Claremont’s parade shows its independence

I’m not much on parades, unless I’m the grand marshal of course, but Claremont always has an entertaining July 4th parade. Since I ran out of room in Wednesday’s column to note some of my favorite moments, let me belatedly mention them here.

The Goddess of Pomona clad in a white gown and a laurel rode on an electric cart from Pomona College. But don’t ask me to explain why a boombox was playing “Sweet Home Alabama.”

Friends of the Bernard Field Station carried signs on sticks for various plant species. Go, coastal sage scrub!

The Claremont Ukelele Club played lilting tunes on the namesake instrument while riding in a flatbed truck. The truck, for obscure reasons, dragged an 8-foot papier mache turkey on a wheeled platform with a wordy placard I couldn’t see well from the sidewalk, although it seemed anti-military. Did anyone see it or get what it was about?

Less obscurely, a vehicle for a senior housing development carried several seniors blowing bubbles with bubble fluid and wands. A placard on the side read “Claremont Manor Rocks.” Perhaps in no other era would even a retirement community be said to rock.

Loud applause greeted parade entries for gay marriage, peace and an end to the death penalty. You don’t see that stuff in Upland.

But where were the Claremont Grammarians, who rode in the last few parades in a panel truck decorated with placards like “I Before E” and “Don’t Use Contractions”?

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