Like a manager of a baseball team, Catonsville Celebrations Committee co-chairwoman DyAnn Moree said the key to a good parade is a good lineup.

And again this season, Catonsville's July 4 celebration led off with the barely controlled enthusiasm and energy of the area's youngest residents on the Valley Road field at Catonsville High School.

The unofficial start of Catonsville's annual holiday may be the sprouting of empty lawn chairs along Frederick Road days before the annual parade down Catonsville's main street.

But the official start is the morning of July 4 when hundreds of children and their parents gather for the lollipop hunts, gum ball and leapfrog races, and shoe scramble, as well as the decorated bicycle contest that usually attracts more than 120 entries.

The activities are sponsored by the Catonsville Men's Civic Association, the Association of Government Accountants and the Catonsville Recreation and Parks Council.

"This is the start of the Fourth of July in Catonsville," said Larry Davis, a Catonsville resident and civic association member.

"It's a long day, with everything going on," said Davis, whose personal schedule after volunteering that morning included a cookout, attending the annual Catonsville parade that afternoon and then the fireworks show at dusk.

"But this is where everything begins," he said. "This is what makes Catonsville so great."

Another association member, Karl Medinger, said he could remember coming to Catonsville to visit his aunt every year for the parade and fireworks.

"I just wanted to give back to the community," he said before joining association members Tom Cleaver, Gary Bernhard, Jim Richert, Mark Scherer, Dave Worthington, Jerry Amass, Brian Bettick and Davis on the fields.

Bettick was joined by his 7-year-old son, Chase, who was still young enough to join the hundreds of area youth taking part in the events.

"He wanted to help out this year, instead of doing the races," said Bettick.

Another son of an association member, Jake Jacob, also spent his morning helping the little ones enjoy the same activities he had enjoyed years ago.

Jacob, who graduated from Catonsville High School in June, even joined Amass in demonstrating the leapfrog for the young competitors Saturday morning.

"One of my favorites," said Jacob, whose father, John, handled the public address duties Saturday morning.

As John Jacob announced that a 3-year-old little girl was missing, then cheerfully added seconds later that she had been found, Amass noted that the event has "gotten a little more sophisticated," like using the wireless system instead of the handheld bullhorn of years ago.

Amass, a member of the civic association for 30 years, said he has been taking part in the annual morning event since his children, now in their mid-20s, were little.

"I'm just passing on the tradition," he said, noting that the club, down to 13 members, could always use an injection of younger members.

Catonsville's holiday tradition continued a few miles away in Christian Temple on Edmondson Avenue with an annual Independence Day concert of music with a patriotic theme.

The event has been going on "for 20 years, at least," according to the Rev. Rick Powell, Christian Temple's pastor.

"It started when we received a gift to our endowment fund to give lectures and music to the community," he said. "The tradition just grew."

Saturday morning's concert was the result of several weeks of practice by the choir under the direction of Mark Wilson.

A packed house heard such favorites as "The Star Spangled Banner," "You're a Grand Old Flag," "Seventy-Six Trombones," "This Land is Your Land," "God Bless America" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and a salute to the armed forces.

The performance by the choir, handbell choir and the Fugitive Brass Quintet only lasts about an hour, "so people can be on their way to begin their afternoon." Powell said.

For many in Catonsville, that means getting to Frederick Road early to claim their seats for the annual parade.

There was no rush, however, for the Canner family, who enjoyed the stadium seating under cover raffled off every year by the Catonsville Men's Civic Association and the Catonsville-Sunrise Rotary Club.

The raffle winner, Laura Dobson, donated her reserved seating to Hilton Avenue residents Paul and Martha Canner and their three children, Joe, Rebecca and Stephen, who were in town from out of state.

Stephen Canner, the youngest at 38, and his wife, Jody, were visiting from northern New York.

He said he comes home to Catonsville once a year, but this was his first Fourth of July on Frederick Road since he was a teenager.

"We have a small parade, it seems like every few months," he said. "It's a very small town."

In front of him, his 17-year-old niece, Christina, took in the sights and sounds along Frederick Road.

Her father, Joe, and mother, Cyndy, work at an international school in Casablanca, where she lives with her brother, Robert, and sisters, Camilla, Catie and Claire.

She said she is used to seeing parades in Morocco.

"When there's a wedding, people will parade down the street and make a lot of noise," she said. "And when the king comes around, they'll block off the streets and there will be flags and everything."

But there is nothing like the 50 floats, 18 bands and other units she saw parade down Frederick Road Saturday afternoon.

"In my 12 years, this was the best parade, ever," said Catonsville Celebrations Committee co-chairwoman DyAnn Moree. "The floats were incredible this year."

Even when the car scheduled to convey parade grand marshal Bob Sansbury failed to appear on time, the operation didn't miss a beat.

Committee member Kathleen Carr said she was working check-in with Carolyn Ruppel when the call went out.

She volunteered the service of the Carr's 1972 Buick La Sabre Custom convertible after confirming with her husband, David, that it was still in their Dutton Avenue driveway.

After a quick trip by golf cart through Catonsville's closed off streets, Carr found herself at the wheel in what was her first parade appearance.

"I felt a little silly, but it was fun," she said. "As a committee, each year we try to prevent any kind of problems.

"We work really hard on the parade lineup. We work 30-40 hours on that.

"That's the key to a good parade," she said, citing the work of Jack Milani, and others, for mixing in politicians such as Gov. Martin O'Malley, Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin, Comptroller Peter Franchot, Attorney General Doug Gansler, County Executive Jim Smith, Dels. James Malone and Steven DeBoy, Councilmen Joseph Bartenfelder and Sam Moxley with the bands and floats.

"I can't ask for anything better than this weekend," Moree said.

"Perfect weather. A perfect parade ending up with perfect fireworks."

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