My Mummers' memories fit amongst one another like the feathers on a Mummer's headdress: Standing at Second and Wolf Streets as a little boy and watching and wondering why my father never wore neat clothes like those guys on the street. Looking out my window in the darkness of a New Year's Day early morning and watching Mummers weave up Wolf Street toward Broad, already insulated against the cold of winter by the warmth of whiskey. Watching the parade at Broad and Passyunk and seeing sons march with fathers, seeing other kids my age going up the street, and my mother explaining that it was too cold, much too cold, to go walking on Broad Street without a hat and mittens. My mom was always a sensible woman.
The Mummers Parade: Homemade With Heart
For the last three years, I have been away from Wolf Street, living in Pasadena, Calif., the home of that other parade, the Tournament of Roses. People don't know much about the Mummers in Southern California.
Feeling almost jingoistic about the Mummers, I wondered how any other parade, even one as celebrated as the Rose Parade, could match our parade. But I promised myself that I would have an open mind. I have a big heart. I would give these Californians a chance.
What I noticed first were the similarities between the two New Year's Day traditions. People camp out on Pasadena's Colorado Boulevard the night before the parade just the way they do here on Broad Street. And while there are more recreational vehicles parked near the parade route in Pasadena - people often walk to the Mummers Parade, but no one walks in Southern California - the feeling of good cheer and high expectations among the parade watchers appeared to be the same.
And however grudgingly, I had to admit that the Pasadena parade was wonderful. The sunshine and the thousands of flowers on every float belied the coming of winter. The pageantry of the enormous, elaborate, floral floats, often with moving parts, delighted child and adult alike. The bands, the horses, the old cars, the celebrities, the sheer spectacle of it all caused spontaneous applause again and again and cries of "Did you see that one?" over and over.
It lasted just a few hours and it was over. Like Chinese food, I wanted more.
It was after my second Rose Parade, in the afterglow of a morning well spent, that I realized something was missing. I'm slow sometimes. It had taken me two parades, but I suddenly knew why the Pasadena parade was no match for the Mummers.
It had no soul. It was the floats, not the people, who were being oohed and aahed. The floats weren't constructed by longshoremen from Second Street or carpenters from Tacony, but by the Southland Corp. or Coca-Cola. Roast-beef dinners and poker nights pay the freight for the Mummers; in Pasadena, it is the budgets of corporate public relations departments.
The Mummers are not a corporate tradition or a municipal tradition, but a folk tradition. It began in the neighborhoods. People watching the parade are cheering for their buddies, for their neighbors, for their kids' teacher or the fellow who owns the store down the block. Mummers look at people watching the parade, spot a familiar face, strut on over and say hello. Participants in the Rose Parade stay in place.
There is something very orchestrated and planned about the Rose Parade that probably works well on television. But I've always thought that television never captured the Mummers, because the sense of joy and spontaneity that is the lifeblood of "going up the street" just doesn't come through electronically.
To appreciate Hare Krishna members marching in the parade and suddenly chanting "Hare Krishna" to the tune "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" while doing the Mummers strut, well, you just had to be there. The camera might well have missed the appreciative members of the crowd yelling, "Yo, Krishnas!"
The parade is the one time a year for grown men (at least, for most grown men) to wear orange lame, red sequins, gold glitter, aqua satin jackets and white feathers and then walk up the street for all to see. When men who work with their hands hike up their tights and then help their sons hike up theirs. When men paint their faces, put trash cans around their middles and then delight little children on the sidewalk by strolling over and patting their noses.
The Mummers are rehearsed and choreographed and rehearsed again, but the men - and women - who strut up the street do so with a sense of abandon, a sense that this is the only day of the year that is truly their own. Longtime Mummers have referred to the parade as their mistress, and that, for many, is not an overstatement.
The Rose Parade appears flawless, lovely as a flower arrangement and organized with military precision. The Mummers, on the other hand, are never the same from year to year. The parade seems to get longer every year, beginning in the early morning and ending at dusk, 12, 13 hours of parade. It can get a mite ragged-looking as the day wears on. And a bottle of something inebriating has been known to touch the lips of a marcher, causing his strut to sway. Among the crowd, a rowdy face has been seen occasionally getting in the way of an errant fist.
With more than 800 entries, 20,000 or so marchers and at least 300,000 people watching, we should all be pleased that the level of bedlam is as low as it is.
Way back in 1975, the Ferko String Band was invited to march in the Tournament of Roses Parade. There were those who thought that its appearance and the national television exposure would be a superb advertisement for the Mummers. Those people were right. I've seen the Ferko band perform on Broad Street and at a New England regional fair in Springfield, Mass., and, to this day, I'm not sure which audience appreciated it more.
But Ferko turned down the Rose Parade, and talk about a Mummers string band marching down Colorado Avenue instead of Broad Street has quieted. The Ferko folk said back then that the reason they were a string band was to march up Broad Street on New Year's Day. And, they asked, why would anyone want to march anywhere but on Broad Street in the Mummers Parade?
Why, indeed?
PRACTICAL POINTERS FOR THE BIG STRUT
The 87th annual Philadelphia Mummers Parade will begin at 7:45 a.m. Thursday at Broad and Moore Streets. In case of inclement weather, a decision on marching will be made at 6 a.m. at the Mummers Museum, Two Street and Washington Avenue, and announcements will be made throughout the morning on KYW-AM (1060). If postponed, the parade will take place Jan. 3.
JUDGING
The main judging stand will be at City Hall at the intersection of 15th and Market Streets, facing south. A second judging stand for the comic and fancy divisions will be at the intersection of 16th and Market Streets, facing east. A third judging stand for certain categories of the comic division will be on 16th Street north of Market.
String bands will be permitted four minutes in the judging area. They are judged on a 100-point basis: a maximum of 40 for music, 40 for costume and 20 for theme presentation.
Brigades and the fancy division will be allowed four minutes in the judging area. They are judged on a 100-point basis: a maximum of 70 for costume and 30 for theme presentation.
TRANSPORTATION
Trains on the Market-Frankford Line and Broad Street Subway will run every 7 1/2 minutes, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. SEPTA bus routes will operate on a holiday schedule and some will be diverted for the Mummers Parade. They are C, G, 2, 7, 9, 12, 17, 27, 31, 32, 37, 38, 44, 45 and 48. Cars will be added to subway-surface trolley routes 10, 11, 13, 34 & 36, and to the regional rail lines, and all will be operated on a holiday schedule. Call 574-7800 for information.
NJ Transit will run all buses on a holiday schedule and all buses will be run along Arch Street. Information: 569-3752 (from Pa.) or 1-800-582-5946 (N.J.)
PATCO trains will run every half-hour from midnight to 7 a.m., every 15 minutes from 7 to 10 a.m., then every 8 to 10 minutes from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with extra cars added during this period.
AID AND ASSISTANCE
Emergency first-aid vehicles will patrol 13th and 15th Streets during the parade. Lost children should go to any policeman, who will then take them to the lobby of the Municipal Services Building, 15th St & John F Kennedy Blvd. There will be public restrooms around City Hall and Washington and Snyder Avenues.
PARADE LINE OF MARCH
Last year's winners appear in boldface. Order of finish in last year's judging appears in parentheses.
COMICS
1. Pennridge (new)
2. Hammond (3)
3. Landi (5)
4. Liberty (6)
5. Murray (1)
6. Goodtimers (4)
7. Purul (2)
FANCY COSTUME
1. Golden Sunrise (1)
2. Oregon (3)
3. Hog Island (2)
4. Klein (4)
STRING BANDS
1. Wildwood (24)
2. South Jersey (5)
3. Greater Kensington (9)
4. Ventnor (-)
5. Uptown (17 tie)
6. Avalon (7)
7. Juniata (19 tie)
8. Harrowgate (13)
9. Broomall (19 tie)
10. Crean (25)
11. Fralinger (2)
12. Palmyra (12)
13. N.E. Philadelphia (21)
14. Woodland (15) 15. Duffy (22)
16. Ferko (4)
17. Ukrain.-American (17 tie)
18. Greater Bucks (23)
19. Durning (8)
20. Polish-American (1)
21. Greater Overbrook (11)
22. Trilby (26)
23. Aqua (14)
24. Quaker City (3)
25. Garden State (16)
26. Hegeman (10)
27. South Philadelphia (6)
FANCY BRIGADES
1. Entertainers (15)
2. Zodiac (18)
3. Gallagher (8)
4. Charles Ray (17)
5. Shooting Stars (7)
6. Merrymakers (6)
7. Strutters (13)
8. Avenuers (16)
9. Vikings (10)
10. Alpha (12)
11. Golden Crown (2)
12. Jokers (4)
13. Hearts (14)
14. Satin Slipper (5)
15. Saturnalians (1)
16. Fancy Dans (9)
17. Downtowners (3)
18. Clevemore (11)
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