ST. LOUIS - Hundreds of people lined Market Street in downtown St. Louis Saturday for a St. Louis tradition: The Veterans Day Parade.
Army veterans Edward Ward, 84, and Tom Hrastich, 74, have each been coming to this parade for the last decade, but until they sat their foldable chairs next to each other along the Market Street route Saturday, they had never met.
“You know what kind of car that is?” Ward asked. “Old Edsel.”
“It even says so on the side,” Hrastich said.
They quickly learned they have more in common than the Army.
“I played football in high school,” Ward said.
“Well, I did too, that’s why I got a bum knee now,” Hrastich said.
The laughed like old friends. They’re linked by a bond of service to a nation and a flag that brings their conversation to silence when it passes.
On this Veterans day, These two vow a new tradition.
"See ya back next year,” Ward said.
