And I have proof.....
Last weekend was the annual Harrisburg Holiday parade. As you may know, a group on on-air personalities from the station always participates. As a Central Pennsylvania native, the Harrisburg Holiday parade is a local tradition that I grew up with and it is still a thrill for me to actually get to ride in it. There is one drawback though.... downtime. A LOT of downtime. In order for us to be in our proper spot, we all need to arrive at the City Island staging area by 9am. The parade doesn't even start until 10am, and until it's your turn to fall in line in the parade route, it can be much later then that.
While patiently waiting two hours for this years parade to start, I took notice of the fact that the Hersheypark float was positioned across the City Island lot from where we were setting up. They had a really cool float that featured several of the Hershey characters such as a dancing Krackel bar, Peppermint Patty, Reese's Peanut Butter cup, and most importantly, Coco the Bear!!
For those of you that don't know, Coco is the official mascot for the Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears hockey club. I've been a fan of the Bears all of my life, and I also still get a big kick out of team mascots. Now that I have kids of my own, I always take my boys under the ruse of "it's for the kids" to go visit the mascot when we go to any sporting events. In many ways, I'm just a big kid, and I still get a thrill out of getting a, "high five" from the likes of the Phillie Phanatic. So when I saw Coco the Bear standing around on his float just waiting for the Holiday parade to start, I had to make my move.
I knew that WHP weekend anchor Mike Parker had a digital camera with him to take parade pictures. Mike is one of my good friends here at WHP, and I was sure that he would be more than happy to take a picture for me. I also knew that I was probably going to violate several, "man laws" and be subject to some serious verbal abuse if I asked him to walk all of the way over to the Hershey float just to take my picture with of all things.... Coco the Bear. After thinking it over for a few minutes, I swallowed hard and asked Mike if he could see fit to snapping a shot of me and Coco.
Mike laughed and agreed to take the picture, and just as I predicted began asking me questions like, "What are you Knight, like 4 years old?" Shane Schillaci was also standing within earshot, and he too found it funny that a 36 year old man would want his picture taken with a dancing Coco the Bear.
Armed with Mike's camera, the three of us made our way over to the Hershey float. Depite having to take their teasing, as a Hershey Bears fan I was excited about how cool my personal computer was going to look once I had a wallpaper shot of me with Coco. I asked the woman in charge if she minded if I hopped up on the float so that I could get my picture taken with Coco. She graciously agreed and I stepped up on to the float, put my arm around Coco, and Mike took the picture.
I was thanking Coco and getting ready to step down when suddenly I was unexpectedly joined on the float by two other people wearing WHP jackets and big smiles. Mike and Shane had made their way on to the float and the woman in charge of the float was now holding Mike's camera. Even though Mike and Shane had given me a hard time for suggesting that I wanted a picture with Coco the Bear, it seems I'm not the only WHP personality that is a true kid at heart.
Don't believe me? Well as they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words.......
