Mermaid Parade

On Saturday we all went to see the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island. Some years it seemed rather short, over almost as soon as it began. But this year, perhaps because Coney Island is under siege and likely to be radically changed by real estate developers, the mermaids and other "denizens of the deep" came out in record numbers. The parade went on for 2.5 hours and was the usual visual treat, only moreso.

First came the antique cars. This isn't my cup of tea but car aficionados must love it. After that the real parade started. I heard around 1,000 people marched this year and I believe it. Just about all of them had colorful, clever, and often risque costumes they created themselves. Many of the mermaids wore pasties or even went bare breasted but with some sort of body paint partially disguising their nudity.

All sorts of groups were represented, most notably the Cyclones, Brooklyn's minor league baseball team, the Polar Bear Club (those brave and crazed souls who swim at Coney Island every New Year's Day), and quite a few others. There were Mermaids for Peace, mermaids in Scottish garb, and a variety of sea horses, sharks, sea jellies (the new name for jellyfish, according to Jason), pirates and even two Elvis impersonators (what they have to do with the ocean, I don't know, but one of them kissed my hand, how charmante! and the other one carried a guitar that read, "A hunka hunka burnin' lard!"

Union organizers protested against Starbucks (one of the developers looking to destroy historic Coney Island), and another group carried placards that read, "Save Coney Island; Keep It Weird!"

The color silver was a dominant theme this year since this was the 25th annual Mermaid Parade. There was some concern about it being the last one but the parade organizers are insisting they will keep marching year after year even after the developers have their way. I hope that is true because I look forward to this summer solstice event every June. It's Brooklyn's answer to Mardi Gras, Halloween in June, and it's a wild and wacky event that should continue as long as the organizers still want to put it on.