Relaxing, Reflecting on the Fourth

Children painted their faces in red, white and blue, and people spoke of war, peace and freedom Sunday as hundreds of thousands of Southern Californians celebrated Independence Day with parades in the sunshine and fireworks as night fell.

With events as varied as a fireworks display launched from the pier in Huntington Beach, a monster truck rally in Pomona and a doo-wop group harmonizing in Studio City, many communities planned their own unique stamp on celebrations.

“July Fourth is not just about our country on a large scale, but our community on a small scale,” said Ellen Daigle, who has come to South Pasadena’s parade with her husband for the last 20 years. “It’s about seeing people you knew as teenagers now coming as parents with their children.”

It is also, Daigle said, a time for reflection. “People have mixed feelings about the war. At Ground Zero, they’re building again. It’s very bittersweet,” she said.

In Westchester, people lined the sidewalks along a three-block stretch near Loyola Marymount University to catch the local chamber of commerce’s parade.

Among them was longtime resident Mattie Neal, 68, who sat on a folding chair on the lawn in front of her apartment watching the preparations: young cheerleaders adjusting their well-trimmed outfits, Great Pyrenees dogs having their patriotically colored collars adjusted, mariachi musicians on horseback riding into parade position.

The colors of the flag were on display all along the parade route -- on bunting hanging from awnings, on vintage firetrucks, on top of an elephant sporting a gigantic spectacle of a patriotic hat.

The parade featured local dance and theater groups, a Dixie seniors’ band, a 1943 military personnel carrier, a Frank Sinatra impersonator singing “The Lady is a Tramp”--an ode, perhaps, to a certain type of independence.

“It’s the birth of our country, [we] celebrate the freedoms we have. And it’s a darn good day to have a barbecue,” said Mark Yob, 50, standing near the route’s end with his wife and two children, all clad in fringed brown vests as part of a local YMCA’s Indian Guides program.

In South Pasadena, Monica Lugo, 45, and her daughter Aitana Lugo-Rodriguez, 8, walked in the parade as part of Aitana’s Girl Scout troop.

“I enjoy seeing neighbors and friends,” Lugo said, adding that she loved the homemade floats and their city’s small-town feel. Lugo and her daughter recognized at least two people every block and waved, she said.

South Pasadena Mayor Mike Ten, who rode down the street in a firetruck, said, like many others, his thoughts were of troops overseas.

He recalled the original day as “the beginning of a war of independence from the tyranny of Great Britain.” Now, he said, “we’re striving to bring what’s important to us to other countries, countries that can’t help themselves.”

The danger of homemade fireworks was demonstrated Sunday in Anaheim when a 17-year-old boy and his 13-year-old sister detonated a metal pipe packed with fireworks powder, which left them with serious injuries, police said.

“They were trying to make their own firework,” said Sgt. Rick Martinez, a spokesman for the Anaheim Police Department. “It detonated while they were trying to put it together.”

The teenagers, who were home alone, were transported to UCI Medical Center. Police said the boy blew off his thumb and received injuries to his face. The girl suffered major injuries to her legs and feet.

With dozens of professional fireworks displays launched from barges off the coast, many beaches from Ventura County to Orange County were so packed that some would-be sunbathers and young sandcastle construction crews had to go else- where.

Nancy Wood of Colorado Springs, Colo., spent a frustrating hour and a half searching for a parking spot at Newport Beach before giving up and heading east to Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley. Wood and her family set up beach chairs and spread out towels -- on the grass.

“We wanted to go the beach on the Fourth,” said Wood, 41. “I think the kids are a little disappointed.”

In Huntington Beach, fireworks returned to the oceanfront for the first time in three decades. The town had moved the festivities inland from its longtime home near the Huntington Beach Pier in an effort to limit raucous beach crowds -- where they had problems with revelers brawling and setting fires.

Even after the move, the city still had occasional problems including the 1997 celebrations, when some 500 people were arrested. But with this being the centennial of the city’s Fourth of July parade, citizens and merchants persuaded the City Council to beef up police presence and return the fireworks to the beachfront.

When Lisa Dellano, 43, heard the City Council passed the plan, she canceled her weekend vacation to Lake Tahoe and prepared her Third Street bungalow for possible mayhem, removing flammable items from her backyard and hosing down her lot.

“Hopefully, it doesn’t get out of control,” Dellano said before nightfall.

Nearby at Si and Judy Zeller’s home -- where a mechanized Uncle Sam belted out “Yankee Doodle Dandy” for scores of guests -- the door was open and the mood relaxed.

“It’s family time,” said Judy Zeller as strangers and friends passed through. “That’s the biggest thing -- it’s uniting families, sharing, caring.”

Times staff writers Susan Anasagasti, Erin Ailworth, Jessica Garrison and Eric Slater contributed to this report.