Missing the Rose Parade, right down to the pool of spit
The Japan Honor Green Band dance their way down Colorado Blvd during the 2020 Rose Parade.
(Mark Boster / For The Times)
Dec. 31, 2020 6 AM PT
It’s a tradition, as familiar to Los Angeles’ top high school marching band as the opening notes of “Spanish Skies” or the eight-hour practice marches around Dodger Stadium: The moment they finish the six-mile Rose Parade, members of the band’s massive brass section empty their spit traps, a single, triumphant stream of relief.
“It’s really disgusting, but at the end of the parade it’s a satisfying feeling,” said 17-year-old trombone player Alvin Pleitez, the youngest of four brothers to have played with the Los Angeles Unified School District’s All City Honor Band at the annual New Year’s Day event. “Throughout the whole parade, we’re really enthusiastic and energetic. Everyone’s enjoying it, they’re happy, and then all the spit comes out from
90 minutes
$10 adult
There are many lanes, boulevards, and roads in this world, but only a few of them are associated with world-famous, known-far-and-wide, centuries-spanning events.
Orange Grove and Colorado Boulevards in Pasadena are two such starry thoroughfares, the sorts of streets that possess a certain cachet, even among those people who ve never seen them in person.
True, throughout the year, you can find cars motoring along the wide and historic Crown City roadways. And seeing people out strolling the sidewalks with their pups or paramours? That s a given.
But on New Year s Day?
Sections of both boulevards transform into the Rose Parade s own red carpet, or rather asphalt carpet, two iconic arteries that stand on the celebration s centerstage.