Everyone Loves a Parade, Especially From a Cadillac Waving to the Crowd

Don’t hesitate if you get a chance to roll slowly through North Park in a 1963 Cadillac convertible (when a Cadillac was really a Caddie ) while the streets are lined with happy people waving at you.

Take my word for it, it gives new meaning to the idea of street life.

It was the 29th Annual North Park Toyland Parade on Saturday, and the Perrys were in a Caddie owned and driven by Duane Quenette of Santee and his friend Evelyn Davison, who also brought a Kermit the Frog puppet to rev up the crowd.

It’s a big, home-grown parade, lots of middle-school marching bands, classic cars, classic bicycles and entries like the Super Sonic Samba School, Grace & The Cavorting Canines, the Twirl West Baton Academy and the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps.

Plus the Super Trike with politician/magician Loch David Crane and, finally, Santa Claus on a fire engine.

My son Mike, 2, was interested in the horses. My son Wes, 5, was interested in Sandi Caylor, Miss Teen El Cajon.

Orville Redenbacher, the Popcorn King of Coronado, was the grand marshal, riding in a horse-drawn carriage. After he made the circuit, he worked the crowd on foot, giving away “I Met the Popcorn King” tokens.

He’s 85, but no one can accuse Redenbacher of not giving good weight when he’s invited to a parade.

People waved and shouted good tidings at us all (truth be told, Kermit got more attention than I did). We waved and shouted good tidings back.

Two parade-goers came accompanied with life-size cutouts of Capt. Kirk and Dr. Spock. A woman was busily selling bunnies to the crowd in what I take to be a North Park Christmas tradition.

One bare-chested, heavily muscled fellow shouted at me to admire the “San Diego” tattoo which took up his entire lower back. I shouted in reply that he’s lucky he doesn’t live in San Bernardino.

Thankfully, he seemed to like that.

If there was a bummer note, it was that the Shriners had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t attend. Too bad, because they’re always a hit at parades and I’ve come to recognize a bunch of them.

I’m crummy on names but I never forget a fez.

Home(less) to Phoenix

Look at this.

* It’s probably not workable on a large scale, but some bus therapy has decreased San Diego’s homeless population by two.

Bobby, 37, and wife Renee, 36, had been living on downtown streets for 10 months, and moving whenever merchants thought their litter was getting too much. Nine times they’d moved in the last month alone.

What they really wanted was to return to Phoenix, and they said so many times.

So cops Wilf Becker and Tom Boerum of the downtown walking team took up a collection from local charities, kicked in a few bucks themselves, and bought Bobby and Renee $65 worth of bus tickets to Phoenix.

Leaving Bobby and Renee and the merchants in whose doorways they’d been sleeping quite happy.

* Am I the only one who thinks Hillary Clinton and Lynn Schenk look a bit alike?

* Now it can be told: Offbeat La Jolla scientist Kary Mullis (he developed a technique for copying DNA but turned his back on the big-money, high-pressure world of the biotech industry) likes to mix business and fun.

When he’s doing a slide show for a scientific gathering, he’s been known to throw in a slide or two of naked women bathed in psychedelic light.

The women Ph.D.s will boo and hiss, but Mullis only laughs and continues.

* Can Party for Food.

Anyone interested in Susan Golding’s mayoral inaugural party next Monday night at the Convention Center can gain admission with five cans of food for the city’s Holiday Food Drive.

Labels Worth Noting

Signs of something or another.

* Painted (neatly) on the back of a battered motor home in Escondido: “It’s Paid for and It’s Still Not Worth It.”

* Yes, there really is a Corvette in San Diego with the license plate “RCH KDS.”

* San Diego political consultant: “Can we go off the record? I don’t want to have to lie to you.”

* I like the image of that guy at SamSon’s deli in La Jolla reading a book, “Latin for All Occasions.”