The Time We Saw The MUMMERS Parade Live, Dead?

 

On January the 1st, 1964, Don Lash and I left our Naval Air Base at Lakehurst, NJ, and drove to Philadelphia. I had went home to Georgia almost two month earlier and drove my old Volvo (PV544) back.

Our first stop, and actually, the only one I remember was we stopped near the heart of Philadelphia to visit an office Navy bud, Dave Phillips.

Dave lived with his folks and stationed at Lakehurst, NJ, on 40 miles way. He had the best of two worlds.

Dave was vey gentlemanly and went strictly by the book. I remember one time we stopped at a tavern not far from the base to have a beer and a meal. The waitress took our orders and served each order as the cook put each in the window. Dave sat there and fumed. When we finished and the waitress delivered the bill, we all chipped in what we felt we owed and Dave said he would take care of the tip.

The tip was a long dissertation written by Dave on the back of a menu explaining that serving the orders separately was completely unacceptable.

Dave’s parents’ house in Philadelphia was an older house in a fine big house neighborhood. Dave’s room was upstairs. His room was more like a suite. It was multi-room like an apartment. He had a library, a sitting room, and of course a bedroom.

While sitting in his sitting room visiting we heard horns and sirens. We looked out his window overlooking the street than ran behind his parents’ house and saw a parade.

Dave said something like, “Oh yeah, the Mummers’ parade is today.”

The people parading were dressed in loud gawdy Madi Gras looking costumes. They looked like they were having a good time.

I don’t know what kind of organization they are, but now I do know they march in Philadelphia on January 1st of the new year.

What reminded me of the Mummers was yesterday I heard on the radio a mild debate between Mummers members “Are some of the Mummers costumes racist? And if so, was it all good nature fun?”