Carson Readies Float for What May Be Last Parade

Although Betty Boop’s car was beginning to shimmer with silver leaf and a strawberry-dust glow had reddened her cheeks, not everything was coming up roses for the volunteers petaling up the city of Carson’s entry in this year’s Rose Parade.

Still reeling from the news two weeks ago that the city may not pay for next year’s $88,000 creation, members of the city’s Rose Float Assn. quietly discussed their dilemma Thursday as they worked inside a huge white tent next to the Rose Bowl.

“I’m on the association’s Ways and Means Committee,” said Chris Mosher, a four-year veteran decorator, as she glued rows of silvery leaves into a huge floral hubcap. “I’m supposed to find a way and a means to collect (money for next year’s float) . . . but we haven’t had much time to think about it.”

Instead, the group has concentrated on making sure Betty Boop looks as smashing as possible in her 35-foot hot-yellow convertible as she cruises down Colorado Boulevard on New Year’s Day. With her head rotating flirtatiously during the trip, powered by a 16-year-old boy pedaling a bicycle chain, Betty Boop may be the city’s ticket to its first float trophy, workers said.

As for next year’s float, well, the group will just have to worry about that next year.

“If it’s not to be, it’s not to be. The city is financially strapped, and we understand that,” Mosher said, admitting that she is not confident that the association can raise enough money to pay for an entry without city help. “I may just have to work on someone else’s float.”

A couple of miles away in a Pasadena warehouse, Torrance city volunteers gluing pampas grass and Blackbeard’s wheat to three giant raccoons were not pleased by the prospect of losing a municipal competitor.

“It’s nice to stack yourself up against a neighboring city,” said Bob Dearmond, a crew supervisor for the Torrance float who will be peering down the nostrils of one of the raccoons helping to guide the float on New Year’s Day. “We’re not at all happy that (Carson) may not be involved again.”

Dearmond and Torrance association President Maureen La Tendressesaid they can remember Rose Parades of previous years that attracted entries from several South Bay cities. Now only Torrance and Carson have entries.

Part of the fun, La Tendresse said, has been putting tangible pieces of the community into a creative project.

“The trees there, they’re not just redwood bark from somewhere in California,” La Tendresse said, pointing to the branches where the float’s two baby raccoons play. “Toddlers from the Playhouse Pre-School in Torrance picked up those carrot-wood pods from their playground for us to use.”

Also resting on the branches are two large birds, their legs decorated with parts of pine cones from trees in Torrance’s Delthorne Park, she said.

It is that kind of community pride, La Tendresse said, that makes her sad that more South Bay cities are not involved.

“I understand all the fiscal reasons for their pulling out, but there are so many benefits that people don’t realize,” La Tendresse said. “It’s a bonding. It’s a show of community spirit, togetherness, community pride that you just don’t see much anymore.”