A Penguin New Year

The Three little Penguins New Year

By John Matthews

Another year was ending, Christmas had come and now passed. The “2022” New Year was on its way. Three Little Penguins Mumbles, Harvey, and Pierre have just finish celebrating Christmas at their Aunt Mimi house in Boynton, Beach, Florida and were wondering what they do for the New Year. They decided to go up North and visit Aunt Marie, in Philadelphia. Mumbles told them about the famous New Year’s Eve Parade with the Mummers. Harvey and Pierre lived in Florida and never seen the Mummers or traveled to Philadelphia. Mumbles told them about the Fancy costumes, String Bands, and dances they performed in center city. It would be a unique experience for Harvey, and Pierre to see for the first time. The Three Little Penguins told Aunt Mimi that they wanted go to Philadelphia and experience this tradition. Aunt Mimi contacted Aunt Marie and made the arrangements for Harvey, Mumbles, and Pierre to travel to celebrate the New Year holiday up North. The penguins were excited and couldn’t wait to arrive and see all this for themselves. They each went to their room to get some sleep before traveling the next day to the Airport for their new adventure.

The sun shined bright the next morning through their bedroom windows waking Harvey, Mumbles, and Pierre up with the blinding light. Aunt Mimi, came in the room and said “You guys packed and ready” The three penguins rolled out of bed covering their eyes from the blinding sun. “It’s to early for me”, said Mumbles as he wiped his eyes with his hands. Aunt Mimi said “We have to leave at 4:30 AM to get to the Airport by 5. Your Flight leaves at 7” The Penguins crawled out of bed gathering their packed suitcases and got dressed and they were off to the Palm Beach Airport.

After a 2 and a 1/2-hour flight Harvey, Mumbles, and Pierre arrived at Philadelphia International Airport. They followed the signs to Baggage Claim area to pick up their luggage. Pierre and Harvey both picked bags up off the conveyor belt. “Where’s my bag?” said Mumbles with a worried look on his face. The belt had stopped and passengers began walking away as Mumbles sat there staring at the belt “Where’s my bag?” he said again with an even more anxious look. “Did they lose my bag?” Pierre and Harvey went over and looked around and couldn’t see any bags on the belt. Was Mumbles bag lost? “We have to go to Lost Baggage Claim,” said Harvey. The three penguins were walking towards the counter when Mumbles noticed a lady with a similar bag that was Purple and had a red bow on the top. “I think that lady took my bag” Mumbles said “A lot of bags look similar.”, replied Pierre. The penguins started running trying to catch up to this lady to see if indeed she did take Mumbles bag by accident. The lady started to get in the taxi when Harvey yelled “Stop!!” The lady looked around and saw there were three little penguins in front of her. “Mumbles said “I think you have my bag. It has a red bow on the top. Can you open it and check?” The lady replied “I don’t have your bag, you silly penguin.” “Can you please check?”, said Pierre. “I’m in a rush to get to my hotel”, replied the lady snobbishly. She opened the bag and none of the stuff in it was hers. “that’s my bag!”, yelled Mumbles “Oh here take your bag.”, the lady grumbled. “I guess they lost my bag now.” She Angrily, marched up to the counter to report her bag lost.

Aunt Marie was outside in her car wondering what was taking the penguins so long. Harvey, Mumbles, and Pierre walked out and got into her car. “What was taking you guys so long?”, she said. Harvey replied, Mumbles lost his bag and some lady almost left with it in a cab if we didn’t stop her. She had an attitude was in a rush and grabbed the wrong bag thinking it was her bag.” “Wow, Mumbles your lucky you got the bag before she got back to her place.”, said Aunt Marie “I know said Mumbles. I am too” Aunt Marie pulled out of the airport and began to drive home. It was December 29th, 2021 and the penguins had a long day and just wanted to go home and rest. After meeting Marie’s husband, and two children they all sat down to eat dinner then went to bed.

The next morning arrived and the penguins joined Aunt Marie’s family at the breakfast table. As they came out of their room they could smell fresh pancakes, Eggs, bacon, and Sausage that she was making. Marie’s sons Johnny and Michael and Dad were sitting down with growling bellies waiting to scarf down some grub. Aunt Marie said “It’s New Year’s Eve what do you guys want to do?” Pierre and Harvey said they wanted to see the fireworks at the Art Museum. Aunt Marie, Uncle John, Johnny, Michael, Pierre, Harvey, and Mumbles all went downtown. They went through the Please Touch Museum where the Penguins were touching everything, they were kicked out. Next, everyone visited the Franklin Institute ate lunch then went through Philadelphia Art Museum. Everyone hung around for dinner and to see the fireworks. Crowds of people started to flood the Parkway. The penguins were so little they could not see over the heads of all the tall people. Johnny and Michael were both tall children and picked up Harvey, Mumbles, and Pierre and placed them on their shoulders so they could see. Bright colorful lights quickly filled the sky along with loud blasts. ““You guys enjoying the fireworks?”, said Aunt Marie. It’s beautiful”, said Pierre “It’s loud and crowded”, replied Harvey. All the sudden these bright colors started to collide at faster pace. Rockets shooting off in the air. Streamers, Comets, Confetti, Glitter, Jumping Jacks, were filling the sky at three times the speed as before. These patterns kept replaying in the sky as this was “The Finale”. Almost every firework was going off in the sky. Soon Smoke just filled the sky and the people started to walk away. It was over and a New Year was rung in at the strike of midnight. Pots clanging, people shouting” Happy New Year!”, Kazoos tooting, Party Poppers popping were all sounds of the bringing in of a New Year. Aunt Marie and her family headed back to the car and on their way home to fight the traffic on the road. The Penguins got home hit the bed and fell right to sleep. Tomorrow they would go back downtown to see the Mummers parade.

A light flickered on a few hours later. “Are you guys ready to go to the Parade?” Harvey, looked up at the clock and said “now?”. Pierre, rolled back over and put cover over his face to cover up the light. Aunt Marie, Pierre, and Harvey looked over at Mumbles bunk and seen it was empty. Mumbles was up and ready to go venture out and see the parade. Harvey and Pierre slowly climbed out of bed. “You got any coffee?”, replied Harvey. Aunt Marie then went into Johnny and Michael’s room to wake them. They were not too happy to be woken. Johnny got out of bed as Michael just rolled back over. Eventually, everyone did get out of bed, ate breakfast and were on their way downtown to see the Parade. Aunt Marie Decided that there be so many detours and finding parking would be nearly impossible that it best to take the train downtown. Harvey and Pierre were excited to take the train as they never did this before. The Penguins, Aunt Marie, Uncle John, Johnny, and Michael were riding on the train when a man comes in with a sign asking for money and food. Harvey and Pierre never seen this before as they were from Florida and rarely see homeless people. “Should we give him something”, said Pierre. “No” replied Uncle John, “You don’t know if you can trust them. I gave a guy a sandwich one time and he rudely said no and, then asked for money. You never know if they will use it for their addiction or not. Mumbles said “They are people and have feelings too. We should pray for them.” The three penguins said a silenced prayer then got off the next stop to get ready for the parade.

The Penguins found a spot near the judges and prepared themselves for the parade. There were so many sparkly fancy costumes and people walking around with instruments and props. Harvey said “I never seen this in Florida.” “It’s a tradition each year”, said Mumbles. “There are Fancy Brigades, String Bands, Comics and much more.”, said Mumbles. The Parade started to make its way down Broad Street. The penguins were just astonished with all fancy performances. There was so much good competition. It was hard for the judges to decide who would place and in what order. As the sky started to darken and sun began to set the parade came to a close and it was soon time to go home. The three little penguins had a wonderful time and experience in Philadelphia. Harvey and Pierre, knew they would come back again to visit their brother Mumbles and his family. They all knew that tomorrow they were headed back home to Florida.