The Mummers and Covid

There was an article in Philadelphia Magazine describing the efforts of some members of the Philadelphia Mummers Association to hold the annual New Years Day Mummers Parade despite the city prohibiting the parade. I head about this controversy from the Germantown Facebook group where people were giving their pro and con opinions on the matter. A lot of the conversation was racists and pathetic as usual. A bunch of clowns indeed.

There has always been some crazy fringe members of the mummers organizations. I spent several hears as a member of the Uptown String Band and I marched in a few Mummers parades as a young person. Back then the mummers were often criticized for not allowing blacks and women to me members of their organizations or march in their parades. I remember sitting in the band's clubhouse and hearing some of those people use the first amendment to justify their racism and misogyny.  Those are probably the same folks crying about covid now.

According to the article there would just be some unofficial groupings of mummers organization members parading around their neighborhoods and there would be no official city sanctioned parade. No regular bands, no prizes, no TV cameras, no crowds. Just a bunch of crazies risking their lives and the lives of other crazies.

When I came back from the Navy I briefly thought about joining back up with a mummers string band and get back to playing my saxophone but I'd change too much in the military. I could never have gone back to that racists organization. The mummers was just a memory now and forever.