Locals and visitors pack La Cañada for Fiesta Days Memorial Weekend fun and tributes
Buoyed by sunshine, thousands made La Cañada Flintridge’s Fiesta Days a destination this Memorial Day weekend, partaking Monday in two community traditions that served as bookends to the true meaning of the long holiday weekend.
A Memorial Day service, run largely by local youth and Scouts, provided a fitting backdrop for honoring the U.S. service men and women who gave their lives in service to their country. Following that, revelers celebrated their hard-won freedoms in the annual Fiesta Days Parade, sponsored by the La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce.
The 9 a.m. memorial service opened with a tribute in song by the Commemoration Singers and introductory remarks by master and mistress of ceremonies Patrick Kalb and Makenna Christenson.
Veterans and military personnel introduced themselves and offered brief remarks or names for remembrance. John Joseph Doherty — whose namesake uncles John Doherty and Joseph Doherty are among the La Cañadans who lost their lives in service during World War II — paid tribute to classmate and Vietnam veteran John Flag.
Flag didn’t perish on the battlefield, Doherty explained, but suffered severe injuries that later led to drug addiction and a complicated life. Doherty tried to get Flag’s name added to the city’s Memorial Park remembrance plaque, but was denied.
“John is like the tens and tens of thousands of others who suffered lost limbs, lost dignity and lost hope,” he said. “His name doesn’t go on the plaque, but his name needs to be in our hearts.”
After the service, participants shifted east on Foothill Boulevard for the Fiesta Days Parade. Near the parade’s start sat 13-year-old La Cañada resident Isabelle Grandalski with grandmother Charlotte Culpepper, who came from Fresno to spend the weekend with her son’s family.
Culpepper said she was talking with her granddaughter about the meaning of Memorial Day.
“[It’s] about remembering the brave people who gave their lives for our country,” Culpepper said. “They gave their lives so we could have our freedom. We’ve got to make sure [young people] know the right thing, besides getting together for a barbecue.”
Nearby, Army veteran and Glendale resident John Stephens and wife Nancy set up folding chairs to catch the spectacle. The couple has come for the past eight years, Stephens explained, because “you don’t get to see these old-time parades any more.”
Stephens served in the Army’s 25th Infantry Division, stationed in Hawaii from 1976 to 1980. For him, Memorial Day weekend is a time to revisit the many brothers he served with, and lost.
“It’s about the brotherhood we used to have, just trying to remember that,” he said.
Remembering one of their own, La Cañada Flintridge City Council members paid tribute to six-time Mayor Dave Spence, whose May 16 death shocked city officials.
Leading the parade was a banner reading, “In Memory of Dave Spence,” borne by two Boy Scouts and followed by the solemn symbol of a riderless horse.
“Dave loved this event,” said current Mayor Mike Davitt as he walked the parade route. “It’s very sad not to have him be a part of it.”
Twitter: @SaraCardine
