The Lowdown on High Jinks of Monday in Pasadena
Delivered in a spirit of miscellany, here’s some information we discovered Thursday on a scouting expedition to Pasadena as that city girds for its annual big day.
To get the mundane out of the way first, no, you don’t need tickets for the Tournament of Roses Parade, just for the Rose Bowl game, although $35 to $65 tickets are available for grandstands along the parade route from an official vendor: (626) 795-4171.
Question: If you don’t buy tickets, when should you arrive?
Answer: That’s your business, of course. We can just tell you it gets mighty crowded. People start staking out spots along the 5 1/2-mile route at noon Sunday. Before then, the police will tell you to get lost.
Q: Can you bring an upholstered chair?
A: Not unless you want to kiss it goodbye. Parade officials assure us that it will be confiscated. However, they promise to leave you and your folding chair in peace.
Q: What is up with that?
A: Pasadena authorities are afraid you’ll leave your living room furniture on their streets. Apparently, this has happened.
Q: In other words, they’re threatening to confiscate furniture you want them to confiscate to discourage you from bringing it?
A: That’s the bureaucratic mind, exactly.
Q: What is the blue line?
A: No, not the train to Long Beach. We’re talking about a line painted along Orange Grove Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, a foot and a half from the curb. At the stroke of the New Year, Pasadena police close those streets to traffic and people who are pulling all-nighters move from the curb to the line for true front-row seats.
Q: Where and when can you park for the game?
A: At the Rose Bowl lots, beginning at 4:30 a.m.
Q: When can you leave?
A: Any time you want, but probably not with your car unless you wait. Parking is stacked.
Q: Are hotel rooms still available?
A: As of noon Thursday, there were some at mid-range hotels in Pasadena. Leann Lampe of the Convention and Visitors Bureau says some Big 10 alumni groups booked blocs of rooms in the faint hopes that their teams would make it to the Rose Bowl and were slow to cancel when they did not. “We keep telling the hotels, ‘Don’t worry.’ ”
Q: Which school will make the biggest bang?
A: Sorry, University of Washington Husky fans, that would not be your school. The Purdue Boilermakers have--or, to put a fine point on it, claim to have--the world’s biggest drum. It arrived by tractor trailer from West Lafayette, Ind., earlier in the week.
Q: How can you show both teams your support?
A: Wear gold. Washington’s colors are purple and gold; Purdue’s are black and gold.
Q: What are the teams doing to get ready?
A: Besides practicing, of course, they’re visiting Disneyland and the City of Hope Medical Center, and taking turns being honored on the “Tonight Show” and at the Lawry’s Beef Bowl.
Q: What exactly is the Lawry’s Beef Bowl?
A: “Dinner,” explains Jim Daves, assistant athletic director at the University of Washington.
Q: That’s it?
A: “They show a video at the end and the team gets presented with Rose Bowl watches.”
Q: Why are a bunch of high school seniors from South Gate cleaning unrefined cotton--the color of coffee--in a Rose Bowl parking lot?
A: “We’re being nice to West Covina,” explains 17-year-old Edith Ruvalcaba, getting the cotton ready to stand in for a bear’s fur on a West Covina float under construction nearby.
Q: What’s the best way to glue rice?
A: “Go heavy on the glue,” advises Joy Duprey, who is affixing the grains to a mantelpiece on the same float.
Q: Can you dump your RV’s sewage?
A: Not on New Year’s Day. The only dump station in Pasadena will be closed.
Q: How long will you have to hold it in?
A: The station reopens Tuesday.
Q: Who’s sorry now?
A: Any Midwesterner who did not pack a pair of shorts.
Q: What has impressed visiting Boilermakers the most?
A: The sight of “water that’s not frozen,” says Jay Cooperider, communications director for Purdue’s athletic department.
Q: Where can you get some decent information around here?
A: Although we find that mildly insulting, we suggest that you try the Visitors Bureau Hotline at (626) 793-9911.
