SARANAC LAKE — Strange-looking creatures and large ships are lurking in corner rooms around the village here.
They will all be let loose on Saturday.
For weeks, parade floats, walking parties and marching, cavorting teams have been scheming, building and otherwise preparing for a parade invasion of aliens.
The 115th Winter Carnival theme has drawn lots of chuckles and more than a few smirks from people wielding paint brushes, tin foil and glue guns.
"Everything that we've heard is that people have gone a little bit crazy with this," Winter Carnival Chairman Jeff Dickson said of parade preparations, under way for weeks.
"But nobody's telling us any of their plans. I have no idea, for example, what the Lawn Chair Ladies are doing, and that's fine with me. I don't want to know the details. I want to be just as surprised as everybody else."
But snooping in and around local businesses, asking questions, pointing cameras, the Press-Republican found civic groups and otherwise quiet streets hid evidence of a good time ready to land.
The Gala Parade has been a midwinter tradition here since 1897 when Winter Carnival started with a fancy-dress skating party.
The first actual parade came the next year, in 1898, according to town historians and their records; unless, of course, you count the costume skating party that first year.
Amy Catania is director of Historic Saranac Lake, and their archives turned up a newspaper description dated more than 114 years old.
On Feb. 25, 1897, the Plattsburgh newspaper reported that The Pontiac Club of Saranac Lake held a fancy-dress Winter Carnival on Flower Lake on Feb. 17.
"About two hundred people gathered to witness the hockey match. The evening session was the most pleasing of all, about three hundred men, women and children being there in some kind of fancy costume," the article reads.
Historic Saranac Lake teamed up this year to build their parade entry.
Catania said history didn't really unearth a lot about "aliens."
"But we're joining forces with Trudeau Institute; it's a float that combines science, history and alien germs. They've been involved in the parade forever, and they have an old stash of props to sift through."
Construction began in late January.
And beyond the outer-space theme, there was no doubt what the entire event has geared up to accomplish.
"I think I realize every time the parade comes together that it's such an important community-building thing," Catania said.
"People talk about Saranac Lake being a tight-knit community, and I think we have the Winter Carnival to thank for that in many ways. You get to know your neighbors."
Even in tin foil hats.
Neighbors, too, in Lake Placid are preparing an invasion.
At Lake Placid Hannaford Supermarket, parade entry co-organizer Janea Dishaw laughed in telling what she would about their plan.
(She wouldn't divulge much.)
"I think it will be a blast. The theme we're working with is Hannaford Has Landed," Dishaw chuckled.
"We're out there to get involved in the community, to have fun. I will tell you that involves grocery carts."
St. Joseph's Addiction Treatment Center built a very large UFO with the help of some 22 residents and 15 staff members.
In charge of the parade entry, St. Joe's staffer Barbara Catalano said they even made papier-mache alien heads for their coterie to wear.
"The War of the Worlds" might pale in comparison to the attack their float intends.
"We did a lot of the papier-mache stuff inside," she said.
"We have aliens, a city, and we made toys to give out to the kids along the parade route, too, because the residents wanted the kids to have a good time."
Delivering creativity to the parade march is one thing St. Joe's does well every year, winning Best of Show and Best in Class repeatedly over the past decade.
More importantly, Catalano said, is the interaction with residents at St. Joe's, their staff and the throngs who will line up to watch this Saturday.
"It's a community event. We like our residents to get involved and enjoy themselves. They can't wait to see the kids' faces."
Arguably, civic-minded organizers in other towns and villages might think it "alien" enough that a community of 5,000 or so would stage a parade in the dead of winter.
The route from near Lake Colby to the town hall is lined with marching, winding winter merriment for more than two hours, no matter what the weather brings — wind, snow, rain, 45 degrees below zero.
Doesn't ever matter.
"Well, Saranac Lake thought a long time ago that the carnival and the parade are something to be healthy about," Catania said of the long heritage.
"Winter is a tough time, it (the festival) is a way to get over the post-Christmas blues. There were a lot of TB patients here, so it was a way to keep people's spirits up. The parade always feels historic even with a theme like aliens."
Parade lineup begins at noon Saturday at Lake Colby Drive.
And at 1 p.m., the Gala Parade begins winding it's way toward Broadway and onto Main Street.
Email Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com
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