HALDEMAN — A funny thing happenen to Morris Hinton while he was selling honey produced by his bees at a flea market in Sugarcreek, Ohio: He met Lloyd Dean and set the wheels in motion to become the grand marshal for the parade that marks the start of Saturday’s 27th Haldeman/Hays Crossing Reunion.

A crowd of several hundred is expected to line the parade route from the Hays Crossing Volunteer Fire Department on U.S. 60 to the Haldeman School Community Center a short distance from U.S. 60. The parade begins at 11 a.m., and Hinton, who lives in Wellington, Ohio, said he has been “practicing my waving” in anticipation of his part in the annual event.

“I think we are going to have the biggest parade ever if everybody who says they are going to be there actually shows up,” said Dean. “We should have lots of antique and classic cars and a lot of veterans in their old military uniforms.”

The only requirement for being in the parade is to show up. Units will begin to line up at 10 a.m. at the fire department, with the parade beginning an hour later.  “If you want to be in the parade, we’ll find a place for you,” Dean said. “This is a community event and the more people in the community who participate, the better it will be.”

Dean was heading home after vacationing at Niagara Falls last summer when he and his wife stopped by the flea market in Sugarcreek. Dean said he was resting by Hinton’s honey stand when he struck up a conversation with the stranger. “We just started talking,” Dean recalled. “I wasn’t even interested in buying any of his honey.”

  Dean learned Hinton was a native of Haldeman who graduated from the old Morehead High School in 1957. He immediately joined the Army and served until 1962. He worked for a while in the printing industry in Lexington before becoming an air traffic controller in Cleveland, Ohio, retiring at the end of 1992.

Hinton, who has a degree in psychology, manages 65 to 70 beehives and sells different varieties of honey at flea markets and festivals.

Hinton still has family in Haldeman and a niece will be riding in a Corvette in Saturday’s parade, Dean said.

“I told him that there had better be Hintons lined up all along U.S. 60,” Dean said, adding Hinton told him because of his role at this year’s reunion, his family is thinking about launching a Hinton family reunion.  

Dean, a retired teacher, started the annual Haldeman School Reunion in 1980, and for the first decade, it was just a reunion for former students of the school. When the school closed in 1991, there was no reunion for a few years, but it has been an annual affair since the old school was purchased in 2007 as a community center.

The parade will be just the first of many activities at Saturday’s reunion, with most events at the community center, Dean said. Noon to 5 p.m. has been set aside for visiting and rewards accompanied by music of local talent. There also will be horseshoe and cornhole tournaments, the oldest and youngest at the reunion honored, along with the largest family present, the couple who have been married the longest and the couple married the least amount of time, Dean said. Veterans and former Haldeman School teachers and staff will be honored. Refreshments will be served throughout the day.

“This is just a fun event,” Dean said. “It gives us an excuse to come together every year. I don’t know how many we will have Saturday, but in the past we have had people come from 13 or 14 states.”

JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.

com or at (606) 326-2649.