SOMERS — Callan Heinisch, 6, stood mesmerized on the side of Highway E, watching the emergency vehicles slowly make their way down the road toward him.

Concentrating fiercely, he made “come hither” motions with his hands, willing the first parade vehicle closer and closer.

Heinisch wasn’t alone in his fevered anticipation. Hundreds of people lined both sides of Highway E between 72nd and 88th avenues to witness what parade watcher Carly Crittendon called “Small-town USA” in action.

Before the parade, a Cub Scout pack marched proudly down the road, laden with American flags to hang out along the parade route.

“Now we’re legit!” crooned Crittendon, waving one of the Scout’s flags and returning to her spot in the grass. She and fellow Carthage College student Emily Halverson came out for the fun.

For Crittendon, it was her very first parade, ever.

“I escaped from the big city of Chicago to come (here) for this,” she said.

Halverson, who hails from Kalamazoo, Mich., claimed Independence Day as her favorite holiday. “Because, just look at everyone — the kids, everyone’s in high spirits,” she said. “And it’s easy to get dressed today: There are three colors to pick from.”

Descriptions like Smalltown USA fit the Somers event to a T.

It’s the kind of parade where most of the parade watchers rise to their feet and doff their hats every time the Stars and Stripes pass by in review, and a tractor brandishing a sign for a local politico rumbles down the road.

As a line of Army-green vehicles rolled down the road, a passenger leaned out the window to address a group of youngsters holding American flags.

“Just don’t wait for the Fourth to wave ’em. Wave ’em all year long,” he yelled.

Jenny Stein, her husband, Bob Goss, and their sons Ben, 11, and Jake, 8, come from their south-side Kenosha home every year for this, their favorite parade.

“This is the best Fourth of July parade around. It’s just Hometown America,” Jenny said. “We know most of the people sitting here; you know a lot of the people in the parade. There’s no pretension.”

“But it’s not as much fun, now that they don’t have the water guns,” she lamented.

What the parade lacks in water guns is probably more than made up for in the eyes of those knee-high-at-the-Fourth-of-July in the amount of candy and gum tossed from parade vehicles.

Like infielders waiting for grounders, kids with bags and cups swayed back and forth on the balls of their feet watching for handfuls of goodies to be thrown.

And kids weren’t the only ones to get treats. Doggie bones were tossed for the four-legged parade fans.

“It has an ‘Andy of Mayberry’ flavor to it. I love it,” said Nancy Kuester of Kenosha, who came to watch the festivities with her sister and brother-in-law Sue and Howard Geissman. “It’s refreshing; this is what it should be.”