Marching Ardor : Whether Clowning or Cleaning, Parade Participants Brighten Simi Valley Days

Donna Sanders was greeted with loud cheers when spectators spotted her in the Simi Valley Days parade Saturday.

She wasn’t blowing a horn, twirling a baton or riding a horse. She wasn’t wearing a crown or marching in a band, but residents whistled enthusiastically at her.

Sanders’ job was to clean up after the horses.

“Someone’s got to do it,” said Sanders, who lugged a huge shovel painted red, white and blue to match this year’s theme, “Spirit of America.”

She grinned and waved to onlookers, who yelled encouragement as she and two other volunteers trailed a group of six horses on Los Angeles Avenue.

“I swear, we must have walked 50 miles this morning,” Sanders said. “We’ve got five crews to take care of about 100 horses. People don’t think about it, but it’s part of a parade, and someone’s got to do it.”

Besides dirtying the streets, Simi Valley’s annual spectacle disrupted businesses, diverted traffic and drew thousands of spectators. And depending on what they were doing, the parade was either a nice surprise or a big pain for participants and onlookers.

For Bud Sobin, a 48-year-old Los Angeles salesman, parades are a chance to wear a curly, yellow wig, put on garish makeup and become a clown for the day.

“I’m dying,” Sobin said, gesturing at his close-fitting black clown suit. Weaving in and out of the crowds on his bike was sweaty work, and the heat was causing his makeup to run, he said.

Despite the heat, which climbed to the high 80s, Sobin said he was having fun at the parade, because “the kids are more well-behaved here, and they don’t grab my fake nose as much.”

Maybe the children of Simi Valley are well-behaved, but the same can’t always be said for Simi adults, according to Officer Dan Hampson, who spent his morning diverting irritated motorists from Los Angeles Avenue, a major thoroughfare in the city.

From 8:45 a.m. to noon, Los Angeles Avenue was closed between Sycamore Drive and Madera Road, and about 30 police officers were used to divert traffic and control nearly 10,000 people, Hampson said.

Parade onlookers didn’t cause any problems, but police had to soothe the ruffled feathers of drivers who only knew one route to get to their destinations, Hampson said.

“You would think, because they go through this every year, they would know how to deal with it,” he said. “But every year, it’s the same thing.”

The event also was hard on some of the participants.

“Everyone loves a parade,” said organizer Joan Delman. “But someone else can have the top job next year. . . . You’ve got to have a good sense of humor to get through all this.”

As Delman passed some police officers guiding traffic, she yelled, “Hey, it’s almost done, guys. You can go home soon!”

Because shutting down Los Angeles Avenue sometimes means shutting down businesses, the annual parade is “a nice break,” said Jim Mason, a mechanic for Winston Tire Co. at 1842 E. Los Angeles Ave.

Mason, dressed in work overalls, was sitting outside the business watching the parade. “I’m not supposed to be here until later, but I wanted to see this,” he said. “A lot of the small businesses just shut down to watch the parade and then come back.”

Business, however, was booming for Shari Schultz, who was pushing a red cart filled with T-shirts, buttons, pins and posters commemorating Simi Valley Days.

Schultz, one of several vendors who were hawking souvenirs, said, “I’m finding the buttons are the most popular because they’re the cheapest.”

Overall, however, she expects that souvenir sales for Simi Valley Days will total $10,000 this year.

Other events in the city’s annual festival continue today at the corner of Los Angeles Avenue and Madera Road. The carnival is open from 11 a.m. to midnight, and the rodeo is scheduled from 2 to 4:30 p.m.