Parade

The 17th annual Balboa Island Parade, a tradition that signifies the beginning of summer, will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday along Marine Avenue. The key to viewing the event for non-Islanders is arriving early, as the bridge closes at 10 a.m. The event, which has adopted “Family, Friends and Fun” as this year’s theme, is sponsored by the Balboa Island Home Improvement Assn. There will be plenty to watch, eat and do. There will be marching bands, drill teams, floats, children on bikes, decorated golf carts, vintage cars, Keystone cops and appearances by elected officials.

S aturday's Armed Forces Day would have slipped by unnoticed had I not spied an item in this newspaper ("1,776 flags for awareness," May 15). Celebrated the third Saturday in May, Armed Forces Day pays tribute to America's men and women in uniform. Sadly, it's overlooked in the clamor and emotion of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. President Harry S Truman proclaimed the first Armed Forces Day in 1950. At the time, I'd been in the Army for three months. I was barely out of basic training and was assigned to the U.S. Army Information School at Ft. Slocum, N.Y. From 1956 to 1965,s Ft. Slocum housed the U.S. Army Information School, teaching military personnel public relations strategies, photography, public speaking techniques and more.

Saturday’s Armed Forces Day would have slipped by unnoticed had I not spied an item in this newspaper (“1,776 flags for awareness,” May 15). Celebrated the third Saturday in May, Armed Forces Day pays tribute to America’s men and women in uniform. Sadly, it’s overlooked in the clamor and emotion of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. President Harry S Truman proclaimed the first Armed Forces Day in 1950. At the time, I’d been in the Army for three months.

Ah, Christmas is here. This year’s Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade was spectacular, and I tip my captain’s hat to the hundreds of boat owners who did a fantastic job of decorating their boats ranging from less than 12 feet to more than a hundred feet in length. The weather was perfect for the parade, and the crowds who came to hear my announcing at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum in the Fun Zone were larger than I expected. I did have Ray Tsuneyoshi, California’s Boating & Waterways director, join me Dec. 18 for announcing.

Every year after the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade, Randy Ressel and his wife, Debra Huse, tell themselves that this was their last year participating. It takes so much time and effort, they said, and after it’s all done, you just want to breathe and relax. And every year, as the next parade appears on the horizon, their irrepressible enthusiasm for the holidays picks up steam. Soon, it’s like a speeding locomotive, and they probably couldn’t stop themselves even if they wanted to. “As time goes on, you get all excited about it,” Huse said.

If Kevin Pryor were alive today, his family says he probably would have told the crowd at the Balboa Peninsula fire station to go out, have fun and quit fussing over him. The Newport Beach firefighter, who died at 31, was a man’s man who loved the outdoors, doing celebrity impressions and the camaraderie of his fellow firefighters. Eighteen months after dying from an aneurysm at his home, Pryor lives on in the minds and hearts of those who knew him. On Monday morning, Pryor’s family joined local firefighters and representatives from One Legacy, a nonprofit that works with families of organ donors, to decorate a “flora-graph” likeness of Pryor on a float appearing in this year’s Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena.

From an 11-foot dinghy illuminated with flashing red and green lights to look like a Christmas tree to 70-foot yachts topped with saluting toy soldiers and dancing Santas, the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade set sail for its 101st year Wednesday night. Sail boats, electric boats and massive power yachts all adorned with strings of red, green and white Christmas lights crisscrossed Newport Harbor. Although it’s illegal for boats in the harbor to display Christmas lights, unless the vessel is a sanctioned entry in the parade, “the Harbor Patrol kind of looks the other way at this time of year,” parade emcee Mike Whitehead said.

It doesn’t matter whether you know it by its old title, the Illuminated Boat Parade or its current name, the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade: The point is, you know about it. And for the 101st time, Southern California locals will mix with tourists from around the country and the world to watch local sailors show off their boat-decorating skills. “What I love most about it is that it’s known about our city worldwide,” said Newport Beach Mayor Keith Curry.