Mandy Miller would like to thank everyone who helped her embarrass her child.
The Lakewood parent, proud mother of a 605 All-Star Band member, found her grandstand seats (“$140 for two seats, row A, worth every penny”), straightened up her homemade sign, then panicked when she realized her microphone needed charging.
Miller begged someone in the American Red Cross van to charge her mic and she thanked him with four pieces of See’s Candy.
“Anything to embarrass my kid, her name is Alison Halfenberg, she’s named after the Elvis Costello song,” Miller said. “I’m so excited.”
And the microphone? “It’s for shouting her name, and 605 All-Star and ‘Let’s go, Mellophones!’”
Parents up and down the 136th Rose Parade route shepherded sleepy toddlers, solemn-faced teens and every variation of child in between from grandstand seats to camp chairs and air mattresses pushed up the gutter of the Colorado Boulevard sidewalk.
By the time the parade began at 8 a.m., one little girl created a sidewalk gallery on their viewing spot on the corner of Pasadena Avenue and Colorado: Chalk figures of a pink heart, a green square, an orange arrow.
The Kemerling family woke up at 4:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, packed their 2-and-a-half-year-old and 3-month-old into the car (with healthy snacks of fruit) before driving up to Pasadena. First-timers to the Rose Parade, Shyla Nott said they’re surprised the whole experience went so well.
“We really love being here,” she said, as baby Maia slept snuggled in her chest. “The weather’s great, the floats are awesome.”
Mother and children will drive home after the parade, while Dad, an Ohio State alum, will catch the 111th Rose Bowl game and take the train back to San Diego.
Their toddler son, Rees, had, perhaps, the best seat in the house: Watching most of the spectacle from atop his father’s shoulders.
“I think he’ll remember this,” Brandon Kemerling said. “I think he’ll remember the stealth bomber best. He called it the big airplane and said he wants to see it again.”
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