Exercising Their Rite of Assembly

Matt Folger canceled his Unsafe and Insane Croquet Tournament, a post-parade fixture on his Main Street front lawn for the past 13 years. The backyard bluegrass band went too.

Next door, Roz Freeman and her daughter Shauna mounted a king-sized sheet to the roof of their home. It read: Keep Your Laws Off Our Lawn. Then they tipped beers out there as the Shriners and Cub Scouts tramped by.

And down the street, supporters of the Libertarian Party of Orange County--sporting tri-cornered Revolutionary War hats and “Serf City” T-shirts--marched across Delaware Street and Yorktown Avenue to protest what they called the Huntington Beach City Council’s “declaration of martial law.”

It might have been Independence Day, when Huntington Beach plays host to its massive annual Fourth of July Parade, but some parade-route residents felt less than free this year as new laws banned drinking in unenclosed front yards, and much of the downtown area was off limits to vehicles, including bicycles, in an effort to crack down on the violence that has marked the event in years past.

“It’s very ironic that it’s on Independence Day when they decide to do something like this,” said Folger, 43, whose croquet tourney was marred last year when one of his guests was arrested for drinking. “I could have had [the tournament], but there would still be people walking around with beers and I don’t want to give the cops any reason.”

But for most of the estimated 300,000 sweaty people crowded curbside Friday, this year’s parade, usually an overcast affair, was better--and longer and hotter--than ever.

So hot, that by the time the Long Beach Junior Concert Band brought up the rear of the parade, band moms were trotting alongside squirting water into band members’ mouths between songs.

“Phew,” said a sweat-drenched Mary Ann Carroll, whose son James, 18, led the drum section. “And they’ve got two more parades after this and then back to Huntington Park for a stand-up show.”

Temperatures in the beach cities hovered in the 70s, while Santa Ana and Anaheim both hit 88.

By the time the parade wrapped up, a crowd estimated at more than 600,000 people jammed Orange County’s beaches, waiting in mile-long lines on Pacific Coast Highway to get into packed parking lots.

It took Arturo Gomez, 30, nearly two hours to drive from his Anaheim home to Newport Beach. Most of that time was spent searching for parking.

Gomez could only shrug when he finally found a spot at 4 p.m.: “Well, it’s better than staying in your house.”

Parade-goers agreed.

The city’s first Independence Day parade was held in 1904 to celebrate the arrival of Henry E. Huntington’s Pacific Electric Co. red rail cars into what was then Pacific City. City fathers named the town after him after his rail cars linked the area to Long Beach and Los Angeles.

The parade has gone on every year since. This year, Dawn Wells--better known as Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island--was the grand marshal, riding in the lead car to the especially rowdy cheers of middle-aged men.

There were also politicians. Lots and lots of politicians.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) drove by in a convertible. As did Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), with his arm around a surfboard embossed “Freedom to Surf.”

Members of the Republican Party strolled by to cheers from the crowd. The Democrats danced, not always gracefully, to the infectious beat of their float’s band and fielded sporadic, but loud, cheers from the crowd.

There were sophisticated floats, but the crowd favorites remained the kids. The Indian Guides with their dads marching alongside. The truckload of little girls singing Beach Boys tunes. A drum and dance band from Compton.

“This is a piece of Americana right here,” said Gary Boelzner, a new Huntington Beach resident. “You just want to go home and eat a piece of apple pie,” his wife Joyce Boelzner said.

Police officials reported only a handful of uneventful arrests for public drunkenness and vehicle code violations by late afternoon.

A motorcycle officer ordered Buddy Cowen, 32, off his bicycle when he ventured into a restricted area at Main Street and Pecan Avenue.

But Cowen, who said he was arrested last year for questioning officers who were arresting his brother for drinking beer on a front lawn, vowed to defy the ban.

“Last year, I was one of the chosen few to attend the Huntington Beach police free hotel,” the Huntington Beach man said. “This year, I will taunt them because I have beer in my bag and I will ride my bicycle.”

While their mainstream brethren marched in the parade, Libertarian Party members held their own march to the Huntington Beach Pier.

“This was an anti-Huntington Beach City Council decision, not anti-police,” Brian Hund, 26, of Garden Grove said. “Let us be free citizens on the day we celebrate freedom.”

But at one parade-route party spot festooned with a copy of the Constitution, Huntington Beach resident Brain Coe said the new laws were needed because “things were getting out of hand. You’re not sanctioning the residents. You’re sending a message to people coming into the community.”

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Correspondents Hope Hamashige and Steve Carney contributed to this report.