Riverview boroughs ring in holidays

Beyond diversions like a light-up leg lamp and tongue-retaining metal pole, Bob Clark’s “A Christmas Story” enjoys enduring popularity for portraying the holiday season the way it used to be.

Well, maybe it never was exactly like Ralphie Parker’s however many decades ago in Hohman, Ind. But enough of the elements resonate with so many Americans that the film continues to attract legions of loyal viewers, especially for its annual 24-hour Christmas Eve/Day marathon.

One particularly memorable sequence has the Parkers visiting downtown Hohman for what turns out to be a side-splitting, if ill-fated, visit with Higbee’s department-store Santa. But out on the main street, everyone is enchanted by the passing of a Christmas parade, complete with the cast from then-new “The Wizard of Oz.”

Bring that general scenario into the 21st century, and you effectively have the twin events that took place Dec. 19 in Riverview School District’s twin boroughs: Oakmont’s Hometown Christmas, with block after block of vendors lining Allegheny River Boulevard, and Verona’s Jolly Jamboree, complete with a “cookie tour” of local businesses.

The main event was the parade that started in Verona and worked its way north, bringing a variety of floats, fire engines and finally, Santa and Mrs. Claus waving to the gathered masses from atop one of the trucks.

And masses, they were. Despite temperatures that probably seemed colder to folks who had basked in 70-plus-degree weather a week and a half beforehand, the boulevard was lined with people who wanted to get an early jump on seasonal festivities.

Plenty of them came from other communities to join their Riverview friends, including representatives of fire departments from all around the area who brought their heavy equipment for the parade.

Organized by the chambers of commerce in Oakmont and Verona, the combined activities featured long lists of sponsoring businesses and organizations, again demonstrating the type of local support that makes small towns thrive.

And to the best of anyone’s knowledge, no tongues were stuck to poles.