The Philadelphia Mummers from a former Mummers kid by Mike Vargas

I was born and raised in South Philadelphia, the son of a native Puerto Rican who claims to have broken the racial barrier in the Mummers by being the first Hispanic mummer. My father was a master of over-exaggeration, however, I can not deny how his involvement in the Philadelphia Mummers Parade was. For being a founding member of the Strutters NYB in 1966, and his years of dedication to constructing the mummer's suits, he was inducted into the Mummers hall of fame. If you ever visit the Mummers museum look for the plate with the name of Edileberto Vargas, he was my dad. I was present at the first meeting of the Strutters NYB. It was held in my house in South Philadelphia. I have no memories of that gathering, being that I was a newborn babe. What I am about to share is not based on historical accounts, which are mainly distorted due to pride in traditions, but from my experiences of being raised on the inside of the Philadelphia Mummers. The truth is that fancy and comic divisions of the Philadelphia Mummers have been corrupted with alcoholism, violence, and sexual perversion going back as far as I can remember. This is my testimony.

Mummer-ism is actually a religion of sorts. As a child, Dad used to take me to the Strutters’ meetings on Sunday. Because he was a co-founder of the group along with Bill Harvey he was exempt from paying weekly dues, which is their version of the Christian tithes and offerings. The brigade captain took the role of the Pastor and set the direction of the body, and did a type of preaching every Sunday. After the meeting the true worship of drinking like crazy till you could not stand. The intoxication often led to violent outbursts and fighting.

The bars of South Philly were commonly referred to in those days as gladiator bars because you made friends thereby getting into fights, and if you could best your opponent you made a friend for life. I the summer as a pre-teen I used to go with the brigade to parade in another town for increased revenues. As I recall they used to take the lyrics of popular songs of the time and add violent content to them, then sing them. Eventually, these parade trips ended when mummers started going off on violent rampages destroying public property, and raping women. Now a lot of the towns that Mummers used to do their summers parading in, have banned them. The city of Philadelphia banned drinking on Broad street during the New Year's Parade due to the outbreaks of violence on visitors. As a teen, I left the Strutters, because I found that the violence was instilled in me, and was doing severe damage to my relationships. The cross of Jesus Christ is the only thing that removed it. In the mummers, violence is overshadowed by perversion.

On Sundays, there was a steady diet of pornography, as well as drunken orgies. Seeing those films as a pre-teen severely damaged my life, and led to years of porn addiction which only Jesus was able to set me free from that. The Mummers taught me a blatant disrespect for women, that caused most of them to have broken homes. Through Jesus Christ, I regain respect and appreciation for women. All in all I see mummery as a detriment to Philly culture, not a benefit.