Before the procession for St. Peter’s Fiesta at noon, and in advance of the 3 p.m. Blessing of the Fleet on Stacy Boulevard, the Rev. James Achadinha ended the outdoor Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Square by reading the names of boats in Gloucester’s fleet and blessing them.
In the spirit of what St. Peter’s Fiesta is all about in Gloucester, youngsters and some adults carried oars painted for the vessels of the city’s commercial fishing fleet in Sunday’s procession.
Some oars are for boats actively fishing, such as F/V Cat Eyes. Some are for those lost at sea, such as the F/V of Andrea Gail, which went down during the “The Perfect Storm” in October 1991. All six crew died.
After Sunday’s Mass, a group of about 60 youngsters gathered in an alley on the far side of the Oak to Ember restaurant, away from St. Peter’s Square, to get their oars from organizers.
The tradition of youngsters from the waterfront Fort neighborhood carrying oars honoring the city’s fishing fleet fizzled out in the 1980s and 1990s before Tom Aiello and a bunch of friends revived it in 2002.
Aiello and his friends carried oars when they were young in the early 1970s.
Sunday was the 24th year of Carrying of the Oars since the tradition was revived.
Some of those who have helped out over the years are Pete Tarantino; Aiello’s brother Marco; Dee and Steve Noble; and Wayne Moulton, Aiello said.
“Tradition, you’ve got to keep tradition going,” Moulton said.
“This is everything to us,” said Janey Brancaleone, a retired special education teacher, who took part in Sunday’s procession. Her husband, “Big” Tom Brancaleone, took part in a motorized wheelchair, carrying an oar for their family’s highliners, the Joseph & Lucia I, II and III.
“When we were children, the man behind us, he owned a fish net place” Janey Brancaleone said of growing up in the Fort. He was in charge of painting the oars and he would let the children paint the oars for him. The tradition eventually died out.
Around the 75th anniversary of Fiesta, she said, the group got together to revive it, getting 60 oars from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada.
“And we just had so, so much fun with it,” Brancaleone said. She stepped away from the carrying of the oars for a few years, but now she is back with her grandchild, who Brancaleone said needs to be part of the tradition. Her children carried oars when they were younger, and both of them were on hand helping with the procession.
This year, Aiello, who comes from a fishing family, put out the call for volunteers to carry an oar and I carried the oar for F/V Hunter in Sunday’s procession.
Also in the spirit of being a grown-up kid, O’Maley Middle School Spanish language and culture teacher Heidi Wakeman — who along with Jay Featherstone was recently named as the city’s Co-Poet Laureates — read Aiello’s call for volunteers in the Times and decided to become a part of Fiesta.
“I haven’t done it before,” Wakeman, a native of Cape Ann, said, “and I usually watch the Friday night procession in (to St. Peter’s Square) and so it felt important to me to participate either through watching or … when I read in the paper the call for volunteers needed, I thought I could do that and what better way to see a parade than be part of the parade.”
She carried the oar for F/V Cat Eyes.
When asked why it was important to have the children carrying oars in the parade, Aiello said: “This is what Fiesta is all about. These boats right here. This isn’t just names. These are families. This is our heritage. This is our history. Especially for these young kids, this is their first step to being involved with Fiesta.”
“We get together after and I tell them all, you are forever and ever, and for the rest of their lives, you can always say, I’m a part of Fiesta,” Aiello said.
Lenore Maniaci said this was her 6-year-old daughter Helena’s first time carrying an oar in the procession “so we are really proud of her.”
Natalie Parisi, 13, who is going into eighth grade at O’Maley, and her mother, Julie Parisi, spoke about the importance of carrying an oar in the procession. Natalie was carrying one for F/V St. George.
Julie Parisi, a Gloucester native, said her daughter had never walked in the procession before.
“We had a family member who went down in the ships before, a great, great grandfather, so we thought this would be a good way to honor him,” Julie Parisi said.
Roseanne Ciolino said her two daughters, Lauryn Lewis, 7, and Nova Lewis, who turns 9 in a couple of days, and her niece Noel Simpson, were walking with oars.
“It’s part of our heritage, the Fiesta,” said Ciolino who has been going to Fiesta since she was little. “We grew up with this and now it’s their turn. They are the next generation.”
While carrying the oar for F/V Hunter up Washington Street in the procession amid the thick crowd lining the street, I got a lesson that the oar I was holding was more than just painted wood with a boat name on it.
Mary Lou Balbo came up to me to let me know F/V Hunter was her late husband Daniel “Danny” Balbo’s boat. Due to regulations, her husband sold his fishing permit and had to destroy the Hunter in 1997. He was offered retraining and became a truck driver. He died in 2020 at age 62.
She then asked if she could have a picture with the oar held by their five grandchildren: Alivia Benjamin, 9, Avery Benjamin, 14, Alexa Benjamin, 12, Reese Balbo, 6, and Celeste Balbo, 10. During a long pause, they held the oar in honor of their late grandfather for a photo before the procession restarted on its way around the downtown.
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.