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Waves of pride, nostalgia, fun flow at Festival of States Parade
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer
That was in the 1970s, when the festival was a center of gravity for St. Petersburg. "We had a ball," said Trask, 32. On Saturday, Trask and her family were among an estimated 10,000 people who lined downtown sidewalks for this year's parade. They waved small American flags and stood reverently when veterans marched larger ones down the street. They giggled at clowns, tapped their feet to the music of marching bands and enjoyed the parade-perfect weather. Still, families like Trask's who grew up with the parade couldn't help feeling something was missing. "We need to work on getting the bands back from out of state," said Trask's mother, Virginia Laubach. The Suncoasters, who have organized the festival since 1954, are trying. But luring high school bands to St. Petersburg has become difficult, said Rick McCollum, who for years has directed the pace of the parade from the top of the Bayfront Tower. "We're having to rely more and more on local bands and state bands," he said. That's just fine with Ethel Smith, who has been coming to the parade for 22 years. The Redington Shores resident declared this year's edition -- which included an appearance by the U.S. Naval Academy Drum & Bugle Corp from Annapolis, Md. -- "better than ever." Melissa Shaw, 22, spent the parade trying to keep her 3-year-old daughter, Amanda, from darting into the street to retrieve candy or beads. "We look forward to this every year," she said. "It's such a family atmosphere." The Festival of States started 81 years ago -- during one of Florida's periodic booms -- as a way to show appreciation for the wintertime visitors who were making St. Petersburg a lively tourist haven for Northerners. The locally produced musical Webb's City, based on the life of businessman Doc Webb and his long-living downtown store, devoted a full scene to a 1930s Festival of States Parade. The scene had its own catchy musical number, "Everybody Loves a Parade." McCollum caught Webb's City. He said that scene made him proud to be involved in the Festival of States. "If we all continue to work hard, we can bring it back to what it was at one time," he said. The parade ended just in time for lunch. A team of pirates headed to Midtown Sundries. A pair of clowns ducked inside the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
