without understanding the importance of America's founding. The way to teach them, town founders thought, was with a parade.

A marching band called the Chowder Chompers, thus named for their love of conch, led the first parade, wending their way through the narrow residential streets and toting a cooler of beer, said Jean Yehle, a parade founder who moved to Key Biscayne in 1952.

As the years went on, organizers created new traditions. Every year an Air Force flyover starts the parade. Politicians joined up -- Jeb Bush attended when he ran for governor -- giving orations, riding in floats and waving to the crowd from their usual placement: behind the horses.

''We've put the politicians behind the horses for 30 years,'' said Rice. ``Someone's got to march behind the horses, and we felt that they're probably the most suited for it.''

Many of this year's organizers are second-generation Key Biscayne residents who have taken up their parents' jobs to keep the traditions alive.

''Key Biscayne is a little town,'' Rice said. ``It still is a little town.''