There were a couple of local, annual events that you could always count on when I was growing up in the Northern California (Sonoma County) town of Santa Rosa. One was the Sonoma County Fair held in July or August and the other was the "Rose Parade" held in May. Now one of these longtime celebrations may disappear forever...
According to the latest skinny in the local newspaper, The Press Democrat, the recent economic crises has left the Rose Parade without a corporate sponsor to pick up the tab for parade organizers/administrators and the extra security required to put it on.
The parade's roots go back to the "Rose Carnival" first held in 1894 as a tribute to Luther Burbank (plant breeder, 1849-1926) who made his home there in the 1880s and lived and worked here the rest of his life.
I probably saw my first Rose Parade in Santa Rosa at the age of one -- back in 1954 when my father was still alive; because he and my mother rented a downstairs apartment that was only a couple of blocks from downtown in an old Victorian that had been made into 4 or 5 rental units. He passed away the month before I was two and we moved away from Santa Rosa until I was kindergarten age. My mother -- remembering the school system was rated among the best in the country (at that time, California schools were #1) -- moved back and I went all the way through school (up to junior college) there.
I have so many, many memories -- some dating from the Fifties -- of Rose Parades over the years...
When I was a kid, the parade was HUGE! Every high school, junior high and elementary school in the area had a marching band and they all marched in the Rose Parade. Being a rather rural area, we had no shortage of horses and riders in the parade, either. There were mounted color guards, costumed Arabian riders, costumed Native American riders and costumed Western riders from all over Northern California who showed off the quality of their horseflesh and their tack at the Rose Parade.
Back then, all of the floats had to be decorated with natural components (flowers, leaves, seeds, etc.) and many of the yearly themes had to do with Luther Burbank's Shasta daisies or roses...
We had a couple of awesome precision drill teams back then -- one of which, "The Campions" (spelled correctly ;o) ), won back to back to back National Drill Team Championships all over the country in the early 1960s. They were the objects of a great deal of local pride.
Another was a Coast Guard Unit who carried chromed rifles, wore chromed helmets, were incredibly rhythmical and absolutely dead SHARP.
Knowing that yesterday might be the last Rose Parade ever in Santa Rosa, I made a date with my daughter for the two of us to go and drove down the 40 or so miles yesterday morning -- early. We left my car at my mother's house and took one of the "free fare all day" city buses downtown to sit, watch and take photos while we traded stories of past Rose Parade experiences from her childhood -- and mine. . .
It was an abnormally short parade -- devoid of probably seven-tenths of the usual school marching bands and only tokens of the horse-and-rider entries that were so prevalent in the past but, I did take a few photos I thought you all might like to see:
Above: Luther Burbank Home & Gardens' (a National Historic Site) restored vehicle.
Above: The Firemen's Color Guard
Above: A vintage firetruck from the town of Bodega.
Above: A cute "bug" peeks out at the crowd as she marches by...
Above: The Viet Nam Vets contingent.
Above: Members of "The Red Hat Society" float.
Above: Some beautifully dressed members of the Korean American Society. (Don't you just love those colors?)
Above: "Peace, Dude!"
Above: One of the few Western riders at the parade today.
Above: A fairytale looking carriage available for hire for weddings and such... (Pretty, huh?)
Above: A closer view of the carriage...
Above: Members of the Philipino community float.
Above: It's probably been awhile since a stage coach drove up 4th Street...
If the Rose Parade indeed goes away entirely, it will be at the expense of the treasured childhood memories of future generations. I do hope that doesn't turn out to be the case. . .
From the ole singlewide here in the wild hinterlands of Sonoma County in Northern California --
'Til next time,
luv,
jean
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Comments: 25
Thanks for posting
Hopefully not, Heather... Thanks. :o)
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DEB!! **jean waves** I haven't seen you around Gather for SO LONG! It's GOOD to see your little icon, there! I hope it won't be permanent, either...
Rob: We have a very similar thing to the "water parade" here in Sonoma County. It takes place on the Russian River at a tiny resort town called Monte Rio. I think they call it the "Rocky Follies/Water Parade". It has been a tradition in that town since the turn of the last century when the bored older kids of the rich San Francisco families who owned summer houses on the river were looking for something to do. It's really quite entertaining because, for the most part, now the entries come from small businesses and private parties who do not often have the resources to make things go perfectly... The "mistakes" or "glitches" are the best part of it now. A few years back, the local fire dept. in that town had one of the floats. They built a "house" out of plywood, put it on pontoons and the "finale" was going to be that they would set it on fire. Well... the only way they had to get it to float downriver was by having a couple of their guys kind of dog paddle behind it and "push" it. You can guess what the outcome was -- they couldn't get it past the audience viewing location on the shore of the river fast enough and it really started to up in flames BIG TIME! Smoke was pouring out of it as these two fireman desperately tried to push it past the audience to a sand bar where I guess they'd figured out ahead of time they were going to use fire extinguishers to put it out. In the meantime, the smoke was choking out the entire viewing audience... It was HILARIOUS! And, boy, were those firemen's faces RED afterwards! I think the only "prizes" awarded there are merchandise or services donated by local merchants, though. No "cash".
Sue: There were actually quite a lot of flowers -- compared to some years -- decorating all kinds of things ... I've seen it in years past (like in the early to mid 70s) when there wasn't one, single FLOAT or car with real flowers on it!
They had this on television, on the news. I just knew you would be there. Good show, Jean!
We did... Thanks, Jan!
It was, rather, Patty... Thanks!
You are most welcome, Rhetta! I hope they will, too...
Thanks so much, Fran! I still do! ;o)
I love watching parades. I hope the tradition continues.
Love the Red Hat Ladies float.
Jean if I lived near you we could start a "Leftover Hippie Women" group..
We could wear purple goddess gowns, play tambourines and sing "Land of a Thousand Dances" which sounds spooky if you're not familiar with it.
It really WAS, Chelsea! Thanks!
Thanks, JoAnn... You and me BOTH!
That WOULD be cool, Sharon! LOVE IT!
**goes off singing "Naaaaaah nah-nah-nah-NAH, nah-nah-nah-NAAAAH, nah-nah-naaaaaah-nah-nah-naaaaaaaah, nah-nah-nah-NAAAAAAH"**