MONROE - Long-time Green County residents Dick Rote and Gerald Swiggum laugh about the times when the annual Cheese Days parade was rained out.
Both are hoping for sunny weather on Sunday, Sept. 21, when they will be honored as marshals of The Swiss Colony Cheese Days Parade.
Swiggum has been in the parade before, riding at the "tail end" along with fellow Cheese Days Festival Co-Chair Alan Holtsapple in 1978.
Swiggum was the sales manager at Alphorn Ford. He and his wife Frieda live at Twining Valley, but Browntown was their home for many years.
Rote has been involved in many aspects of the festival. He chaired the cheese factory and farm tours committee, served as treasurer for many years, organized the drum and bugle corps competition and once was about to pull a parade float with queens on it until the parade got rained out.
For many years, he missed the parade because he volunteered at the Green County Historical Society Museum.
In 1965, Rote was a member of the Jaycees and co-chaired the lunch stand on the festival grounds.
"We were told to be prepared with 10,000 sandwiches," he said, so the committee spent Friday evening at Dorman Cheese and got about 5,000 made up ahead of time. A rainstorm ruined their projections, and hundreds of box lunches were donated to the county farm.
Rote started at First National Bank (now Amcore) and retired after 48 years.
Both are hoping for sunny weather on Sunday, Sept. 21, when they will be honored as marshals of The Swiss Colony Cheese Days Parade.
Swiggum has been in the parade before, riding at the "tail end" along with fellow Cheese Days Festival Co-Chair Alan Holtsapple in 1978.
Swiggum was the sales manager at Alphorn Ford. He and his wife Frieda live at Twining Valley, but Browntown was their home for many years.
Rote has been involved in many aspects of the festival. He chaired the cheese factory and farm tours committee, served as treasurer for many years, organized the drum and bugle corps competition and once was about to pull a parade float with queens on it until the parade got rained out.
For many years, he missed the parade because he volunteered at the Green County Historical Society Museum.
In 1965, Rote was a member of the Jaycees and co-chaired the lunch stand on the festival grounds.
"We were told to be prepared with 10,000 sandwiches," he said, so the committee spent Friday evening at Dorman Cheese and got about 5,000 made up ahead of time. A rainstorm ruined their projections, and hundreds of box lunches were donated to the county farm.
Rote started at First National Bank (now Amcore) and retired after 48 years.