Read and Return to Jeff Hurok What is a parade all about? Is it the event that it celebrates, or is it the people who make up the festivities? In the case of Sunday's celebration of the 500th anniversary of the voyage of Christopher Columbus it was both. In celebration of the arrival of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, groups varying from Master Jay and Rhythm on Wheels, featuring dancing roller-skaters named the Wizards, to a group pushing Toro lawnmowers, and even a man covered by tin cans on a unicycle, proceeded down Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the Franklin Institute and then back again. But the parade had its more traditional participants as well, including marching bands from around the area, the Knights of Columbus, and Grand Marshal Luciano Pavorotti riding in a carriage from a time gone by. In tandem with the celebration of the quincentennial of Columbus' trip, went a salute to five hundred years of transportation. Carriages drawn by horses, buggies, greengrocer trucks from the turn of the century, and a fleet of DeLoreans were just part of the entourage. And who can leave out the Original Hobo Band from Pitman, New Jersey, decked out in appropriately tattered clothes? And what about the Gal's Kazoo Band from Long Lake, New York? A parade is obviously not only a celebration of an event, but also the people who choose to celebrate it.
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