It was some of the hottest weather I ever remember for watching a parade, with temperatures probably close to those we experienced earlier this week. It was the Four County Firemen’s Parade, and it was in mid-June in Northampton, probably in the 1970s. Several marchers needed treatment by medics because of the heat.

Yet, few complained. Not even the firefighters in the line of march wearing suits with ties.

The Four County Firemen’s Parade was an annual event at the time. The Lehighton Fire Department had a huge marching unit. Sometimes more than 100 firefighters from the department would be in line at such events like the Four County Firemen’s’ Association parade, especially in the late 1960s.

Although most of the time Lehighton won the parade’s top prize of Best Appearing Fire Department, it got stiff competition from marching units from Lansford, Jim Thorpe, Pen Argyl, Bangor and others. And Tamaqua often had 100 or more marchers when they marched in parades.

The Four County Parade was more than a mere marching event. Fire departments had apparatus judged. It was a spectacle. There was an annual convention. Firefighters from all over the area — even beyond the Four County area — got together and socialized. They exchanged ideas. They broke bread together.

The Four County Firemen’s Parade was much larger than just a four-county event. At virtually every parade, there was participation from surrounding fire departments. Even the department from Valley Stream, New York, attended regularly. That’s how respected the convention and parade were.

I remember that once, in 1963, my grandfather took me to the Pennsylvania State Firemen’s Association parade in Lebanon. I enjoyed it as much as he did. There were literally several hundred pieces of shiny apparatus of all colors. I was astonished at the synchronized steps of the firefighters who formed marching units and lost count of the many talented bands in a parade that lasted for hours.

Oh, how times have changed.

I covered the annual Four County Parade, which actually encompassed fire departments from five counties, for many years. The Four County Firemen’s Association consisted of fire departments from Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton and Pike counties. I’m told it’s no longer in existence. From what I could determine, the last Four County Parade was in Hellertown in 2013.

There’s no state association parade this year. The convention is being hosted by the King of Prussia Fire Company as part of its 75th anniversary.

Brian Connely of Tamaqua, who is eastern vice president of the state association, said that on the Saturday of the event there will be a volunteer fire company antiques fire and EMS apparatus muster from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. But there won’t be a parade.

Such annual firemen’s parades are a vanishing tradition. For at least the first 100 years, the only years the state parade wasn’t held was during World War I and World War II. Of course, COVID-19 forced a cancellation in 2020. Only one state association parade occurred in Pennsylvania after the pandemic.

The Six County Firemen’s Association, which included Schuylkill County, disbanded in 2022, ending a tradition that had existed for 118 years.

Gary Perna of McAdoo, who was the treasurer when the Six County Association disbanded, said at the time: “We saw a huge decrease in membership, we had members who became life-members and we didn’t have the new active members to kind of take their place, so that really started to hurt.”

Even when the parades were held, in the final years you could see things weren’t the same. Marching units were smaller, and for many fire departments had disappeared completely. That is largely to the declining number of volunteers.

Also, the price of hosting a parade is expensive with insurance, prize money, paying for bands and other costs — money better suited for use within the respective departments, especially since fundraising depends on fewer volunteers.

Most of the time when the Four County Firemen’s Association parade was held, there would be a bidding war at the convention, with several fire departments hoping to host the event the following year. Toward the group’s end, sometimes there was one or even no participants in the bidding.

The Maryland State Firefighters Association Parade recently was held in Ocean City, Maryland. So, fortunately, not all such parades have disappeared.

It is asking a lot of volunteer firefighters to train, raise funds, answer calls — from vehicle crashes to fires to flooding basements — all on their own time, without having them plan and participate in large parades. Such parades are largely financially unrealistic to host.

But there was a huge parade for firefighters locally last September: an eight-division parade by the Lehighton Fire Department for its 150th anniversary.

Before that, I believe the last association parade occurred in 2015 when the Lake Harmony Fire Department hosted the state association’s convention and parade.

It’s sad that the tradition of these huge parades for firefighters is so remote anymore.

There are some local fire department parades scheduled this summer, though. Among them:

• Today — Citizens Fire Company in Tamaqua will have an apparatus parade in conjunction with its annual bazaar at 6 p.m.

• July 19 — Blue Ridge Hook & Ladder of Saylorsburg, in conjunction with its 120th anniversary, will meet at St. Peter’s United Methodist Church and motorcade to Mazezilla.

• Aug. 18 — The 71st annual Schuylkill County Firefighters Convention Parade, hosted by the Friendship Fire Company, will be held at 1 p.m. in Englewood, Butler Township.