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La Crosse Labor Day festivities include workers, kids and vintage cars

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La Crosse celebrated Labor Day with parades, picnics and even old cars.

The yearly holiday parade through north La Crosse was filled with kids, veterans, politicians, and vintage vehicles.

Area resident Roger Weeks Sr., who’s in his 90s, had a 100-year-old car in the Labor Day parade — a blue Model A roadster.

Vintage Model A roadster which appeared in La Crosse’s Labor Day parade on Sept. 4, 2023. (PHOTO: Brad Williams)

“I got it from a farmer down in Seneca,” Weeks said. “It was just a rusty old shell of a body,” but now it has a new paint job and can go on the road.

Weeks asked the farmer to sell it to him, but the owner said if Weeks fixed it up and showed it to him, then he could have it.

“So when it was all done, I brought it back, and talked to his son, and the son said you missed him by a year, he died last year,” Weeks added.

The Model A was on display at Copeland Park during the holiday picnic.

This year’s parade in La Crosse was the second straight Labor Day parade, after the event was cancelled for two years during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The local celebration started about 130 years ago, and has only been called off nine times.

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.

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