Beverly Horribles parade prompts outcry in Gloucester
There was a fire engine, a small army of children on bicycles, a marching band, and lots of red, white, and blue to celebrate the nation's birthday.
Then came the surprise floats at the annual July Fourth Horribles parade in Beverly, which has sparked outrage in neighboring Gloucester.
There were young men in diapers emerging from a female dummy's open legs, condoms raining on preteen spectators, and a truck that simulated a part of the male anatomy and carried the mocking message: "Knock 'em up high where expectations are low, Gloucester, MA."
The parade, known for more than a century for its biting satire about current affairs, left few residents laughing yesterday in Gloucester, which made international headlines last month when the high school's principal told Time magazine that some of the 17 students who became pregnant this school year did so as part of a pact.
"It's a disgrace. It's terrible. They have no class," said Joe Tumbiolo, 46, who said he has lived in Gloucester nearly all his life.
Drinking beside him at the Old Timer's Tavern in Gloucester, Marc Andrew, a 50-year-old landscaper, warned Beverly to "take care of their own."
"They don't have to slander our town," he said. "I think that they should watch what they're saying, because it may come back to haunt them."
Three of the parade's floats, which were decorated with dolls and balloons, featured signs such as "GHS girls went to band camps [and] came back pregnant tramps."
Others were too graphic to print.
"The city of Gloucester is deeply offended by certain individuals trivializing and making a mockery of teenage pregnancy, which unfortunately is a national problem that we as a society must confront," Mayor Carolyn Kirk of Gloucester said in a statement.
"Our focus in Gloucester is on addressing this issue and beginning a constructive and useful dialogue that will benefit our community," she said.
Some in Gloucester questioned whether Beverly had more teen pregnancies.
But in 2006, when there were 4,722 teen births in Massachusetts, there were 19 teen births in Gloucester and six teenage births in Beverly, which has about 10,000 more residents, according to the latest statistics available from the state Department of Public Health and the US Census Bureau.
While the truck with the male anatomy display won second place for creativity, the floats also sparked ire in Beverly, where several parade judges resigned in protest.
Alison Weingartner, a member of the committee that organized the parade, said she was not happy that she had to explain to her 9-year-old son what the floats were all about.
"I think they went over the line," Weingartner said. "The parade is meant to poke fun at things, but with intelligence. These floats weren't terribly creative."
She tried to pass off the condoms as facial wipes, but when her son and other children opened the packages, she had some explaining to do.
"He said he thought babies came from a baby store," she said. "This wasn't right. There have to be some parameters."
Mayor William F. Scanlon Jr. of Beverly said the city had nothing to do with organizing the parade, but he declined to say whether officials would take any action.
"I'm sorry if anyone in Gloucester's feelings were hurt," Scanlon said, "and I'm sure there will be a lot of debate about this."
Marilyn Virgilio did not see the now-ubiquitous YouTube video, which features, from the parade, young women in pigtails gyrating and rubbing their pillow-filled maternity dresses and young men riding a tandem bicycle in diapers and baby caps.
But the founder of Virgilio's Bakery on Main Street has heard everyone talking about it.
"It's awful, not right at all," she said.
Leanna Carpenter, who graduated from Gloucester High School in 1996, was disgusted.
"I would be absolutely appalled if I had to explain to children what that was all about," said Carpenter, 30, a waitress at Valentino's Pizza.
"I mean, show a little tact," Carpenter suggested. "It's very sad and scary what's going on here. They shouldn't make fun of it."
"They went beyond the ridiculous," said Paul Anderson, 62, of Gloucester. "I can see making fun of the situation, but they really went overboard."
At the Crow's Nest, a bar made famous by the book and the movie "The Perfect Storm," Jack Little just shook his head.
"It was beyond poor taste, beyond the bounds of propriety," he said as a row of grizzled and tattooed men in the Crow's Nest agreed with him.
David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com. 