At first glance the infrastructure of the floats seems like a huge paper machier project. In reality, the bodies, or chassis, of the floats are made from wood and chicken wire and then sprayed with a polyvinyl material. Then the floats are painted in the various colors of the flowers and organic materials which will eventually adorn it. Up to the last week of December, when the floats are decorated with the flowers and their fragrances scent the air, the media on the floats are just dry materials: lentils for orange, crushed lentils for a lighter orange, dried peas for green, grounded parsley for darker green. The hard part is painstakingly gluing the material onto the float. Some materials, such as the lentils, needed to glued on the float by hand. Other portions could be glued on the float by using a household sponge. A detailed-oriented personality is a must in this line of work.
Our float is being constructed in a large building just across from the Rose Bowl with several other floats. As of last Saturday, it seemed the decorating still relied heavily upon volunteers. Boisterous teenagers, probably to receive their community service credit now needed for college applications, seemed to make up the majority of the volunteers while some senior citizens sat quietly in a circle cutting up the petals of purple flowers that will eventually be glued onto the floats. Other volunteers manned the blenders which whirled on and on grinding the lentils, beans, bark or fruit into a colorful, mealy texture that give the floats texture. Others, like myself, began decorating the floats.
It was a lot of fun but because of my bum knee, I had to force myself into some extremely awkward positions. And, it was dirty. I wore a grey cashmere hoodie but took if off shortly after decorating. It was a good thing too because by the end of the day, my hair was littered with yellow flower petals because this kid was gluing petals to the top portion of the float, which happened to be directly above my head. My jeans and Chuck Taylors were covered in rice dust and lentils. (In fact, I just flicked a lentil off my shoe tonight.) My fingers stuck together because of all the glue which dried on them. All-in-all, it was a fun time and I did get to meet some fellow co-workers.
My first true memory of the Rose Parade (besides that it was just on TV every New Year's Day) was in 1984 when Illinois went to the Rose Bowl. Now, 24 years later I'm helping to build a float for the Rose Parade. BTW, which Big Ten team is playing in the Rose Bowl? Illinois is and making its first Rose Bowl appearance in ...24 years. I never would have thought as a 14-year-old living in Sullivan, Illinois watching Mike White take his Illini team to the Rose Bowl that I would be living in L.A. the next time Illinois makes an appearance. Funny, how things work out.
If you happen to catch the Rose Parade on New Year's day and see my employer's float, just know that I helped decorate it. The portion I did will be the clumsily glued together part.
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