Julie Harris couldn't believe it.

For decades she has been helping to organize the Lehighton Halloween Parade, and it always draws a lot of people. But the annual parade on Saturday had one of the largest turnouts of spectators that Harris and other parade committee members can recall."There's been no gaps (of spectators) along the whole route," she said. "In all my years, this is the best spectator turnout that we had. We also had a lot of people in the parade. In just one day care group, we had 138 people."This was the 41st year for the parade. The grand marshal was Mazie Ziegler, 98, a retired Lehighton Area High School librarian, who was all smiles as she rode in the back seat of a black, Ford Mustang GT convertible, waving continuously - sometimes with both arms at once."I'm glad Mazie got honored," said Tim Wood, who said he remembers Ziegler as a librarian. "You didn't find somebody more dedicated than she was."Riding in the car with her was her niece, Ruthann Schlecht.The parade was six divisions long and took more than 75 minutes to pass. There were five bands: The Lehighton Area High School Band, Blue Eagles Drum & Bugle Corp, Perseverance Jazz Band, Shriners Oriental Band, and the Hobo Band, the latter which looked like Halloweeners dressed in hillbilly garb.One of the reasons for the great viewer turnout was the ideal weather. Temperatures were in the 50s."The weather was spectacular," said Harris. "People were here this year from as far away as Florida and Massachusetts. I know because people from Florida called me in March and wanted to know the date of the parade. Two people stopped me along the route and already told me they will be putting their groups in next year's parade."There was a lot of variety in the parade.There were scary creatures like the Lehighton Senior Girl Scout troop, which dressed as mummies and rode a float with the theme, "Mummy, Can I Join Girl Scouts."Cuteness was plentiful, like Daisy Troop 31 members, who had baskets with balloons, depicting hot air balloonists, and using the theme, "Reaching New Heights With Daisy Troop 31."Fun was a key of many of the participants, like Cub Pack 187 members who acted like rock singers and strummed cardboard guitars, or the Rajah Forks Shriners who road miniature "Tin Lizzies."Car clubs had quite a display of antique vehicles, many of the autos having extra touches of lights beneath the vehicles or big spiders on the hoods.The Jukebox Cruisers, headed by Joe Boyle, had 16 vehicles.What parade isn't a little bit special when the mammoth Clydesdale horses are part of the march? There were two wagons pulled by the big horses, a Yuengling wagon and a Leiby's Ice Cream wagon.One of the serious entries which collected oohs and aahs throughout the parade route was a truck tractor of New England Motor Freight, which had painted on it a patriotic theme. There were red and white, wavy flag stripes on the doors and the New York Police Department seal on the back wheel covering.The parade ended at the Lehighton Community Grove. The Lehighton Area Halloween Parade Committee served more than 1,000 hot dogs to the participants.The judges for the parade were Steven Serfass, Ron Connor, Gloria Bowman and Martha Cox.The top parade winners were:• Daisy Scouts - 1. Troop 31 (Reaching New Heights With Daisy Troop 31), 2. Troop 38 (Tangled Up In Scouting).• Girl Scouts - 1. Senior Troop 3583 (Mummy, Can I Join Girl Scouts?), 2. Troop 3248 (All Aboard the Girl Scout Train).• Brownies - 1. Troop 3167 & 3176 (A Birthday Party), 2. Troop 3862 (Wonders of Water).• Car Clubs - 1. Jukebox Cruisers, 2. Northside Cruisers.• Preschool Groups - 1. Jack N Jill (At the Pumpkin Patch), 2. St. Matthew's (The ABCs of Halloween).• Cub Packs - 1. Pack 82 (Blasting Off Into the Future), 2. Pack 187 (Scouting Rocks).• Church Groups - 1. St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church (Saving the Seeds), 2. Zion Opera Workshop (We Don't Only Wear Costumes for Halloween).• Small Floats - 1. Troxell's Pumpkin Patch (Fall Harvest), 2. Jim Thorpe National Bank (Banking With JTNB Is So Easy, Even A Cave Person Can Do It).