Grand Dave, Linda, Dave, and the two 'Lissas found appropriate head gear, loaded the 1935 Ford Woody ("Betsy"), and headed for Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We arrived without incident, and finished decorating Betsy with American regalia while waiting for the parade to begin.
We were one of seven classic cars: our 1935 Ford Woody plus an old fire engine, a 1960 Corvair convertible, a 1959 Cadillac, an old Ice Cream truck, a 1950 Pontiac convertible, a 1960s Mercedes convertible, and a 1955 MG converitble. There was also a Model T hot rod.
The woody started without incident, and we started going down the parade route as the 8th participant in the 100 participant event. We saw no reason to stay in the middle of the road while throwing candy, so we weaved from side to side. Things went well until we got to the judge's stand, and then it stalled. Since it was loud, it was hard to hear the engine when we tried to start it. It didn't start the first two times, but the third time was charm.
Since we were early, we got to watch the rest of the participants.
We left the parade with fond memories and ribbons. (We were awarded one ribbon and found the other: you guess which is which.) We even appear on the official 4th of July parade web site.
Here is our photo album from the parade.
After the parade, we saw T3, the third installment in the Terminator series.We liked this one more than The Hulk. The three movies were released in 1984, 1991, and 2003, which must be some kind of record of gap between installments of a series. The original movie predicted the nuclear holocast in 1997, but the second movie delayed it. Only Arnold and the psychiatrist appear in all three films.
That evening we went to the free concert performance on the Beach of the Rock All-stars.They promised last year that this was the last performnace of Moe Moscowitz, the Rock Star Signer who attends all the concerts and helps the deaf appreciate Rock 'N Roll. But he was back, on left and up front. There was also an incident that involved three levels of security to get someone to close a beach umbrella that was blocking others. The security men of the second level all had wore sunglasses and had shaved heads, which led Great Dave to suggest to Grand Dave that he go up and support his brothers in hairdo.
We concluded with a suprisingly professional fireworks show, provided by the Idahodians at a nearby beach. The rockets were impressive, drawing applause both from Pattersons and passersby. It was a great way to end the reunion.
Saturday we cleaned up, and all headed back home.
Once again, in Olympic tradition, we declare 2003 to be the best Patterson reunion ever. We call everyone together for the next reunion on Saturday July 3, 2004.
We're already making plans to top this one!
