| Crystal chiffon and blue tissue lame: $7 to $15 a yard. Purple brocade: up to $25 a yard. Sequins: $18 a card. The labor to construct a butterfly for the Mummers Parade: Priceless. Hog Island New Year Asociation, a power in the parade's Fancy Division, is wrestling with the losses from a fire and lightning strike Friday that will be hard to price when their insurance agent visits. "The memories that go along with the suits," said Jackie McCann Buggey, a club stalwart and first woman vice president of the Mummer's Association. "We'll say, ''Remember when we made this? Remember when we argued about that? ' she said. "You may hate a suit but you'll say, 'Remember when we were up all night sewing it?'" The loss is more than memories. The Fancies, more than other Mummers, reuse, modify and cannibalize their elaborate costumes for entires in catagories like "handsome trim," "fancy trio" and " king jockey." The loss means extra catchup work for Hog's 23 official members---a roster that swells to over 300 on New Years Day. "How do you put a price tag on a labor of love?" said husband Joe Buggey, assistant captain and ex- president. He said about 60 percent of more than 100 costumes appear damaged or destroyed. At the height of Friday's fierce storm, smoke curled from the three-story club on 3rd Street at Cantrell, one of the tallest non-church buildings in the Mummers' Pennsport heartland. The clubhouse was unoccupied and no one was hurt. Structural damage, not yet assessed, seems significant but repairable. "The firemen were a Godsend for us. They're from the neighborhood and they understood what we had here," Buggey said. "They were careful, and they saved alot of stuff for us." On the Third floor, where lightning bored a small hold at the roofline, Buggey's flashlight yesterday found a melted squish of blue tissue lame that had once been Ursula the Sea Witch. A hanging blob was all that was left of the black brocade from a Chinese dragon. Buggey ticked off the casualties in Fancies' shorthand. "The bodies of the big butterflies that were part of [the] captain's suit," he said. "Backpieces for the butterfly. The dragon suit. The puppet show. Trios. Parts of trios. Some speciality pieces." The butterflies have a special place in club lore. A decade ago, when Hog Island was struggling Captain Mark Wray organized a butterfly theme that seemed impossible to pull off. Wray took first place---starting a string of nine top captain's prizes. Descendants and modifications of those butterflies have metamorphosed each year since, as the club won first prize four years in a row starting in 1997. Offers of help, including storage and workspace, have come from a rival and from an Irish Society. "We'll put our best foot forward to get on the street" on New Year's 2002, Buggey said. "Even if we lost everything we'd be wearing club jackets and holding umbrellas around City Hall." |
| Lightning melts Mummers finery |
| Hog Island club digs out after fire |
| By: RON GOLDWYN [email protected] |
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