TOWNSHEND — One of the highlights of the annual Grace Cottage Hospital Fair is the Birthday Parade, where those who were born at the hospital march to the Common.
This year, one of the marchers returned to the Townshend Common after a long absence.
James A. Adams was born June 30, 1950 at Grace Cottage Hospital. He was the 69th baby delivered by Dr. Carlos Otis, the late founder of the 62-year-old hospital.
Adams said he found out how many babies Otis had delivered before him at Grace Cottage by searching birth certificate records at Town Hall.
The Dover native said that Saturday's 61st Fair Day was his first visit since he was a teenager. His family moved to Florida in 1974.
“A lot has changed here,” he said. “Mostly, everything is much bigger.”
Adams, a cabinet maker, said he came up for several reasons - to visit friends and relatives, to go to the fair, and to get married to his partner of 16 years, Curt Camp.
They tied the knot on Tuesday in the gazebo on the Common.
A cabinet maker, Adam now lives in Rockledge, near the Kennedy Space Center, where he said he watched many space shuttle launches.
“We just go maybe 15 minutes from my house, right on the banks of the river,” he said. “At takeoff, we see the water shudder and the fish jumping around.”