CITY'S SECOND ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARADE IS ON DISPLAY SUNDAY

About 65 entries are expected to tootle down Broadway Sunday in the second annual Christmas Parade of Lights.

The Christmas season kickoff is sponsored by the Downtown Merchants Association and KBSI-TV.

Last year's Christmas parade, the first since the 1950s, was hailed as a big success with 45 entries.

"We had 6,000 to 7,000 people down here to enjoy the parade," said Dennis "Doc" Cain, the parade chairman for the second year. "I guess if you haven't had a parade in 30 years, people are ready for it."

The lineup for the parade will begin at 3 p.m. at Capaha park, with the start at 5 p.m. or nightfall. The route runs east on Broadway to Main Street, then south to the parking lot opposite Hutson's Furniture Store.

Hutson's won the Best Float Award last year for an assemblage of mechanical elves. The store is expected to have two floats in this year's parade.

The Sweepstakes Award was won by Acorn Enterprises, which had Santa and his sleigh thrusting skyward atop a disguised dump truck.

Hobbs Chapel United Methodist Church, which had burned down only days before last year's parade, won the Christmas Spirit Award.

Last year's Cape Girardeau Fire Department entry was a hit with its ladder truck wreathed in more than 60 strands of lights. "They've informed us they're really going to do it up nice," Cain said.

Cain promised a memorable Santa float from the merchants association. Many downtown merchants will be open Sunday afternoon, their windows framed with white lights and decorated with Christmas scenes.

The SEMO Hogs, a motorcycle club, won't be in the parade again this year. The slow pace of the parade and the large number of riders are problematic, Cain said.

Entries are judged in five divisions: walking, vehicle, float, mounted and band.

Only one band, St. Vincent's of Perryville, will play. "A lot of school systems have a problem with Sunday things," Cain said. "But this date works for us."

Gene Huckstep, retiring presiding commissioner of Cape Girardeau County, will be the grand marshal.

The Zonta Club will sell hot chocolate along the parade route. Stations will be located at Capaha Park, near the corner of Broadway and Harmony, near the corner of Broadway and Middle, near Capital Bank in the 300 block of Broadway, and at Hutson's.