I Remember

New Year's Day. We would run downstairs and plop ourselves in the den to watch the Rose Parade. The couch, the rocking chair, and my dad's contour chair (holding him, usually) were filled with us, and some of us sprawled on the floor.

Deep in memory I have recollections of being at the parade one year. I can see a very young me and my mother and father and siblings standing on the street, like, maybe Colorado Blvd, with hundreds of other people.  It's the kind of thing my mom and dad would do.

One year we--my mother, Janeen, Lucile (I think), and I--went to the place where they parked the floats after the parade. That year featured a huge float of Babe Ruth's face. Perhaps these occasions were before we had television in our home. But I'm not sure.

I have tried to find what year featured the Babe Ruth float--some time in the late 1940s or early 1950s, I think--but can't find it on google.

Mostly we watched the Rose Parade on television, and it was great, a tradition we all supported until we got old and sophisticated or old enough to leave home. Even when my children were young we could gather on that special morning and enjoy the Rose Parade.

I guess I could call those the good old days. And it would be true in this case.

Then it became a joke to watch the Rose Parade on TV. Too many commercials. That was just the beginning. The networks that showed the parade began using the time to plug their own shows, which to me was an unholy intrusion. And then someone's (not mine) idea that we needed "real" entertainment, because the parade was not enough, and some singer with accompanying gyrations (I can hear my dad saying that: gyrations) would occupy the whole screen. Good time for a snack or bathroom break, I thought.

The truth? I haven't watched it for years. I only assume the Rose Parade is still carrying on in Pasadena. I hope so. Maybe today I'll turn it on and see what has become of the TV coverage. Maybe.

ADDENDA:
The Rose Parade is on tv at this moment. I have seen one float and Marine Corps band. The floats used to sit on top of an unseen truck and be driven by some guy inside. Now, at least the Honda five-car train float, had the insides of a computerized command center. That's what drives it.

Back upstairs to the parade. Just thought you'd like an update. 

Okay, so I'm watching it and am well satisfied with ABC. Commercials, yes, but no plugging--so far--of ABC's stupid shows. Besides, I like Hannah Storm

Back again to report that the floats are still driven by some guy hidden inside who may or may not be able to see where he's going. If he can't, someone on or alongside the float tells him where to turn and so on. 

No surprise here: I want to go there.