Valley Memory #2Chatsworth Holiday Parade

There is something about having red hair and freckles that makes you really photogenic as a kid and apoplectic on film as an adult. I was that red head kid with a big loose baseball cap, oversized glove and loopy grin of the youngest kid on the team. And I was the most excited to climb on the fire truck that we would be riding in the parade.

The Chatsworth Holiday Parade is a boon to the local economy. My mom was at Ralph’s Supermarket and my dad and brother had walked down to the H. Salt, which turned out not to be open. I stayed on the truck and watched the clowns, horses and the various large vehicles dressed up as floats for the day.

A photographer came over and asked if a fireman who was showing me around if he could take a picture. I told him he was early. He asked how much longer. I told him until the whole team got there. He came back later just before the whole thing started. We were pulling out on to Mason with the sirens slowly building up when he called and told us all to wave.

The next day there was our picture in the Daily News right next to a huge pictorial on the stars of the day, the Clydesdales.