Holiday hoopla returns to Revere

REVERE – After a five-year absence, the red, white and green bunting was hung, the politicians were waving, and the crowd gathered from Cronin Rink to St. Anthony’s Church to once again watch the Revere Columbus Day Parade.”I love having the parade back,” said resident Betty Salemme. “The families, the camaraderie, the kids, the elderly all out here, it’s great.”The Columbus Day Parade and Breakfast in Revere was a longstanding annual tradition for decades until the fiscal crisis and a $2 million deficit prompted city officials to cancel the parade in 2009.”As you can see by today, people are still very much attached to the parade,” Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo said while watching the marchers pass the review stand.Rizzo was elected mayor in 2011 and said his administration made resuming the parade a priority. He credited dozens of volunteers and private donors as well as the Revere City Council Monday for bringing the parade back to Revere.”It’s a generational event for many residents of the city, and for newcomers, as they say, who doesn’t love a parade?” Rizzo said. He recalled his own memories of attending the parade as a youth, bringing his own kids to the parade and now bringing a grandchild to the event. “I can’t tell you how excited people were when I was walking the parade route, there were literally dozens shouting ?thank you for bringing the parade back!'”Councilor at-large John Correggio agreed.”People have been waiting for this for a long while,” Correggio said. “It’s a credit to the community. The city’s moving forward now with new development and new recreation opportunities.”Many of the traditional aspects of the parade remained. State gubernatorial candidates Charlie Baker and Martha Coakley joined local school committee and city council candidates shaking hands along the parade route.The Aleppo Shriners returned. And at least one model of one of the three ships on Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage appeared to sail down the street (although there was a little concern on the reviewing stand about whether Columbus himself was marching in the usual place).Yet amongst the excitement of the parade’s return, there was also some acknowledgement that the event had changed.Rizzo said Revere and East Boston would alternate holding a parade; so the parade will be held in Revere every-other year. But Rizzo said he would not be opposed to having an annual parade if the local community was supportive.And some of the parade attendees said the hoopla surrounding the parade wasn’t quite what it used to be.Rose Sacco said she has come watched the parade outside the Soccorso Club for most of the 53 years she has lived around the corner from the men’s social organization. She said she was very disappointed the event had been canceled for the past five years.”I was very surprised they had it again and didn’t want to miss it,” Sacco said. However, she said the crowd was smaller than usual. “Maybe they didn’t know about it?”She also recalled how the Soccorso Club used to host a cookout to feed the marchers and the neighborhood following the parade.”This place in here was jam-packed, we’d probably have 300 or 400 people here,” Soccorso Club member Larry Minincleri said. There were four other people in the room with a bar, a dartboard, and a few round card tables.”In one time, Revere was a big Italian city, and this was a big Italian neighborhood,” he continued. He said the club used to have about 560 members; now there were between 30 and 50.”People can’t be bothered anymore [to join] like they used to,” he said. There was no cookout.But while time and circumstances change, traditions can remain.Club member Mike Moschella, 95, stood at the club’s window, watching the parade as he said he had “for a long time.””This is all tradition,” said Diane Festa, Moschella’s daughter. “He lives in Peabody now, [my daughter] lives in Pelham, New Hampshire, but we’re all here.”And Monday, the parade was introduced to a new generation.Luis Pagan and S