Parade route brimming with anticipation
The annual run-up to this morning’s Tournament of Roses parade unfolded overnight like a finely tuned ritual on Pasadena streets and inside cavernous float-decorating venues.
Orange Grove Boulevard was filled with parade floats, flood lights throwing them into sharp relief. Smoke from barbecues masked the scent of flowers, and families strolled down the street while others camped on air mattresses and played cards on small tables.
Ed Blecksmith walked slower than most as old friends stopped him frequently to shake his hand. Blecksmith had been a “white suiter,” or parade volunteer, for eight years starting in the mid-’80s, and he said it’s the greatest volunteer effort he knows of.
As the clock counted down to midnight, spectators began moving to the starting point just south of Del Mar Boulevard. People began counting down, “5-4-3-2-1,” and cheered as the clock struck midnight.
“I declare party!” yelled 10-year-old Max Karp, skipping past an illuminated float.
“C’mon, party animals!” said his mother Maria Karp.
Karp, who lives along the parade route close to CalTech, said that while she had been coming to parade day for 16 years, this was her first time seeing the floats so close. “You can see the intensity and the scale of these floats up close and personal,” she said.
Karp, 41, said the Rose Parade unites the community every year. “Pasadena just comes together. Everyone around the country watches the Rose Parade on TV, and here we are.”
Claire Bevan, 17, sat in front of the grand marshal float. She was one of three drivers. As a “float observer,” it was her job to steer the 55-foot bugler from the front. Her father, who has been driving floats for 43 years, drove from the back.
“My father started out when he was 15,” said Bevan. When he was 15-and-a-half he drove his first float and he never missed a year. So I was sort of born into the business.”
Tourists passed the end of 2009 with sleepovers along the five-mile route; and cheery, glue-stained volunteers feverishly applied finishing touches to the parade’s 41 floats.
As midnight approached, the chilly air wasn’t dampening spirits in Old Town Pasadena. Cotton-candy sellers traversed Colorado Boulevard carrying pastel-colored wares, while men in dark jackets leaned against boarded-up storefronts, hawking Rose Parade T-shirts and toy horns.
Spectators had marked their territory with blankets, mattresses and baby cribs.
“It’s a turf war,” said Samuel Jimenez, 20, as he warmed his feet near a miniature grill fueled by shredded paper.
Kathy Shanahan, 55, of Yorba Linda spent Thursday like scores of others: decorating floats. Her assignment included pasting pink gerbera daisies on the edge of the Cal Poly float, which features a tropical scene.
Meanwhile, parade watchers staked out their spots with masking tape, folding chairs and blankets, turning the sidewalk into makeshift living rooms.
Some, such as Ravee Von Ins, displayed decorating ingenuity while preparing for the cold, overnight wait. The Palmdale resident set her portable picnic table with a silk rose, bulb ornaments and a small, fake Christmas tree.
“I’m not done yet,” she said, gesturing to a swath of real estate that included a camp stove, a folding table and a stack of plastic bins.
“This evening, it will look very sharp.”
Like many on the route, Von Ins has made the New Year’s Eve sleepover a tradition for decades.
“I meet people here,” said the Palmdale resident, “and I stay connected to them.”
As a car passed, she turned around and shouted: “Happy New Year!”
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