The New England city of Peabody, Massachusetts, where I grew up, was at that time (late 40s) the largest leather manufacturing city in the world. The city itself was broken up into several sections where the factory workers, and those who ran the other businesses in the city lived. The section of the city in which I lived was called, "Crow Village."
During the late 40s and early 50s, there was little to no television. People provided their own entertainment in those days, and it was much better than the commercially provided product of today. One form of that entertainment was the yearly Fourth of July, "Horribles Parade," put on by many of our neighbors in Crow Village.
Sometimes individuals, and sometimes whole families, competed with each other to come up with the most outlandishly funny or "horrible" costumes. Somewhere along the route of the parade there was a judges stand that would vote on the funniest, most original, and perhaps most horrible costume as they paraded past.
I think I was fourteen when I saw my last Horribles Parade, but can still remember some of the costumes, and some of the names of the paraders. One of the perenial and funniest of those paraders was a group who called themselves the "Crow Village Girls."
They weren't girls at all, but some of the biggest and burliest of the neighborhood men dressed up as "women." They used a farm tractor to pull a decorated flat-bed trailer, which the "girls" would ride on, occasionally, "showing a little leg," and blowing kisses to the crowd.
They were hilarious, of course—horribly funny. They were funny because it was a blatant contradiction that everyone understood—men in women's clothing look ridiculous, because they are ridiculous.
Day Of The Ridiculous
This past Sunday, September 19th, they had a, "Horribles Day," at the well-known Massachusetts amusement park enjoyed by families and children called Six Flags. They aren't calling it "Horribles Day," they are calling it "Gay Day," or, "Out In The Park."
All the men aren't dressed as women, but some are:
These are all men—well, sort of.
And some of the women are dressed as men, and just as horrible:
Not sure what these are.
And here's their Horribles Parade, if you really want to see it.
This is certainly the day of the ridiculous. What was, in the days of sanity, horribly funny, has become today's, "normal;" but it's not normal, it's as horrible as ever, but, sadly, it is no longer funny.
—Reginald Firehammer (08/06/10)
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