Country Roads

I just finished watching the 133rd Tournament of Roses Parade on our wide screen television and, as usual, it didn’t disappoint me. I enjoy the bright colors and all the flowers and natural nuts, rice, grasses and plants incorporated into the floats. Of course, the bands marching in time playing wonderful music is a hit. The horses ridden with the riders dressed in their finest and some in military or official uniforms looked great. My mother, always loving horses, used to say the cameras were never left long enough showing the horse and riders.

I can’t remember exactly when I first started watching the Rose Parade but I know I would have first watched it on our family’s black and white television in the mid 50s. The black and white broadcast never did the television viewing of the parade justice. My uncle, who lived near Los Angeles, kept asking my parents to come stay with them and they would take us to the parade but we never did get there. I hoped every year our family would load up and head west right after Christmas to visit Uncle Don’s and Aunt Candy’s place.

I’ll never forget the first time I got to view the Rose Parade in full color on a brand new television. It was New Years Day 1961. A couple who attended the same country church my family did, Merle and Geraldine Semke, had a grandson around my age who was staying with them during the holiday. They invited me to come to their house to watch the parade. I had never seen the annual parade looking so wonderful in color. After the parade, we had lunch, played board games and then they took me back to my house that was only three miles away. It was a good time that I’ll never forget. I think of that day every time I watch that colorful parade.