It just gets Wilder and Wilder

Mark Wilder, and his son Mitchell, 11 (Harrison Thorp photos)

When the Wilder family goes to a parade they dress for the occasion.

The family hails from all over the East Coast, but on the 4th of July, they all gather in Milton.

And the highlight of the reunion is the parade in Milton Mills, when family members don patriotic garb fashioned by family matriarch Lillian Wilder.

“She gets most of it from the Salvation Army,” admits her son, Mark Wilder.

He said some members of the family who make the trip are from New Hampshire, but others come from Massachusetts, Maryland and Florida.

Mark Wilder said the family has a summer house on the lake and has been marching some four years in this quaintest of Independence Day parades, which besides military men, firetrucks and town officials will always feature a couple of costumed dogs and goats.

For the Wilders it’s become a family tradition.

“We all get our gear on, it’s the family event,” said Mark Wilder.

He said his mom used to walk in the parade, but not this year, but she’d be sitting along the way.

Probably admiring her work, both in the costumes she designed, and the family she raised.

From left, Debra Wilder as Martha Washington, Bridget Bernier as the Statue of Liberty

and Scott Wilder as Uncle Sam.