By Amelia A. Pridemore
The temperature was 24 degrees. Snow poured, covering Beckley’s streets and sidewalks.
Nevertheless, people from inside and outside Beckley bundled up in parkas and furry gloves and filled the city streets — even tailgated — during the city’s annual Christmas Parade on Saturday.
More than 100 floats, vehicles and walking units managed to show up for the parade despite freezing temperatures, snow and treacherous roads, according to Dr. Julian Chipley, parade coordinator. He noted that in his 14 years of making sure marching bands, carolers, live donkeys, elves, reindeer, dogs, sports cars, neon-colored school buses and Santa Claus are lined up and moving out in an orderly fashion, this was only the third parade snow he could recall.
“This is Christmas,” he said. “Snow here for the parade is pretty neat. Personally, I like it better when it’s at least 50 degrees outside, but when you watch the parade, that’s not Christmasy.”
First Baptist Church’s youth group displayed a rather ironic Hawaiian theme with their float. While being covered in more and more snow, group members wore sunglasses, bright pink flowers and hula skirts — with their coats, hats and gloves — and handed leis to bystanders.
“It’s ‘Mele Kalikimaka!’” youth group leader Erin Tucker said. “Are you all dreaming of Hawaii?”
“YES!” the young people on board the float shouted.
Beckley residents and sisters Donita Lilly and Leah Stewart bundled up to watch the parade on Park Avenue — as they have done for at least 35 or 40 years. The sisters grew up near the parade’s lineup area of Park Middle School and their mother took them to the parade. Now, Lilly was watching her granddaughter, 4-year-old Kyra Laforce, on the YMCA Pre-School float.
“We came here as kids, we brought our kids, and now, it’s our grandkids’ time,” Stewart said. “I get tears in my eyes. It’s very emotional. ... Without the city parade, it just wouldn’t be Christmas.”
The parade is also a tradition for Fairdale residents Jerry and Connie Blevins, who brought two daughters, Tammy Williams of Clear Creek and Jill McAllister of Beckley, and two granddaughters, Katlyn Williams, 11, and Emily Williams, 8, and tailgated.
They said they made sure to arrive before noon to claim “their spot” on Park Avenue. Then — armed with a large thermos filled with hot chocolate — they waited for the parade while seated in their minivan’s hatch or in folding chairs.
“And I didn’t forget my big, furry gloves!” Connie Blevins exclaimed, laughing. “There’s a kid in everyone.”
The Christmas parade is also a five-year tradition for the McDole family, but Saturday’s parade was their last in Beckley. They are preparing to move to South Carolina.
As her youngest child Levi, 2, slept in the family’s minivan with Virginia’s husband Robert, her three older children were grabbing candy and even jumping up and down with excitement. Lilly, 5, and Alex, 8, both received stuffed animals from a man in the parade. Both Abby, 9, and Alex said their favorite float was one with a live donkey and dove in a manger scene.
“We’ve enjoyed it, and it has become a family tradition,” Virginia McDole said. “We like the small-town feel, and the snow adds ambiance, I guess.”
— E-mail: apridemore@register-herald.com
