Mummers + 2

Nearly all of the boomer Mummers have gone up Broad Street previously with other string bands, many since they were young. Simiriglio, who started when he was 12, figures they have at least 1,000 Mummer years between them.

Their shoestring budget means that Pennsport is the Blanche DuBois of string bands, said Frank Lusch, a grade-school teacher by day who plays tenor sax for Pennsport. "We've depended on the kindness of strangers."

Mooney's Pub owner Bill Mooney is Simiriglio's friend and lets the band use the rehearsal space for free.

They've paid a costumer to decorate a secondhand tuxedo for each musician - "He and his partner kind of Mummed them up," Simiriglio said - and they hired an artist to design and airbrush some props.

They can't afford labor costs for the finish work, he said, so they're gluing on the spangles themselves. "We said, 'Make a circle where you need glitter.' "

Simiriglio acknowledged that Pennsport's founders probably bit off more than it was entirely reasonable to chew between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. (Haven't we all?) On the other hand, a full 10 months of down time beckons between this New Year's Day and the first rehearsal for next year's parade.

He, for one, will need it, since the 45-year-old mortgage broker and his wife, each with an adolescent from previous marriages, are expecting a baby in May.

"We're starting all over again," he said.

Adelphia New Year's

Association:

The Nuclear Option

The DiMatteo family brings an intensity to Mummery that may be unmatched on this planet.

To give one example, Adelphia founder Peter DiMatteo, 37, took welding classes at Gloucester County College so that he could build his own Fancy-Division getups.

DiMatteo's parents, Peter and Rosa, are perhaps even more highly invested in Mummery than their son is.

They were proud and relieved when their 4-year-old grandson, Samuel McClintock, decided last Friday that, yes, he'd join the rest of the family in this year's parade. (It's their firm belief that it's wrong to force a child to go up Broad Street against his will.)

Now that Samuel is on board, all nine of the DiMatteo grandchildren, ages 16 to 4, are planning to march on New Year's Day with the new Adelphia Fancy Division mother club.

Not surprisingly, the DiMatteo intensity stirs up the occasional tempest, and therein lies the motivation to grow their own Mummers association.

"We've had our differences with other fancy clubs," said the elder Peter DiMatteo. "We decided to form a new club, and it stuck."

The group, now 70 members strong, is named after Adelphia Avenue in Wilmington, the street where the younger Peter DiMatteo lives. His two-car garage is the closest thing the Adelphia organization has to a clubhouse.