MUSINGS OF A LOCAL By Iris Mead - ROSE BOWL PARADE REWIND

This year’s Rose Bowl Parade from Pasadena was as strikingly beautiful as we expect it to be.  I am amazed at how the float designers come up with bigger and more beautiful designs every year.  For us who only get to watch it on television and are not privy to seeing the floats up close and smelling the scents wafting from them, we can only imagine how much time and care went into the finished product.  The announcers tell us how many man hours it took, the type of flowers used and the number of volunteers it took to complete the design.  Some of the floats require major construction ahead of time before the process of putting the flowers on can begin.  Next year’s plans and designs are started shortly after the parade is over.

As a child, I watched the parade in awe on our small black & white t.v. always promising myself that someday I would be there in person (an early version of a bucket list).   I eventually did get there, many years later and watched from the stands as the B-2 Bomber silently glided down Pasadena Avenue to ooh and ahs until the sonic boom hit and made us jump.  The B-2 would again fly over the Rose Bowl Stadium during the game.  This year due to the heavy rain in the area, it did not lead off the parade but did fly over the stadium at half time.  The B-2 Bomber flies into Pasadena from Whitman Air Force Base in Missouri, over 1600 miles away timing their arrival precisely at 8:00 a.m. to start the parade.

Shortly after color television was introduced when not many in our area could afford one, the local television repairman invited the community to watch the Rose Bowl Parade IN COLOR. He had purchased a color t.v. and thought that showing the parade in color would be a gift to the community and possibly help him sell color t.v.’s.  He chose the Halcottsville Grange Hall.  l remember many people showing up before the 11:00 a.m. parade start in anticipation of seeing it in color for the first time.  The television sat on a low stage and chairs were set up facing it.  There was excitement in the air and probably lots of food to share.  Even as a small child, I was awestruck and excited to see the exotic flowers and plants in color since many of them were not familiar to us on the East Coast.  

Every year when I get ready to watch the parade, that experience as a small child experiencing the beautiful parade IN COLOR has remained with me all these years.  And, yes, my father went out and purchased a color television shortly thereafter.