Those two young girls were trying to count the number of horses that were taking part in the Rose Parade. They each planned to enter their count in the contest being held by one of the Parade’s sponsors. The girls’ father, a manufacturers’ representative, had obtained a contest entry form for each of his daughters.
The father had not taken the time to think about whether or not his daughters would want to watch the Parade. He knew that they also seemed to look forward to the Parade. He knew that the Rose Parade was the single event that he and his family associated with a New Year in Los Angeles. By the same token, he, more than his daughters, realized how very many people lived in the Los Angeles area.
For that reason, the father did not want his daughters to feel like they had a good chance of winning. The Pennsylvania father, and the director of a company sales force said, while his daughters tried to get an exact count of the Parade horses, “This will be easier for someone in Los Angeles. They won’t have commercials interfering with the showing of the horses.”
One of those two girls now lives in Los Angeles County. One of those two girls has now found more than 24 different ways to celebrate the New Year in Los Angeles. She has found that her father’s former statement was quite insightful.
During a New Year in Los Angeles, it is difficult to avoid watching the Rose Parade. In fact, it is hard to avoid watching it again and again. That’s because two of the TV stations, channel 11 and channel 5 broadcast more than one showing of the Rose Parade.
The repeated showings of the Rose Parade no doubt attempt to make-up for the early hour at which the Parade begins. Residents on the East Coast have little difficulty staying up until after midnight and then catching some aired coverage of the Rose Parade. For residents of Los Angeles, however, the achievement of that combination can present a real challenge.
If a person’s New Year in Los Angeles begins with extended partying on New Year’s Eve, it can be difficult to awake in time to catch the start of the Rose Parade. The Parade gets under way by 8:30 am. The local residents therefore appreciate any replay of the floats, bands and horses that have again drawn crowds to Pasadena.
Still all thoughts of appreciation probably became a bit muted in January of 2006. On that morning the rain came pouring out of the sky. That was one of the few times when the New Year in Los Angeles included a drenched Rose Parade queen. That was one of the few times when the residents of LA County derived little pleasure from viewing a wet Rose Parade queen. That was one of the few times when the people in the northeastern section of the U.S. did not long for a touch of California sunshine.