Come Saturday morning, November 30, Clevelander Drew Carey will perch himself on a 40-foot float and officially take up his position as Grand Marshal of the Cleveland Bicentennial Homecoming Parade.

The television comedian already is telling Clevelanders to invite former residents and other out-of-town friends to come here for the big holiday weekend that will cap this bicentennial year.

Carey's letter is part of a Convention and Visitors Bureau ad. Of what he calls "the great things going on in Cleveland," Carey says, invite people to come "...to town and watch their jaws drag across the cement. The Homecoming events...are perfect occasions to bring people back home for a weekend to show them the amazing rebirth of Cleveland. Just make sure they wipe their feet first. We spent a lot of time cleaning the place."

Footnote: Mr. Carey is speaking long-term about "...cleaning the place." Cleaning up the snow on the ground at the moment won't take nearly so long (it says here in the fine print).

That parade that Carey is going to lead should be a doozy!

Why not? The guy putting it together is Paul Olingy. He has made quite a reputation for himself, doing parades. For several years, he was with the Orange Bowl Parade creative team. He lives here now, and last year put together the championship parade for the Cleveland Indians. (He would probably have done it again this season, too, had the Indians made the World Series.)

For the Homecoming "parade of all parades," Olingy is comingling 200 marching units, 28 bands, 200 dancing candles, and a 75-foot-long Lake Erie Monster, a 50-foot-long giant eagle, and Santa and reindeer among 30 floats. The parade is not the only event of the weekend, of course.

On Friday, November 29, there'll be free candy canes and acts by street performers from 4 p.m. leading to the 6 p.m. entertainment and lighting ceremony on Public Square.

When they flip the switch (at 6:53 p.m., the schedule says), they'll illuminate the place with "the biggest and best holiday lighting ceremony ever." The official city Christmas tree this year will be topped with a 42-inch star that will "twinkle in red-clear-blue lights on the exterior, with gold lights in the interior," and the lights on the tree itself will change from red to clear to blue and then light up together in red, white and blue colors. (It all works with some sort of fancy fader system).

Also new: a huge, television monitor on the west side of the Northeast Quadrant of the Square. The Bicentennial Commission is putting up the 25-foot by 27-foot screen so people can get a better look at the goings-on. A "crawl" across the screen will print the words spoken by different hosts, performers and guests. It has a fancy name, too: "real time caption" system.

Around the square will be different forms of entertainment, much of it on the holiday ice skating rink (local international champion Tonia Kwiatkowski is scheduled to be here).

And, of course, there'll be fireworks and Santa.

When all that's done, everyone can go home or to the hotels or wherever and get a good night's rest and be back the next morning for the beginning of the big parade at 10 a.m.

So, wipe your feet, come on down, and Welcome Home!

OTHER BICENTENNIAL STORIES by John Herrington

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