Christmas On Parade

I started out this morning with the American Top 40. Instead of a re-run, though, it was a Christmas special Casey Kasem must have done before he left the show. Among the songs I heard were Johnny Mathis' "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," Perry Como's "There's No Christmas Like a Home Christmas," and the Stevie Nicks version of "Silent Night", which followed Casey's telling of the story of how British and German troops came together in peace for one Christmas Eve night during World War I.

I headed out around 9:30. Stopped at a quiet bank first to deposit my paycheck, then rode to Collingswood for their Christmas Parade at 10. It was already mobbed on Lakeview Avenue as I rode down the street. Hoards of people strolled down the sidewalk with their children or pets, enjoying the gorgeous, breezy, sunny, fairly warm morning. I parked on the bike rack in the parking lot where the Farm Market is held during its season, then headed across the street.

I was originally going to get a drink at WaWa, but I scotched that idea the moment I went in. The line went half-way across the tiny store, and the rest of the room was mobbed. I ended up buying a bottle of water at Rite Aid two doors down instead. They were dead as a doornail. I guess everyone wanted hot coffee and tea.

I joined the crowd at the Borough Hall Building next-door to the WaWa/Rite Aid building and waited for the parade to start. Unlike previous years, I didn't have to wait very long. They were barely fifteen minutes late. I bought my traditional pretzel from the Collingswood High School Wrestling program while I waited. (They did very well, too. Their pretzels were gone well before the parade's half-way mark, and they were selling t-shirts instead.)

I stood next to a large family (or perhaps several families) with two little girls, probably about three and four. They were shy at first. They didn't want to shake hands with all the people in costume, the Grinch, Spider Man, Superman, and the Teletubbies. (Don't ask about the last one.) They got into it after a while, though. Soon, they were strutting along with the Mummers groups and string bands and waving at the kids in the school floats. They marched with the high school marching bands and clapped for the two dance schools from Haddonfield and Oaklyn.

(Ovations in Oaklyn - around the corner from me, in fact - went with the more traditional approach. Their younger kids were dressed for "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in bright, poofy strawberry red-and-neon-green costumes and did some energetic but fairly simple moves to "We Need a Little Christmas." The Haddonfield School of Dance had older girls in more sophisticated black pants, shirts, and bowler hats. They did slinky Bob Fosse-style moves to music I couldn't really hear over the crowd.)

There were other groups in the parade, too. I counted at least three classic car groups, including one with Herbie from The Love Bug. There were two motorcycle groups that showed off for the crowd. There were stilt walkers who juggled and high-fived kids. (The guy who juggled in time to the music from the Mummers in front of him was awesome.) We waved to six beauty pageant winners, and to a group of Girl Scouts who wore fancy dresses to spoof the pageant winners. High school bands from Cherry Hill East, Camden High School, and Collingswood belted "Louie Louie" and Christmas standards. (And the flag girls had a much easier time this year with the barely-there breeze than with last year's gale.) Santa was accompanied by most of Collingswood's fire department and the Collingswood High School's band.

I left the moment Santa arrived. The family was long gone by then. I took the bike past the crowds on Lakeview and back to Oaklyn. Picked up a turkey and provolone cheese hoagie from Doria's Deli for a quick lunch when I got in.

I had just enough time to get the windows dusted and washed before I went to work. Ran this year's first showing of the Rankin Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and How the Grinch Stole Christmas as I changed into my work uniform and got dinner together.

Perhaps because of the nice day, work was busy but not quite as bad as usual. It was nearly dead by the time I headed out. I didn't technically have a relief, but the kid who is always late for work because of his other job was so late, he ended up coming in for me...a half-hour after he should have arrived.