He’ll Be Floating on Air Monday

The Rose Parade float Monday will be the epitome of genteel 19th-Century American revelry: the “holiday housewarming” of a two-story Victorian home, complete with horse-drawn sleighs and a real skating pond. Bons vivants will be appropriately dressed--top hats, capes, fur-lined skating skirts, the whole nine yards.

Unnoticed under the traditional apparel will be Vinh Nguyen, 24 last Friday, who eight years ago wouldn’t have known a Pasadena petal from a punji stake. Eight years ago, the last thing on Vinh’s mind was a celebration. Eight years ago, Vinh would have sold his soul, or reasonable facsimile, for a glass of water.

Vinh was 15 when Vietnam fell. He fled with a crowd of refugees in a tiny boat. There was precious little to eat or drink, but Vinh and his mates were among the lucky ones. After 18 days, they landed up in Hong Kong, grubby but game.

Vinh’s luck held. A cousin sponsored his immigration to America. Vinh studied like a demon, perfecting his English, mastering computers. He settled in Pasadena. In 1986, he became a citizen.

Vinh continues to miss his family, “especially on Tet, our New Year. I have my mother, two sisters, a brother, everybody still in Vietnam. They’re not allowed to talk to me by telephone, and I can’t go back because they’d kill me. On Tet, though, I dream about them.”

On America’s belated New Year, Vinh will be riding on Home Savings of America’s float, one of 10 employees (he’s a data-control analyst) chosen from among 13,000 for the honor.

“The (bank) president called me to say I’d been selected. I jumped up and down. A dream come true! I wish my mother could see.”

Watch for Vinh on the Home Savings float, dressed like a 19th-Century American gentleman. You can’t miss him. He’ll be the one jumping up and down.

Coming Up Roses for Centenarians

That Lottie Hicks, there’s no reining her in.

Two birthdays ago, Lottie, of Alhambra, took her first ride in the Goodyear blimp. Last year, she flew down the Southern California coast in a helicopter. Loved it.

This year, Lottie thought she’d like to ride in the Rose Parade, which is making a big deal of this being the procession’s 100th anniversary and all. Not that big a deal for Lottie. She was already 4 years old when they ran the first one.

By coincidence, Lottie will be bopping down Colorado Boulevard on the same float as Vinh Nguyen. Why the Home Savings float? “No, she’s not an employee,” bank spokesman Brett Holmes says, “she’s just a good customer. But we heard her on a radio show, expressing her wish to participate in the parade for her next birthday, later in January, so we offered her a ride.”

“She an amazing person,” Holmes adds. “Vital. Enthusiastic.

“Actually, I’m not sure whether she’s going to be 104 or 103, but I’ll tell you, she doesn’t look a day older than 102!”

Hills of Beverly Remembered

Bettye Reeder Dunnigan will not be riding Home Savings’ Rose Parade float this year--nor any other, for that matter--but she’ll be watching, and remembering.

Dunnigan rode on the first Beverly Hills float, in 1924, and had the time of her young life.

“I’ve lived in Beverly since 1915,” says Dunnigan, 80. “When grandfather built here, it was just a green field, six houses in the neighborhood. Gloria Swanson’s (home) was just going up. The telephone directory was nine pages, typewritten. . . .”

The float, Dunnigan recalls, “was called ‘Sitting on Top of the World.’ Very simple really--an enormous globe of the Earth, with the seas in blue and the continents in different colored flowers. Somehow, we swept all the awards.”

Competing with the globe for attention was movie star Madge Bellamy, “sort of the Mary Pickford of her time. Betty Hooper and I--I was 15--were the only attendants. Actually, I think we were the only young people in Beverly. We dressed in authentic Austro-Hungarian costumes, though I can’t imagine why. Oh, and in the back of the float was Mrs. Roscoe Arbuckle, Fatty’s last wife. I have no idea what she was doing there.

“Very early in the morning--a cold, cold day--they came for us in a limousine with a police escort to speed us to Pasadena. Really exciting. During the parade, most of the people were looking at Madge, of course--we were just little nothings, but we thought we were quite special. We waved all the way. I thought our arms would break. Then it was off to the game: Navy versus Washington, a 14-14 tie.”

The Beverly Hills globe, though, was a marvel, as Dunnigan recalls. “It was the only moving part, and pretty wonderful at that,” she says. “Of course, it got stuck several times. Some things never change.”