Newcomers strut into the New Year's tradition
Not a stray sequin or feather on the sidewalk outside the Golden Sunrise Mummers clubhouse gives away the secrets inside.
At the Fancy division club's South Philadelphia warehouse, women sew satin jumpsuits and men construct glittery back pieces for the annual strut up Broad Street on New Year's Day.
The century-old Mummers tradition is largely a family affair, passed down through generations. Every once in a while, a newcomer is struck by its glitz and fanfare.
Doug Hoffman — a 23-year-old South Jersey man with autism — is Golden Sunrise's newest member, reminding its long-timers — some now in their 80s — of Mummery's wonder.
"Somewhere along the way someone mentioned I was a Mummer," said Dennis Clark, a maintenance worker in a Bancroft Neurohealth facility in Woodstown where Hoffman lives.
"He asked me a long time ago to do it with him ... then every day since."
Clark retired from Golden Sunrise in 2009. He tried being a spectator, but it was terrible.
"Doug brought me back," Clark said.
Golden Sunrise kicks off the parade at 10 a.m. Thursday in front of Philadelphia City Hall. Clark, Hoffman and Chris Ilconich, a Bancroft clinical manager, will perform before the judges as a Fancy Division Trio.
Dressed as farmers, the men will pull 20-foot high scarecrow floats to the judging area, wait for the music cue, then start dancing.
"That's first place, Doug!" Clark exclaimed over John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy."
The song played on Hoffman's iPad at practice Tuesday night inside the club's warehouse, among floats and back pieces of years past.
"We want to keep the tradition alive," said Deptford's Augustine DiBernardo, whose family — including 24-year-old twin siblings Angelina and Nicholas — march as the South Side Shooters with the Good Timers Comic Club.
As a Millennial — and a second-generation Mummer — 27-year-old DiBernardo says it's his "responsibility" to keep Mummery going.
"It's always up to the next generation to instill it in the younger generation."
The average age of Good Timers is between 16 and 30, he estimated. DiBernardo's 27-year-old fiancée Justine, is a third-generation Mummer. The couple's daughter, 3-year-old Adriana, is in the fourth.
"We have to keep the younger kids in it, and we have to keep the teenagers in it," DiBernardo insisted. "It's our job to teach them like our parents taught us."
"We have to pass the torch."
Teenagers, though, don't always think family tradition is, well, "cool." Tom Loomis, president of Woodland String Band and the Philadelphia String Band Association, remembers when his son Tom — now 26 — was a conflicted teen.
"I brought him in when he was 12," the Gloucester Township father said. "All of a sudden he hits puberty and he's starting to meet girls and (wondering), 'Do I tell them I'm a Mummer?' "
The younger Loomis stuck with it. Girls, as it turns out, think Mummers are cool.
"Woodland has a very young core in our band," Loomis said, estimating more than a dozen of the all-male band's members are South Jersey residents under 30.
"We're one (band) that has a really nice future."
Hoffman's future in Mummery is still quite unknown leading up to his first New Year's parade. He has the enthusiasm, hollering "yahoo!" and "whoooo!" every time he completes a successful rehearsal.
Clark hopes Hoffman maintains his energy for the 6 a.m. clubhouse call New Year's morning. The latter will likely make his TV debut on WPHL 17's parade broadcast.
"All the (Bancroft) staff, they're proud of me," Hoffman said.
Reach Carly Q. Romalino at (856) 486-2476 and cromalino@courierpostonline.com. Follow @CarlyQRomalino on Twitter.
IF YOU GO
•The 2015 Mummers Parade starts at 10 a.m. with judging at 15th and Market Street at City Hall, then moves south down Broad Street. Official performances on the route will take place in front of the Union League of Philadelphia near Sansom Street and at Carpenter Street. The parade will be televised starting at 10 a.m. on PHL17.