It’s a bit after 6 a.m. when I wake up to the sound of car doors slamming and people walking past my van. I’m parked not too far from the historic Gamble House, one of Pasadena’s finest examples of the Craftsman tradition.

Several years ago, I discovered the perfect place to spend the night. The street overlooks the Rose Bowl and is just a 10-minute walk across Interstate 210 to what is known as “TV Corner,” where the networks will be broadcasting the parade in just a few hours.

I’m a bit apprehensive as I slide the camper van door open. The day before, much of the morning was covered in gray mist, its thickness enough to put a damper on viewing the floats and cold enough to require a layer of warm clothes well into midmorning.

Best Day Ever

Thankfully, deep blue skies greet me and the sun cascading over the far hills provides a warm glow to the morning. It’s a perfect day for the Rose Parade!

This year’s theme is a fanciful one — best day ever — and is open to loads of interpretation, but overall is one that eludes a sense of positivity and joy. This past year has been a tough one, and the coming year seems to be filled with a certain sense of dread.

However, for this one day, the focus will be on a celebration of all things good in life — something we all need more of.

Sharing the Walk

I share the walk to TV Corner with hundreds of others. The excitement is palpable.

As I turn the corner and look down the long expanse of Colorado Boulevard, I spot thousands of others milling about, looking for the perfect place to watch the parade or find their spots in one of the dozens of stands erected just a few days before.

In just a few moments, the parade will begin. I’m located at the corner of Orange Grove and Colorado, the perfect spot on the sun side of the floats to enjoy the show.

I talk to a few of those who’ve been there since the afternoon of the day before, staking out a section of the grass bordering the Orange Grove sidewalks. There are plenty of cushions, chairs, sleeping bags and even a few blow-up mattresses. For many of them, it’s a family tradition stretching back years. Just the place to welcome in the year to come.

Electrification-ing Expectations

The parade kicks off with a performance by Kiesza and Aloe Blacc titled “Electrification.” While the music creates a powerful burst of energy, it is the performers accompanying them that make it the perfect start for me.

They trampoline off two-story stands and bounce back to the music, their stunts mesmerizing to the point that the singing seems more like a backdrop to what these young performers are capable of doing.

Just as quickly as the music ends, one of the winged B-2 bombers flies overhead and the floats begin to approach. The Rose Parade is about to begin!

A Sense of Joy

The floats are spectacular. The marching bands coming from all parts of the country equally so, a celebration of the youth of our country and the beautiful music they make.

My favorites — the Budweiser Clydesdales — march on through, and other equestrian groups whose costumes (both horses and riders) are spectacular parade on by full of smiles and pride.

One after another, the floats cruise by, the engines driving them invisible to the eye and soundless to the ear. One of the parade officials at TV Corner urges them to keep up their pace, the sharp turn slowing things down.

No matter; we’re happy to have more time to appreciate their beauty, but at this point the floats have traveled barely a half-mile. Close to 6 miles to go, and I’m wondering how those tuba players and those with the big drums will fare one or two from now.

Impossible to Judge

I find it a difficult task to judge which floats I like best and which don’t quite make the cut. It’s sad that I can’t help myself but to pick winners (there are no losers), but despite my internal admissions not to, I still do.

The Cal Poly float, of course, will always be at the top of my list. Completely student designed and constructed, this year’s float is titled “Nellie’s Lakeside Laughs.” Nellie turns out to be the Loch Ness Monster and a friendly one at that, one that loves to throw parties for all of her friends to join in. 

Over the 70-plus years that the Cal Poly campuses have collaborated on the float, they’ve won dozens of awards. You have to go back to 2007 to find a year since that they didn’t win one. This year is no different, being chosen for the Leishman Public Spirit Award, one that recognizes the float with the most outstanding floral presentation. 

Others that stand out include “Journey of Dreams” by L2Y (Love 2 Yěu), “Kindness is Free” by the Boys & Girls Clubs of West San Gabriel Valley & Eastside and the San Diego Zoo’s “Friendship Across the Earth.”

The floats are not only artistically beautiful but bring home themes that are dear to my heart. In a year that has shown so much ugliness in the way people treat one another, the spirit of kindness, love and a sense of community never fail to move me.

Rising Above the Horizon

There are three other floats that, for me, make these past few days so meaningful. In reality, the three are only a few of the dozens that have combined to make this a best day ever. But these three I found to be really special.

One of them hits close to home. As a Prime member of the Amazon store community, I’ve probably used the United Parcel Service more than anyone.

The theme of the UPS float, which is actually a series of three floats strung together, is “Helping Dreams Take Flight.” Mom pterodactyl is taking the young kids on their first flight.

250 Years of Service

Another of my favorite floats shares core values important to me: a sense of service and commitment to more than oneself. Though it focuses on the centuries of service provided by the United States military, the sentiment is one of dedication to country, to community and to family.

The statuesque characterizations of different aspects of our military’s history are beautifully done, especially that of the female soldier leading the way into the future.

Let Your Life Soar

The last of the three that have meant so much to me is OneLegacy Donate Life, which follows a theme that I find so powerful. “Let Your Life Soar” is not only about making this your best day ever but a commitment to making it the best every day, despite how difficult that may be.

OneLegacy’s focus is on another key part of life, that of donating to others by registering as a donor and through your own life giving a part of it to others in need of an eye, an organ or other types of tissue.

Last year, I met several of those working on the 2024 OneLegacy float whose families had suffered a loss of one of their loved ones and used that tragedy to provide a gift of life to others.

As I looked up at what seemed like huge drums with circular images of various people, some very young and others much older adults, it was explained to me that they are images of those who’ve died and provided critically needed organs to others.

I also learned that those riding on the float were those who have been recipients of those gifts. 

Repeating Theme, Celebrating Life

One of the first things I did this year upon reaching the Rosamond Barns, where many of the floats were under construction, was to look for this year’s Cal Poly float. As it turned out, OneLegacy’s was in that spot this year with Cal Poly’s located just outside in its very own big white tent.

My two faves almost side by side.

If last year’s OneLegacy float embodied an indigenous theme, this year’s embodies another mystical sense of life — a celebration of Japan’s Children’s Day, with colorful Koi Nobori (koi fish windsocks) fluttering in the breeze.

The side of each koi displays images of those whose death has provided life for others. Floating in the breeze, they provide a powerful and extremely emotional sense of what life means and death has to offer.

Meeting the Crew

As I walked around the OneLegacy float with dozens of volunteers adding flowers, fruit, seeds and other natural vegetation to the float, I began to realize something important: Almost all of those working on the float were either fathers, mothers, sisters or brothers of those who in death had the foresight to become donors and provide a gift of life to others — and very specifically for those who would be riding on the float this New Year’s Day.

One of them is a giant of a man known simply as Rick. On his back is taped a simple handwritten sign reading, “Remember Josh” — his son who died in 2019.

As a result of that tragedy, Rick tells me that Josh provided organs and tissues to 198 recipients.

“I think Josh would be so happy he could help because that’s what he did,” Rick says. “Josh always helped people. He would give the shirt off his back. That’s the kind of kid he was.”

As a result, Rick and his wife have made a commitment to be a part of the OneLegacy crew each year since, as many of the others around me have as well, including several others I interviewed: Scarlett and Keilany, who are just in their early 20s, and another in her mid-30s by the name of Claudia. They all share Rick’s need to contribute to OneLegacy’s effort to improve the lives of others through the donation of organs to those in need.

“Our belief is that when we give the gift of life, we are healing,” Claudia says. “We are healing seven generations back, seven generations forward. We are interconnected.

“Even though we’re not here in the physical body, we feel energetically, spiritually connected. So it’s beautiful to put in perspective that in giving here in furthering the cause of OneLegacy we are sharing that connection.”

The koi on the float, Claudia explains, are like our pathway through life: “The first represents the childhood. The second is the youth. Then you move into middle age and then eventually become one of the elders. Like the koi, we are moving through the flow of life. At each stage we learn to give and to share with others.”

Lasting Memories

Eventually, the parade is over, and I join the stream of the thousands of others who’ve come to watch the parade. I feel like we’re all leaving with something more than we came with.

As with past Rose Parades I’ve been fortunate to cover, there is always a lasting memory or two I take with me. This year, I think this was one of my best days ever — or all of my past three days.

Best days come when you look to the positive and make commitments to support others, especially the strangers among us you may never meet but through efforts like those of organizations such as OneLegacy. One day, one of those strangers might give you the gift of life or you in turn to them.