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Youngstown parade celebrates season
By Ed Runyan
YOUNGSTOWN
A couple hundred people, many of them children, lined East Federal Street on Saturday afternoon, listening to the lyrics of “Here Comes Santa Claus” as the Downtown Youngstown Holiday Parade began.
“Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane,” came the words from speakers placed in Central Square.
Christmas Day is still three weeks away, but for a half-hour Saturday, it felt a little like Christmas Day. Temperatures were Christmaslike — in the 20s and windy.
Organizers of First Night Youngstown decided to bring back the parade last year in hopes of rekindling a tradition that attracted 50,000 to 60,000 people downtown in the 1950s, according to Vindicator files.
“I think it’s great that Youngstown is coming back with parades and stuff,” said Jon Johnson of Austintown, who came to watch the parade and tree lighting with his wife, Darla; daughter, Erica; niece Loretta Opencar and her daughter, Lucia; and Loretta’s boyfriend, Bob Farmintino, all of Boardman.
“I remember coming downtown as a kid — seeing Santa get off the train at the B&O Station and shopping downtown,” Johnson, 52, said.
For Julian Tranovich, 3, of Canfield, “It’s all about the parade — the firetrucks, the police cars, the whole atmosphere,” said his father, Matt Tranovich.
By the end, Julian also had a pretty good supply of candy to take home. Most of the people in the parade were tossing candy as they passed.
Among the entries was a live Nativity scene sponsored by the Mahoning County Republican Party, the East High School Marching Band, Youngstown State University President Cynthia Anderson and many members of the Penguin football team and cheerleaders.
At the end, riding in the bucket of a Youngstown ladder truck, were Santa and Mrs. Claus, who took time after the parade to listen to children detail what they want for Christmas.
The parade stepped off at Andrews Avenue around 3 p.m. and concluded in Central Square about 30 minutes later. The Christmas tree on Central Square was lit about 3:45 p.m.