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La Cañada History: Local kids make float in homage to Rose Parade

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Ten Years Ago

Scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were focused on Mars during the first weekend of January 2004, as the rover named Spirit was scheduled to arrive there to begin a three-month mission collecting data and returning it to Earth. Spirit’s twin rover, Opportunity, was expected to land on Mars a couple of weeks later.

Twenty Years Ago

A knapsack containing a bank deposit back with $5,000 in cash and checks was wrestled out of the hands of a T.J. Maxx employee as he was about to make a bank deposit from the store late in the afternoon of Dec. 28, 1993.

Thirty Years Ago

The float titled “To the Rescue!” that represented La Cañada Flintridge in Pasadena’s Rose Parade captured the Founder’s Trophy. It was the second time the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn. had earned that award. Rose Princess Ann Wasson of this city was also featured in the 1983 New Year’s Day parade.

Forty Years Ago

A live Christmas tree planting was scheduled for a Sunday in January 1974 at the Angeles Crest Triangle Park (today known as Glenola Park). La Cañadans were invited to participate as tree donors, according to the local Keep America Beautiful Committee. It was noted that several trees had been lost at the park over the previous hot, dry summer.

Fifty Years Ago

Los Angeles County Supervisor Warren Dorn of La Cañada and his board colleagues were scheduled to hear a detailed report on the possible fencing of three of four lakes at La Cañada Country Club because they were considered by some to be a hazard to children. The county engineer recommended the fencing; country club developer Bill Godbey objected to that recommendation.

Sixty Years Ago

La Cañada hadn’t entered a float in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade since 1915, but some kids in the Rancho section on the east side of town made a try at it in late December 1953, creating a float depicting pastoral La Cañada, then taking it for a spin in their neighborhood. The float broke down, but 9-year-old John Young, behind the wheel of a cart labeled “Auto Club,” came to the rescue so the localized version of the Rose Parade could proceed.

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Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.

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