The Rose Parade is not one parade but two. First, there's the fast-moving extravaganza that rounds the corner onto Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, horses and flowers and band members fresh for the TV cameras and the holders of expensive grandstand seats. And then, for everyone else, there's the five-mile procession eastward of wilting floats, sweaty trumpeters and thirsty horses.
I grew up on this second parade. My family lived a mile east of the start line and five blocks south of Colorado Boulevard. My friends and I made the parade route a playground. We ate leftover tamales with the families who camped out all night on the sidewalks to watch the parade through groggy eyes. We tossed footballs and -- I have to confess -- water balloons at teenagers who escaped their parents for an outdoor sleepover with friends. And we met people from all over the world, tourists who had always dreamed of witnessing the parade in person.
These fans were the heart of the parade. They were rowdier than the worthies at the parade's start, but they provided the energy, authenticity and the huge attendance numbers that kept the event, first staged in 1890, relevant. And for their devotion, they got a parade stretching so long that its very size seemed to promise a new year without limits.
Now, sadly, we are in an era of limits. The Rose Parade, like so many American institutions, is downsizing. The Tournament of Roses Assn., the organization of 935 volunteers that puts on the parade and Rose Bowl game, is busy satisfying the demands of the broadcasters who show the world the first parade. And the faithful fans of the second -- the families and the kids and the tourists -- will get less as a result.
Before you dismiss this as the nostalgia of a former Pasadena kid, compare old parade programs with the current list of entries. You'll find that Thursday's parade will be about 25% smaller than the ones I saw as a child in the 1980s. A generation ago, there were 120 total entries. Now? Eighty-nine, with just 46 floats, down from the longtime standard of 60.
Why the shorter parade? It's not the economy. It's not a lack of interest from bands, equestrians and float builders. It's not because the crowds that line Pasadena's streets think the old parade was too long. The problem is, in a word, television.
