After decades of helping people enjoy themselves, Stan Mason takes great pleasure in looking through photographs of the street parties he organised over the years.

As the parade marshal for the town's annual civic festival, he helped to co-ordinate the procession which snaked through Borehamwood before ending at Meadow Park, where a three-day fete took place.

"The parade used to start at Ripon Way, then it went up Shenley Road, around all the houses there, and then back along Theobald Street, then it went to the football ground," he said.

"Two of us had to walk the length of the route before each parade to make sure we had the timing right, because the parade had to start and finish at exactly the right times."

This preparation did not always produce the desired result: thousands of people lining Shenley Road to watch the 1970 parade were surprised when half of the 20 floats got lost, and had to get past two trucks and a taxi before catching up with the leaders.

In the festival of that year, 3,000 people came to Meadow Park to watch a firework display, and 22-year-old Anne McKenary, from Anthony Road, Borehamwood, came third in the pony rodeo, having being beaten to first and second place by riders from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment.

Borehamwood firefighters were in a 1935 fire engine for the parade, and as it went past the Elstree Way fire station, the firemen saluted. The station responded with a deafening blast, as every siren, whistle and hooter was sounded off.

Besides organising the festival parade, Mr Mason, who lives in Caishowe Road, Borehamwood, was a member of the Elstree and Borehamwood National Savings Movement.

His wife, Joyce, used to spend one day every week knocking on people's doors around Borehamwood and encouraging them to invest in Britain.

"People would invite you in and show you what they had bought with their savings, so you felt you were doing something worthwhile," she said. "It was voluntary work, and when you had children it stopped you from stagnating."