Honestly, dolls, I felt like Carol Channing in "Hello, Dolly!" Imagine if I had been singing "Jazz Baby" from "Thoroughly Modern Millie!" Though my girls, who have read me long enough, have known I have always wanted to be Miss Dorothy!!!!!!!!!!!
This was my 22nd--count that, honeys!!!!!--Mermaid Parade. When I first attended, in 1990, I had been living in Bay Ridge for about eight years, and when the banner came down Stillwell Avenue, it said "8th Annual Mermaid Parade." Now, it is 2012, I am again living in Bay Ridge, but the banner now said--"30th Annual Mermaid Parade!!!!" I could not believe it!!!! Where will we all be, 30 years from now??????
And what a difference those 22 years have made, not only in terms of my ability to endure this event, but in terms of what the event has become. At my initial visit, and for many years after, it was this funky, VERY Brooklyn, well-kept secret event that only a group of, basically Mermaid Parade Cultists, knew about. But, like the Breck commercial, those cultists told their friends, and they told those friends, and so on, and so on!!!!!! Not to mention the encroachment of technology--ie; the Internet, which cast a wider net in terms of making this known more to people out there than ever before, and those people responded by turning out in droves that have now made it not only one of Brooklyn's major cultural and social events, but, at the same time, has destroyed the wonderful intimacy of those early years, that allowed for a more relaxed and leisurely parade. As well as a chance to see more, visually. I mean, I have not seen the Naked Devil (how many girls out there remember him, hmmmm?????) in ages!!!! And if it is because he feels outdone by the size of the crowds, I do not blame him!!!!!!!
But such is Progress--you win some, you lose some!!!! I am telling you, between this and Gay Pride yesterday, I saw more boobies than I ever expect I should!!!!! No wonder I kept yelling Patty Duke's famous line from "Valley Of The Dolls"--"Boobies, Boobies Boobies! Who needs them! I did great without them!!!!!" There were some colorfully decadent costumes and floats, as can be seen above, but my personal favorite, was this little mini float by a husband, wife, and their baby, with the carriage acting as a float on which the baby was paraded, while all were dressed up like Maurice Sendak characters, in a float entitled, "Where The Wild Fish Are!" Which says a lot for keeping it simple, dolls!!!!!!
No matter, it would not be the first Saturday of Summer without the Mermaid Parade!!!!
So, may it thrive in whatever incarnation it goes on to become!!!!!!!!!
As the song in "Follies" says, "On, then with the dance!"
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