Small Town, Big Parade

At the Palisadian-Post, we are immersed in the Fourth of July parade for weeks before the actual event. We write stories about the participants, we publish the parade program and we are in contact with the people who make the parade happen.
On July 3, it starts to really hit home that the Fourth is upon us. People start putting out lawn chairs, claiming their favorite spots, knowing the chairs will be untouched when they return the next day. Via de la Paz, which can be pretty sleepy when the kids are not at school, starts to feel alive, and this feeling spreads to Sunset and throughout town.
The next day, Palisadians young and old, large and small, gather ’round the Village to celebrate one of the town’s most treasured traditions—the Fourth of July parade.
On this great, special day, people put aside their differences and sit side-by-side, cheering on the parade participants. The cuteness factor is always high, with youngsters riding bicycles and scooters, dogs marching along and PaliHi football players proudly holding banners that introduce the next group of marchers.
This year’s parade, though shorter than recent years, certainly did not disappoint. Small children had bubble machines, and some were lucky to catch the plastic fire helmets tossed to the crowd from Station 69 firemen. Families, often including three generations, sat together enjoying the festivities.
For those lucky enough to be sitting near the Post building on Via, Palmdale resident Andre McDonald once again entertained from the sidelines with his trumpet. Especially fun was a little back-and-forth he had with the New Orleans Dixieland Band as they marched by. His additions to the parade are subtle, such as playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” when the winning PPBA baseball teams drove by, and “Tequila,” for no reason other than it’s a fun song.
McDonald, an insurance salesman who plays at his church every Sunday, loves joining in the parade music. “I don’t want to play when the bands are playing because I don’t want to interfere with their flow,” he told the Post, “but when there’s nobody doing anything, I try to play something that will fill in the dead spots.”
Every year, he visits friends who live near the end of Swarthmore. “Our families have known each other for more than 45 years,” McDonald said. “We always meet up for the Fourth of July, see the parade, go back, visit, eat and just be merry. It’s a tradition now.”
This year, with the addition of local piano teacher Jy Gronner, the parade had two clowns. Bill Prachar, an attorney, has been participating for 22 years, and it was Gronner’s first time in a parade in Los Angeles.
Gronner is a certified clown, having graduated from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Clown College in Venice, Florida in 1986. “I had a great time. It was a fun parade,” said Gronner, who needed over two hours to get in costume and makeup. “I did see some of my students. I had to let them know what I would be wearing, because they wouldn’t recognize me.”
As a personal aside, I’ve been watching the parade with my son, Dylan, 11, since before he could walk. This was the first year he went off with friends hours before the parade even began, and I didn’t see him until after the fireworks show at Palisades High School. I noticed other groups of middle schoolers walking around unencumbered by adults. Our small, safe community fosters this kind of behavior. It’s a rite of passage; there comes the point where the kids still want to be at the parade—just not with their parents. Sigh.