Guard Duty Begins on the Rose Parade Route

By noon Friday, USC senior David Dunn was getting a little bleary-eyed.

He had already been through one Tom Clancy novel and was halfway into his second. And with three days left until the 101st Tournament of Roses Parade, Dunn said he might as well have brought all of the author’s works.

Perched on top of a wooden stepladder on the corner of Orange Grove Boulevard and Del Rosa Drive in Pasadena, the 25-year-old Kappa Alpha fraternity member was charged with a most important duty: guarding a half-block-long patch of grass between two palms, where 200 parade-goers will plant themselves early New Year’s Day.

Dunn was taking the job seriously. He was getting paid for it: a hefty $500.

“I brought a generator, my TV, my stereo with me,” Dunn said, zipping up his ski jacket and wrapping a down blanket around his legs. “This is my first year to do this.”

But he was not the first one out there. A block away, Pasadena resident Donna Matiko claimed that since Tuesday morning her group had staked out the east side of Orange Grove, near Colorado Boulevard. Matiko and Darren Schwartz, a friend from Saskatchewan, Canada, had just reported for their four-hour shift.

“This is the prime spot. This is the best,” Matiko gloated. “This is where the television cameras will be, right there on the corner. So all the floats will face this way.”

Meanwhile, recreational vehicles were trickling into Brookside Park across from the Rose Bowl, their occupants ready for a weekend of pregame partying. And people were lining up across from the stadium, waiting to get a glimpse of the almost-finished parade floats.

Not all the early birds who made themselves comfortable along the parade route were planning to enjoy the choicest curbside seats themselves. Highland Park residents Paul Ho, 15, and Krista Granger, 18, were saving space for 80 folding chairs that their church, Hermon Free Methodist, has sold at $25 a seat. But Paul and Krista said they would do something else on New Year’s.

Sylmar resident Jim Hoelscher, who entertained himself with a bag of potato chips and a sports car catalogue while saving spots for 60 friends and acquaintances, said he will be curled up on a sofa at home come Monday morning.

“It’s a little too cold out here,” he said. “I’ll probably watch the parade on TV this time.”