WALLA WALLA, Wash. – While he isn’t a vet himself Charles Stanger decided to start being a part of the Walla Walla Veterans Day Parade after seeing a dead soldier’s precession go through town.
As a cycler, he decided to modify his bike to show his thanks to veterans.
“I want to say thank you to the people that gave things we never had to. And it’s kind of crazy because it makes you emotional talking about it,” Stanger said. ”(It) makes me emotional talking about it. So, I just have a great respect for the veterans.”
The bikes started with just two American flags on the handlebars according to Stanger.
“So I went to the local hardware store and I said I need flags I need pipes and we went in the back and we bent some stuff up and put them on a bike and that was the beginning,” he said.
Since then he’s gone from two flags to 11 to celebrate the 11th month, 11th day, and 11th hour.
Stanger plays music loud enough to hear him coming from down the road with two large speakers on the trailer connected to his bike.
“To me, you have to have volume to have fun,” he said.
Years ago when starting out he said he avoided paying to get in the parade and said he would find his way in at the end of all the floats once it started.
He no longer has to pay to be a part of the parade and said after over 10 years of being a part of it’s a tradition to have the bikes ride by at the end.