If Tropical Storm Irene taught us anything a year ago this week, it is that everything is mutable — even a tradition as rock solid as Newtown’s Labor Day Parade. It was not a storm of historic proportions; we’ve endured worse. But it changed a few things. This year’s parade start time of noon bears the imprint of Irene, which kicked last year’s march not only into the afternoon after years of starting at 10 am, but sent it clear into October, making it more of a quasi-Halloween event. Thankfully we’ve returned to a true Labor Day celebration, but the time shift offered some perceived advantages to parade organizers. We’ll wait and see what it does to the pace and feel of the holiday.

Whether you have never been to Newtown’s Labor Day Parade, or you have always been, it will be a new experience. It flows along the same course year after year — down Main Street, across Glover Avenue, into its devolving eddies on Queen Street. Like the river it is, you can never step into the same parade twice.

Everyone marches at one time or another, and everyone is a spectator when they are not marching. The parade/crowd interaction is up close and personal, intensely familiar, and always surprising. In Newtown, it is the original social network where everyone is “friended” and that everyone “likes.” That is why so many people show up every year, decade after decade, no matter what the weather.

Go with the flow, and embrace the tradition on September 3. And don’t forget, the parade steps off at noon.