Out to dinner

Tonight, a group of us had dinner out at Marisa's Mexican Restaurant. Marisa's is family-owned, founded in 1975 by Fidel and Maria Palomo. In a pinch for a name, they called the restaurant after their youngest daughter, and the name stuck. The place was temporarily closed a few months ago because of a fire in the kitchen, but was quickly back in business, serving great Mexican food at reasonable prices.

Morning glow

I was on a short business trip this past week and traveled up the coast (a few hours north of Downey). This was my beautiful Pismo morning. And, I got to enjoy my first cup of coffee and watch the waves roll in. I never want to take for granted how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful state. with so much coastline to explore. While I didn't get to explore this time, I did get to appreciate the beautiful morning before I headed off to work.

"Every time I stand before a beautiful beach, its waves seem to whisper to me: If you choose the simple things and find joy in nature’s simple treasures, life and living need not be so hard."
~ Psyche Roxas-Mendoza

Empty streets

Firestone Boulevard is one of the busiest thoroughfares through Downey. But it was surprisingly empty one early evening this past week as we took a walk through downtown Downey.

Humans of Downey - Vincent

"Rose Float construction always has its challenges. One year the challenge was we had to make panthers. To make them, we had to screen them and I had never screened before. First, it's wire frame welded out. Then you have to put glue on it. Then you have to put screen on it. It has a mesh the size of a window screen. Then you have to put glue on it again which is a very sticky glue, not your ordinary glue. And it only goes on the metal. Then you use cardboard to smooth it out and wait for it to go while the glue is sticking to your hands. All the while, the little metal pieces are pocking into your hands throughout the process. Then you have to spray on a cocooning material and then you can paint it after that dries. But it kept bending and moving and I'm breaking and not working. You don't know what's right or wrong, what works or doesn't work. It was quite a challenge. Then they come by and tell you how great it is and all of a sudden you're the expert and then I'm in charge. So, I went from a little help to being in charge of the panthers.

"They said, 'You did such a good job could you do it over here? Oh, and could you do it faster? Because now we have to attach the head to the body.' There were three iron bars sticking out of the body and the head was made out of foam, so you had to push the head onto the iron bars. Then you had to screen the neck area where the two forms met. When the construction was all done, then the painters made me look great."
~ Vincent

Humans of Downey - Judy

"On one of our floats that had a Hawaiian theme, we used pineapple bark. The pineapples had to be cored out because we only used the outer ridge of the pineapple for the trees. Well, our mayor at the time was Meredith Perkins and he got the job of coring all those pineapples. And we won't let him forget either. That was a nasty job. Of course, every one else enjoyed the fruits of his labor by eating the pineapple he had removed. Eventually, we did get him a gadget that he stuck into the center of the pineapple, twisted and the fruit came out. So, it got easier after we got him that tool.

"Mike's and my next great adventure is to stay at home. We just got back from a three-month trek across America. We went about 9,000 miles. We've done this four times, visited every state except North Dakota. As we go we visit whatever attraction is in that area. Of course, we've visited a lot of friends and relatives. We even visited people we didn't know were related but found out about them during the trip. We've done a lot and we've seen a lot.

"So, now it's time to rest. One way I rest is to knit hats for Rancho Los Amigos Hospital. Also, this year I donated to 'People to People' in Ohio because my cousin gave me some yarn that her mother had when she passed away. I was able to make two bags full of hats. Now, I'm making hats to sell here. The proceeds go to the Rose Float Association. I'm always looking for yarn if anyone wants to donate some. These are warm hats. This one is a ponytail hat. It has a hole in the back."
~ Judy

Water for the poor farm

The Downey Rose Parade float is stored and worked on in an old building on the Rancho Los Amigos south campus. Driving there these past couple of weeks to see the float in progress, I once again noticed the old water tower. It's enclosed in the fenced-off and abandoned section of the campus, in what used to be the Los Angeles County Poor Farm.

The farm was originally created in 1888. It eventually morphed into the Rancho Los Amigos Hospital, until this section was abandoned in the 1980s. For a fairly comprehensive historical write-up about the farm, see Ranch of the Friends: The Extraordinary Evolution of the L.A. County Poor Farm.

Snow day

My friends and I took advantage of the "extra" holiday day today to go to the snow. The recent rainstorms we've experienced in Downey have left several inches of snow in our local mountains, even at lower elevations.

About halfway up the mountain, we entered the clouds, and visibility dropped to just a few hundred feet. We had to slow way down, but this gave us even more time to see the striking scenery along the way. We rarely get to see the results of snow melting and freezing and melting again, and so on. It was a very beautiful sight.

"A snowflake is one of God's most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together!"
~ Author Unknown

Almost time to go...

It was just about 5:00 tonight when I stopped by to check on the progress of this year's Downey float, The Gold Rush.

It looked like they had some challenges and were working furiously to resolve them. so they could get on the road. There was a crowd just waiting around for the float to be ready to leave.



The Tournament of Roses has had a “Never on Sunday” tradition since 1893, the first year since the beginning of the Tournament that New Year’s Day fell on a Sunday. The Tournament wanted to avoid frightening horses that would be hitched outside churches and thus interfering with worship services, so the events were moved to the next day, January 2. Though horses are no longer outside local churches, the tradition remains to this day.