Everyone loves a parade.
And for a show like Saturday's Inter-City Parade nobody minds a little rain.
There were noticeable gaps in the ranks of onlookers lining city streets, but parade officials estimated that 100,000 saw the hour-long display. It was of course, the weather which turned traitor at the last minute and kept would-be spectators at their television sets. However, it didn't rain badly until the Mounties, at the head of the parade, rode into site of the jam-packed grandstand at Lansdowne Park.
BAND FILLED IN
Until then, the NORAD band kept the waiting throngs happy with a selection of bouncy tunes - just what the doctor ordered for a rainy Saturday morning. While the band kept the crowd clapping, a flotilla of yachts cruised up and down the Canal behind the poplars on the Driveway.
Right on the dot of noon the first elements of the parade entered the park at the end of a two-hour march (for most) from the Hull Arena.
The ever-popular Rough Riders Majorettes pranced into view. Red Skelton, with his wife and daughter, shot the craning crowd with his movie camera.
Mayor Whitton, in her scarlet robes of office, brandished a pink parasol from the back of a convertible, defying the rain.
Hull's pro-mayor, Alderman Edgar Chenier peeped out from under his convertible top, withdrew hastily.
Bare-legged girls on floats smiled bravely in the wind and rain, and a few balloons were sagging by the time they passed in front of the grandstand.
| CHILDREN THRILLED
The children in the audience laughed at the clowns and giant balloons and everyone applauded the marchers, particularly the smallest majorettes, like five-year-old Shirley Ann Hoffman, who had walked with the South Grenville District High School Band all the way from the Hull Arena.
The powerful brass bands kept the parade moving at a furious pace, and where majorettes tried to dally for fancy manoeuvers, there were parade officials to urge them on.
Judges had viewed the parade from a number of vantage points, and had picked winners by the time they reached the park. Prizes were presented as the units passed the stands.
WINNING FLOATS
The C. Caplan Limited float won $300 and the Carling Trophy was best float in the parade. Iroquois Snowshoe Club was second, followed by the Gatineau Point Fire Prevention, Santa's Workshop and Barbershop Singers floats.
The L.L. Coulter Trophy, for best band, was awarded to Les Troubadours of Hull, while the crowd cheered its approval. The Hull band was also senior winner. La Salle Academy won the junior band shield and the St. Redempteur band won honorable mention.
The Bishop Top Hatters, of Mrs. M. L. Bishop, received the Canadian Restaurant Trophy for junior majorettes, and Lorraine Chevalier's Stella's Starlettes won the Band and Cole senior trophy.
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