Lorain's Santa Claus Parade - Nov. 18, 1949 – Part 2

Here's a few more shots from Lorain's 1949 Santa Claus Parade, which took place on November 18, 1949 – the Friday before Thanksgiving.

School was still in session, but public schools were dismissed at 2:30 so that children could see the parade. Parochial schools were dismissed at 2:15 p. m.

According to an article that appeared the day before the parade in The Lorain Journal, more than 50 "giant balloon toys" were to be featured in the parade, along with the 65-piece drum and bugle corps of the Hormel Girls' Caravan. Six high school bands and some 200 Lorain High school sophomores were to take part in the parade as well.

Unfortunately, the parade was delayed by one hour. Snow-covered roads delayed the arrival of the giant balloons, which were being trucked in from Port Huron, Michigan. They were supposed to arrive by 8 a. m., but bad road conditions caused the first contingent of balloons to be delivered shortly after 11 a.m. The last contingent of balloons arrived at 12:30 p. m.

The Hormel Girls' Caravan was a no-show due to the weather. As Santa Claus explained in a Journal interview the day of the parade, "On tour, the corps is not properly equipped for outdoor work under present weather conditions."

Despite these problems, the parade was a big success according to an article in the Journal the next day.

Since five hours would have been needed to inflate the complete collection of balloons, however, it was necessary to leave some of them out of the parade.

A series of individual giant balloon letters spelled out MERRY XMAS (below).

But when the parade reached the Nickel Plate railroad tracks, the "S" collapsed and it was necessary to finish the parade without it.

Special thanks to the Lorain Historical Society for permitting me to reproduce these Sam Brunotts photos.