Charles’ 
Slide of the Week: July 28th, 2005
Children’s Costume Parade, Ephrata, Pennsylvania, 1961
The Rose Parade, each New Year’s Day, is the superstar of all parades. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a distant second. They are the only annual parades that are broadcast on national television. But they are just two of countless annual parades held in communities across America. And going through other peoples’ old slides I’ve seen plenty of them. But I’ve never run across slides from a parade as bizarre as this one, which leads me to this week’s slide: CHILDREN’S COSTUME PARADE, EPHRATA, PENNSYLVANIA, 1961.
Mothers parade their costumed babies and small children in decorated strollers and wagons down Main Street. This child is anonymous, hidden inside a home-made paper mache Humpty Dumpty costume. The onlookers are mesmerized. Can he see? Can he breathe? Does he have claustrophobia? Is he secure? - he’s leaning back a bit - or is he going to fall off the wall that looks more like a chimney
Many nursery rhymes are scary. They are strange and full of doom. Humpty Dumpty - the name alone is really quite odd if you think about it. And then he falls off the wall and is destroyed. In Rock-a-Bye Baby the baby and the cradle fall from the treetop - ouch! In Jack and Jill, Jack falls down and breaks his crown and Jill comes tumbling after. Serious injury is a theme! Can you think of any other tragic nursery rhymes?
Here’s to you, Humpty Dumpty and all the other nursery rhymes misfits and mishaps.
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles
July 2005
Sets this Slide belongs to:
Fairs, Festivals, Pageants and Parades
5 Comments on “Children's Costume Parade, Ephrata, Pennsylvania, 1961”
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February 17th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
This is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.
February 17th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Agreed, Catherine!
The best part is — we know exactly what’s about to happen, it’s right there in the Nursery Rhyme!
Mom, who tanked up the car and herself on the way, encounters pothole. “Oh, darn, my new white high-heels — scuffed”. The ill-fated tug ensues and the next morning County Child Services …
Not since Scout was trussed-up as a Country Ham (chick wire & paper mache) has a more doomed costume been assembled. (Thank you, Boo)
The only event I know of that somewhat captures this spirit today is Pasadena’s Doo-Dah Parade. If you like this shot and have never attended the DooDah, you owe yourself. It’s billed as “Pasadena’s Other Parade”, and truly is the antithesis of that flowered event.
March 17th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
Hmmm, more tragic nursery rhymes? How about these gruesome ones from Mother Goose?
“Tell Tale Tit,
Your tongue shall be slit;
And all the dogs in the town
Shall have a little bit.”
AND
“Goosey, goosey, gander,
Where shall I wander?
Up stairs, down stairs,
And in my lady’s chamber:
There I met an old man,
Who would not say his prayers;
Take him by the left leg,
Throw him down the stairs.”
And just what was that old man doing in my lady’s chamber?
August 29th, 2007 at 7:42 am
When I think of things like gruesome Nursery rhymes and whatnot, I always think of a certain Grimm’s fairy tale that horrified me as a kid. There is a family; a father, mother, a girl about 12 and a young boy. The mother dies, the father remarries. The stepmom is evil of course. She doesn’t like the young boy in the house for some reason, and convinces him to lean over a chest with apples in it. She brings the lid crashing down and kills him. She makes blood pudding out of him and serves him at dinner that night, but the girl weeps and has a suspicion it is her brother, and doesn’t eat any, and saves all the bones. She buries them under a tree. By and by, a magical bird (who is the brother, of course) comes and sings in the tree. The girl loves to hear it sing- “tee-wit, tee-wit, what a beautiful bird am I!” She comes out to listen, and the bird drops a beautiful pair of red shoes at her feet. The father comes to listen, and the bird drops a gold chain around his neck. The mother dreads the song and hates it, but she comes out to listen. The bird drops a millstone around her neck and kills her. The bird then changes back into the little boy, of course, and they all live happily ever after. Horrifying story- Stephen King could have written it, I think. Many of Grimms’ stories are like that, I don’t read such things to my kids.
December 13th, 2007 at 10:20 am
I thinks the kid is feeling hard-boiled by now!!This pic is hysterical!!More of these funnies, Charles. Thanks!