They turned onto Pratt from Eutaw marching east toward the Inner Harbor. It was a beautiful Indian Summer day - perfect for a parade. The floats were modest by New York's Thanksgiving Day Parade standards but these marchers had more than enough heart for several parades.

As a visitor to Baltimore, I had just completed a glorious self-guided tour, which included Camden Yards, the Constellation and a neighborhood called Ridgely Delight. With my wife occupied at a teacher's conference in the Convention Center, I was perfectly prepared to while away the hours visiting Baltimore's other diversions until I stumbled onto the parade.

Although short on big balloons, there were drums of all sizes, trumpets, trombones, tubas, saxophones, flutes, clarinets, cymbals; and flags and pennants that were red, white and blue, red and black, blue and white, green and yellow, purple and white and on and on. Most of all there were the smiling, joyous faces. Large, small, white, black, young, old, fat, skinny, all with a common directive in mind - "Let's have a parade!"

The World War II veterans were followed by the Dulaney High School Marching Band, the Baltimore Westsiders, volunteer firefighters, the Edmondson Image Strutters, beauty queens in open convertibles, Jimmy Neutron, the Baltimore Raven's Roost Tailgaters, lots of horse-drawn carriages, dogs from the Chesapeake Search & Rescue Dog Association, a Marine Corps Reserve unit promoting Toys for Tots, cheerleaders and a very excited group of kids dressed as characters from the Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat story.

There have not been many such public gatherings since Sept. 11. Most of the ceremonies have been rather solemn affairs to honor the firemen, policemen and emergency rescue workers. We all know someone who was connected to a person who died that day. Undoubtedly, this was true as well for some of the marchers although it was not apparent.

In fact, seeing the wonderful faces of the marchers and the onlookers might initially cause a stranger to wonder if their enthusiasm might be inappropriate because of what happened only two months ago? Were they people out for a good time? Did they not get the message that something terrible had occurred?

The answer is, of course, that in spite of all that has taken place, the citizens of Baltimore were not about to be undone. This is what they do. They march. They smile. They watch. They live their lives. And most of all, they do not worry if they are going to survive the day. Their fathers, grandfathers and several generations before them had fought to guarantee that freedom.

Mark Twain, one of our greatest American writers, spoke in his stories to the "solidarity of the human race." Twain expressed an "abiding faith in the human spirit." Millions of immigrants came to this country to escape tyranny and to exercise their freedom. Perhaps the parade was a sign that Americans are still determined to enjoy the liberty that an earlier generation had earned. Like their ancestors before them, the tragedy and suffering they had experienced had not been accumulated in their souls and they would manage to go on as they always have.

Gerald Osterberg

Mr. Osterberg is the vice president of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center and a resident of Garden City.