Better late than never, parade goes on

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BY LISA MUNGER / Lincoln Journal Star

Huddled together on pink lawnchairs at 11th and O streets, Caitlin Dirks, 8, and her twin sisters, Lauren and Nicole, 5, suffered the frigid temperatures as they waited.

“Raise your hands if you can feel your fingers,” the announcer called out once the 23rd annual Star City Holiday Parade began about an hour later. “Well, it’s still early.”

The parade stepped off at 11 a.m. as planned, except that it was a week late. City officials postponed the festivities for the first time ever after an ice storm hit Lincoln last Saturday.

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A snowman balloon is reflected in the widows of Wells Fargo as it is navigated around the stoplights at 13th and O Streets during the annual Star City Holiday Parade on Saturday. (Michael McNamara)

The Dirks girls and their mom, Brenda, showed up downtown last week, too, realizing only after they arrived that something was wrong — no one else had showed up for the parade.

“We called some friends who told us the parade had been canceled,” Brenda said. “We looked forward to starting a family tradition.”

The family moved to Lincoln this summer from Norfolk.

On a normal Star City Parade morning, downtown is filled with people jockeying for seats.

This year, the Dirkses were pretty much alone on O Street until a few minutes before the parade began.

On a normal Star City Parade morning, hundreds of marching band members from across the state are ready to roll. This year, there were none.

Instead, two reindeer carrying a banner rounded the corner at 10th and O streets, and people began to pour out of buildings and corridors along the route to watch.

“We are so pleased we rescheduled and we were able to present  the parade to the community,” said Deb Johnson, executive director of the parade and the Updowntowners. “It was a fantastic parade, colorful and full of holiday spirit.”

Still, the chilly weather seemed to keep many people at home.

The temperature was 17 degrees at 11, but the wind chill factor was 2, said Dave Fobert, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Valley.

Star Kotrous, supervisor of the gift shop and Starbucks Coffee inside The Cornhusker, said she saw far fewer customers than in previous years, when they stretched out the doors waiting to buy hot drinks. 

“Usually we get tons of business,” she said. “But this year we heard sleet, snow and ice.”

Others compromised by watching from inside buildings along the route.

As they rode on a sled pulled by two Clydesdales, Mayor Chris Beutler and his wife, Judy, waved for people peeking out the windows in the Centerstone building at 12th and O streets to come outside. 

He didn’t appear to have any takers.

But all the while, the Dirks sisters waited for the star of the parade — Santa, who brought up the rear as he has for 23 years.

Reach Lisa Munger at 473-2646 or lmunger@journalstar.com.