The Big Guys Back In Town

Enuff said.......

The big guy's back in town
The thrill of Toronto's best holiday show never dies for the young-at-heart who stake out curbside seats year after year
Nov. 20, 2006. 06:06 AM
MICHELE HENRY
STAFF REPORTER

As the clowns came into view — their jolly bellies jiggling — a crowd of snowsuit-bundled children surrounding Isabella Desario broke into a chorus of high-pitched squealing.

The 4-year-old wiggled her arms and legs madly as the tinsel-haired men and women strode along the parade route hitting adult spectators on the head with squishy hammers, spraying liquid string on the unsuspecting and pelting children with packs of candy.

So began the 102nd Santa Claus Parade.

"I like them because they're silly," Desario said of the clowns, from inside a red plastic wagon, perched yesterday on a Queen St. curb. "And, I like the candy."

Drawing her bounty close in one mitten-clad hand, the Hamilton girl waved an envelope addressed to Mr. Claus. It attracted the attention of Canada Post mail carriers walking along the crowd-lined street.

Putting envelopes gingerly into a sack, Harold Bird smiled at the children. "I love their excitement," he said, before nearly being thrown to the pavement by one of some 175 clowns, who pay $1,000 for the privilege of being in the parade.

Chants of "Merry Christmas" came from the crowds lining the 5.7 kilometre route, 10 or 15 people deep in front of the Canadian Opera Company at Queen St. and University Ave. and near Old City Hall.

Cradling coffees, shivering and rocking strollers back and forth to quiet little ones, spectators craned their necks as the parade rolled past.

Mark Pugash of Toronto Police Services said hundreds of thousands of people came for the spectacle, making yesterday's turnout one of the largest in recent memory.

More than 1,000 volunteers dressed as almost every animal and character imaginable, including cows, bears, fish and skunks.

"Phew," Aino Brown, yelled as people dressed in black-and-white-tailed costumes rolled comically on the ground. "Yuk."

The grandmother of three rushed from her Mississauga home yesterday, securing her prime curb seat by 11:15 a.m., helping children draw chalk pictures on the pavement until the parade, which began at Bloor and Christie Sts. rolled by nearly three hours later.

"We've been coming for over 40 years," said her husband, Bruce Brown, who was a volunteer clown in the parade 50 years ago. "We used to come before we had kids, we came with them and now we come with our grandchildren."

Wearing matching felt antlers, the couple called out to children on the 21 floats, sang along to carols drummed out by the 21 marching bands and gasped when a particularly impressive float rolled by.

"It's a tradition," Bruce said, of planting himself snugly on a cold stretch of pavement for several hours each year. "Santa always seems to come at the end for some reason. I wonder why?"