Posted
5:48 PM
by Gene
Today I took a glum walk down a mostly deserted South Street; the snow and the CURE took care of the people. At my gloomiest out of nowhere marched a contingent of twenty musicians out of the Mummers parade playing an unreasonable facsimile of Dixieland and my spirit perked up and I wanted to yell "Happy New Year!" Then I sagged as they tootled away. Returning for home I found the musicians walking the other way and playing even more raucously than before. There is a case for such musical effusions -- not the solo street ones, which come from beggars with another name, but these sudden demonstrations of happiness, toward whom only the surliest could object.