A photographer's journey: The Mummer's Parade in Hagerstown, MD

My hubby and I are not much for big crowds. That said, we have been avoiding parades for years and have only gone when one of the kids was in one. Luckily for us, our children were involved in sports that never marched in parades. Many years ago our oldest attended a Montessori school during her Kindergarden year and they participated in the annual Rodeo Parade, we lived in Texas at the time.

This year, after five years in this town, we were invited by good friends of ours to hang out on their street and attend open houses in the neighborhood, all scheduled during the preparations for the Mummer's Parade. We agreed to go because the big crowd thing was not a problem, we had, after all, a place to retreat to if it got to be too much, and good company and free food were helping with our decision.

That said, we were in a perfect spot. Oak Hill in Hagerstown is the street that all the bands and other assorted organizations line up to march. Neighbors had their houses open and the feeling of community was wonderful. We had the option of walking down just a block or two to see the full parade, but decided to stay where we were, simply because it was fun to see the nervous energy generated by the participants. I had taken my camera and got some good shots of the 'behind-the-scenes'.

We were also astonished to hear that Hagerstown, MD hosts the biggest night time parade on the entire East coast with this event. It was fun to see bands from Baltimore, Ellicot City, Hancock, Virginia and the local surrounding areas as well as Hagerstown's own. I will only post a few images here, you can see a few more on my facebook page. I also added some photographs to my website under the outdoors impressions album.