OHIO — Cities across Ohio were able to get back to a sense of normalcy for Labor Day this year and host their annual Labor Day parades.

This comes after many Labor Day parades across the state were canceled last year due to the pandemic. 

Donita Singerman and her husband took full advantage of this opportunity and attended the Labor Day parade in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.

“We’ve lived in this house for 45 years,” Singerman said. “For pretty most of those years, we’ve come to the end of the street and watched the parade. Some of those years we have participated with different groups but it’s always a nice community event.” 

The Singerman's have been married for almost 50 years and have spent the majority of their lives together in Shaker Heights. 

"Both of our kids went through Shaker schools and they were both in the marching band; one played flute one played precessions," she said. "It was always nice to watch them and their friends march in the parade.” 

Even though their children are all grown up, the couple still keeps up with their decades-long tradition of attending the parade. 

 "It seems to be almost a throwback to previous years, where people would casually get together and, of course, people in the parade usually throw candy, and that’s always a favorite for the kids,” Singerman said laughing. 

She said even though many years have passed since her family first started attending the parade, her favorite part of the event has always remained the same. 

"The marching band is the favorite part; you notice how large it was? It seemed to go on forever," she said. "Shaker has a reputation of having a very good and large marching band all of their music programs."