Dolores Mangold was told by commuting friend and Macy's employee Kerri Troy that she had the personality of a clown. This is exactly what a flattered Mangold wanted to hear from her fellow Mineola resident and a short time later the two were marching in full grease paint and costume at their first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade together.

That was last year. This year "Jester" Mangold and "Clown Captain" Troy were at it again, right behind the Arthur the Aardvark balloon, but they had their work cut out for them marching down Broadway in the face of a torrential downpour.

One police officer told the duo that in his 15 years of working the parade he had never seen weather as bad as this.

Dripping make-up was only part of the problem caused by the rain for Mangold who could barely see through her glasses. She joked, "I wish I had windshield wipers."

Though ponchos were available, Troy felt they worked against the idea of being in full costume, so she opted not to wear it and was drenched by the end of the quick moving parade.

The rain made it difficult to march according to Mangold and even more difficult to entertain the crowds, who were equally uncomfortable, but at times surprisingly chipper.

"The enthusiasm of the crowds was really something to behold," she recalled.

This opportunity is the reason Troy signed up to be a clown four years ago and took the promotion of clown captain. "You get to interact with the crowds," she explained.

It gives her a chance to put smiles on faces that in some instances are seeing clowns for the first time. She saw this enthusiasm for producing smiles in Mangold and that is why she sponsored her "clownship."

Unlike this year, where most spectators spent the majority of their time looking for shelter from the rain, last year was a better day for the clowns who got a chance to work the crowds, high-fiving small children and yelling to the adults.

Though last year's parade was ripe with opportunity for the clowns to excite the crowds, it made headlines for other reasons as ferocious winds played havoc with balloons particularly The Cat in the Hat which hit a pole and injured some bystanders with some falling debris.

Mangold and Troy were right behind the action last year and Mangold recalled that every time The Cat in the Hat came to an intersection a rush of air would sweep across the balloon straining it this way and that.

This year, Mangold noted, Macy's had gone to a far greater expense to train the handlers to be more sensitive to the movements of the balloon and shorten the tether lines from handler to balloon to eliminate some of the problems. Even so, this year's weather forced the grounding of some balloons including the Wild Thing balloon which was to make its debut.

Just as the handlers are trained, so too are the clowns at a special clown school where they learn the basics of crowd interaction such as how to react to a child in fear (the answer is to keep on marching).

On the day of the parade they gather at Clown's Corner, 77th and Central Park West, early in the morning and join the parade as the floats stationed along the side streets begin their march down Broadway to Columbus Circle and the grandstands.

Speaking of the grandstands, they were the setting of Mangold's brightest clown moment, when she encountered the all too quiet spectators of 60th Street. She called to them, "I've never seen such a sad group in my life," and through her clown psychology successfully incited smiles.

On her way home on the LIRR, still in make-up to show her mother waiting in Mineola, a man and his son walked past her only to stop and say, "I know exactly which clown you are."

A lasting impression is all the clowns could hope for, and despite some less than ideal weather circumstances they achieved success this year as well. The question is did the bad weather make a lasting impression on the clowns? Well, Troy is ready to sign up for next year, though Mangold is not quite sure. But, who knows once the season changes and the call goes out, the clowns of Mineola may again.