Larry Crain

During the six days between Christmas and New Year's, Larry Crain's year-round staff of five swells to 40. Those employees work 16-to-18-hour days, supervising 300 to 600 volunteers who decorate the Rose Parade floats that will glide down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena on New Year's Day. But once the last float rolls off the boulevard, how does Charisma Floats--or any seasonal business, for that matter--keep revenue flowing and employees occupied?

During the six days between Christmas and New Year's, Larry Crain's year-round staff of five swells to 40. Those employees work 16-to-18-hour days, supervising 300 to 600 volunteers who decorate the Rose Parade floats that will glide down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena on New Year's Day. But once the last float rolls off the boulevard, how does Charisma Floats--or any seasonal business, for that matter--keep revenue flowing and employees occupied?

The New Orleans Saints, who last year moved their summer training camp from Florida to north Louisiana, have announced that this year's camp will be in the southeast Louisiana city of Hammond. Jim Finks, general manager of the National Football League team, said the Saints will use the facilities of Southeastern Louisiana University. He said Hammond's proximity to New Orleans International Airport--it's a 45 minute drive away--was the deciding factor in the move.

By the time it rolls down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, Rotary International's Rose Bowl float will have been touched by the hands of 1,500 volunteers. The first 25 of them have already started the essential but laborious task of cutting dried flowers. Armed with scissors and fortified with candy bars and coffee, volunteers from the Orange Senior Citizens Community Center on Olive Street were busy all weekend snipping the tiny leaves off thousands of dried burgundy-hued straw flowers.

Marilyn Loeffel is a trim, friendly, talkative woman in her late 30s who takes her role as a parent seriously. She's careful about the food her two children eat, the clothes they wear--and the music they hear. "Parenting in the '90s is not just about wiping noses, learning how to sew sweet little dresses and baking homemade bread," declared the 37-year-old Memphis mother of girls aged 2 and 15.

"Hey! Glue Man!" The eyes of South Pasadena's teenage float decorators turn toward a Santa Claus look-alike emerging from a glue-white 1988 Nissan pickup. Soon, the man is surrounded and showered with hugs and kisses before he can break free and pose his favorite question: Is everything sticking together? Bob Dickey, an 80-year-old who appears two decades younger, is the Rose Parade's glue consultant.