Tradition Marches By to Crowd’s Cheers

Fair fever hit the city’s main drag Saturday as more than 20,000 people lined Main Street for the annual Ventura County Fair Parade.

With the sun heating up the 1.6-mile route, the day’s festivities kicked off when the large-scale parade with a small-town feel got underway about 10 a.m. at Ventura High School.

“Everything,” said 10-year-old Chantell Pizano of Ventura as she stood along Main Street with her family. “I like every single thing.”

There was a lot to like. Former county Sheriff Larry Carpenter served as grand marshal for more than 125 entries, which included marching bands, Scout troops, local dignitaries and the essential Shriner contingency in its signature miniature vehicles.

The endless line of cheerleaders, western gunfighters and even a taekwondo team inspired children to gaze in wonder and parents to cheer on the nearly two hours of entertainment.

“It seems like it’s gradually getting larger and the quality of the people participating and the floats themselves seem to get better,” said Robert Cornett, who has planned the Elks Lodge-sponsored parade for the past seven years.

Local celebrities--ranging from beauty queens to politicians to champion fighter Robert Garcia of Oxnard--peppered the entire parade.

In traditional Wild West costumes, the women of the Western Gunfighter crew carried shotguns and the men held handguns that fired off blanks, as kids along the parade route leaped into their parents’ arms.

A woman on the Veterans of Foreign Wars float yelled: “God bless our vets. God bless America,” while the Apple Valley Shriners dizzily spun their small brigade of identical red trucks along the parade route.

For Susan Lopez and her family, the parade is about tradition. The 53-year-old Lopez remembers coming to the fair as a child.

“It was the highlight of our life,” Lopez said, adding that she would save money to buy ride tickets and food.

Now she is happy to pass that tradition on to her grandson, 10-year-old John Lopez. The youngster shares his grandmother’s enthusiasm for the parade, saying he had been looking forward to the August event all year.

John and his family laughed and chatted as the parade traveled past the small slab of pavement they had staked out earlier. He liked all the floats but was waiting for the Westpark Recreation Center entry. John said he wished he could have sat on the center’s float the way he did last year.

“Instead of watching the parade, you get to make people smile,” John said.

And for county residents, smiles are what fair season is all about.

“It’s just fun to see everybody happy,” said Ventura resident Bob Kemble. “Everybody’s just relaxing and enjoying themselves instead of worrying about all life’s problems.”

In fact, said some, life in Ventura gets better this time every year.

“The weather even gets better for the fair,” said Sarah Lopez, John’s aunt.

Temperatures rose slightly Saturday, reaching 78 degrees in Ventura. But a breeze through Seaside Park helped to cool scores of fair-goers.

Temperatures should be about the same today, with increasing clouds and a small possibility of rain, forecasters said.

Parade awards were presented at the fairgrounds Saturday afternoon.

But it wasn’t just the floats or the fact that his daughter was sitting on one of them that brought Ventura resident Jack Timmons and the rest of his family to Main Street on Saturday morning.

“It’s kind of an event,” he said. “It’s tradition.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Parade winners

*--*

Color Guard (Jr.) 1st Place: Color Guard (Sr.) 1st Place: 2nd Place: 3rd Place: Floats (School) 1st Place: 2nd Place: 3rd Place: Floats (Commercial) 1st Place: 2nd Place: Floats (Adult Club) 1st Place: 2nd Place: 3rd Place: Floats (Youth Club) 1st Place: 2nd Place: 3rd Place: Antique Auto 1st Place: (Individual) 2nd Place: 3rd Place: Antique Auto-Clubs (Over 50 yrs) 1st Place: Classic Auto-Individual (Under 50 yrs) 1st Place: Classic Auto-Clubs 1st Place: (Under 50 years) 2nd Place: 3rd Place: Misc.-Novelty 1st Place: 2nd Place: 3rd Place: Silver Open 1st Place: 2nd Place: Silver Mounted Patrol Spanish (Lady) 1st Place: Charro Open 1st Place: Mounted Group 1st Place: Fiesta Novelty Costume/ 1st Place: Pony-Drawn Vehicle 1st Place:

Color Guard (Jr.) Ventura County Young Marines Color Guard (Sr.) 187th Airborne Al Malaikah Shrine Marine Corps League No. 59 Floats (School) Buena High School Pep Squad Ventura High School Pep Squad St. Bonaventure High School Floats (Commercial) Spaceplay/7up The Cottage Cafe Floats (Adult Club) St. Patrick’s Day Committee Mothers of Multiples William Arguello Floats (Youth Club) Island View Service Unit Ventura YMCA Indian Guide Foothill 4-H Antique Auto Santa Paula Union Oil Museum (Individual) See’s Candies Tony’s Body Shop Antique Auto-Clubs (Over 50 yrs) Ventura Model A Ford Club Classic Auto-Individual (Under 50 yrs) Ventura County Professional Firefighters Classic Auto-Clubs Wolfburg Finest VW Club (Under 50 years) Classic Oldies Car Club Le Gente Car Club Misc.-Novelty California Beach Festival -City of Ventura California Super Stars Frontier Gunfighters Silver Open Camarillo White Horses Al Malaikah Spanish (Lady) Sharon Lindsay -- Betty Sears Charro Open Estrella De Astlan Mounted Group Rockin’ Double Ought Fiesta Novelty Costume/ J.D. Thornbury Pony-Drawn Vehicle Carmen P. Eblen

*--*