Parade memories

Re “Calling All Stars,” by John Balzar, Nov. 20: It was 40 years ago that I rode in the Hollywood Christmas Parade as “Princess December,” representing the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. I had just been hired as a teenage reporter by news director Baxter Ward for KABC-TV’s “Eyewitness News.” The chamber probably thought that instead of installing a starlet as princess (their usual practice), a fresh-faced, young TV reporter would give them more local television coverage.

It did. I still have the black-and-white footage of being interviewed by a fellow reporter as I rode in the open back of a chamber limo. Was I impressed with myself. I gushed about how excited I was, and how cold I was. I think I wore my spaghetti-strap prom dress -- appropriate for Hollywood High in June but not for Hollywood Boulevard in November.

I’m an English professor now, and every so often at this time of year I screen my parade news footage for my students. Hoping for an A, some of them even suggest I haven’t changed a day. Yeah, right.

Thanks for the memories.

Ruth Anson Sowby

Glendale