Firemen from all over the state paraded for 3 ½ hours yesterday afternoon as the Pennsylvania Firemen’s Association ended its 85th annual convention. Some 3,000 marchers delighted estimated at 30,000 that lined the parade route.

The 27-division paraded moved east on West Third Street from the Memorial Park area, then north on Pine Street and west on West Fourth Street to Rose Street. The reviewing stand was in front of the post office building at Hepburn and West Fourth Streets.

Government officials and officers of the firemen’s association led the parade in cars. Scores of fire trucks and fire- fighting apparatus were sprinkled throughout the divisions.

The downtown took on a Mardi Gras atmosphere as visiting firemen engaged in some of the good natured fun.

One wag startled many girls waiting along Third Street before parade time by sneaking up behind them with a noise maker.

Three young boys amused onlookers by trying on “Beatle” wigs at a sidewalk counter in front of a Pine Street store.

Several young men set up their own makeshift “reviewing stand” on the sidewalk in front of the county prison.

In front of a West Fourth Street shoe store, three women negotiated three large balloons into the back of a sedan without breaking them.

Upper floor guests at a midtown hotel showered parade goers below with a shower of long ticker tape streamers of household paper.

Compiled by Lou Hunsinger Jr.