![\"parade\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/parade.jpg\" "\\"desfile\\"")
<\/a> It was a parade all right — but not quite what organizer Patrick Edwards had envisioned.<\/p>\nSeeking to revive North Park\u2019s Toyland Parade in 1985 after a 20-year hiatus, Edwards had sought assistance from high school pal Joan Embery of the San Diego Zoo.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould you bring an animal?\u201d he\u2019d asked.<\/p>\n
Could she ever. Embery arrived at the parade site on Lincoln Avenue with an elephant. But as the giant animal was being removed from the truck, it decided to get the procession started a bit early.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took off up the alley by the tennis courts with all the trainers chasing it,\u201d said Edwards, who was horrified the elephant would harm people or their property.<\/p>\n
The trainers soon cornered the beast, however, and Embery, that year\u2019s grand marshal, rode it majestically down University Avenue.<\/p>\n
Planners of the 46th Annual Toyland Parade on Dec. 5 aren\u2019t anticipating runaway elephants, but they do expect the event to turn some heads toward North Park and what it has to offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope it\u2019s an opportunity for people who don\u2019t typically spend much time in the business district to re-engage and see the fantastic improvements in the area,\u201d said Elizabeth Studebaker, executive director of North Park Main Street, the neighborhood\u2019s business improvement district (BID).<\/p>\n
The need to shine a light on North Park businesses is what caused Edwards, who has owned Antique Refinishers on Utah Street since 1969, to resume the parade in the \u201980s along with his wife, Kristen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 1984 I found out about the BID law in California and organized people in North Park to create the business district,\u201d said Edwards, now president of the Main Street board of directors. \u201cAs part of that, my wife and I decided there were a couple of things we should restore: the (North Park) sign and the parade.\u201d<\/p>\n
Begun in 1936, the Toyland Parade reached its heyday in the \u201950s and early \u201960s when floats, inflated balloon figures and beauty queens glided down University Avenue for nearly three hours. Hollywood celebrities served as grand marshals.
\n \u201cAt one time it was larger than the Rose Bowl parade,\u201d Studebaker said.
\n But the parade was suspended in 1968 due to construction of Interstate 805, followed by the creation of a new American pastime: the shopping mall.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the economic energy was sucked out of North Park when Mission Valley was built,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cBusinesses just quit and at the same time we lost the parade.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Interestingly, the North Park sign also disappeared about this time when it was removed for repair and never returned. Where it went is a neighborhood mystery, although Edwards suspects it ended up in a landfill. A replica was installed in 1993.)<\/p>\n
Even after Edwards encouraged North Park businesses to re-establish the parade in the \u201980s, it continued to struggle. In the \u201990s the North Park Lions Club gave the event some stability by assuming its operation and renaming it the North Park Lions Club Holiday Parade. The club turned over management to North Park Main Street in 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Lions have a specific focus,\u201d Studebaker said, \u201cand that is to help the blind. The parade really didn\u2019t fit into their mission so they thought it best for the community to take it over.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions are still active in the Toyland Parade, Studebaker emphasized. In addition to raising money (the parade costs about $15,000 to produce), the Lions provide use of their Utah Street building for equipment storage the weekend of the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is incredibly helpful, otherwise we\u2019d be at a severe disadvantage and end up spending a lot of money (on storage),\u201d Studebaker said.<\/p>\n
The 2009 parade is dedicated to the memory of longtime Lions member Wilma Knott, who along with her husband, Jim, was an avid supporter of it. Wilma died just days after the 2008 parade.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a wonderful, dedicated volunteer,\u201d Studebaker said.
\n This year\u2019s edition, which steps off at 11 a.m. (rain or shine) from the corner of University Avenue and Utah Street and continues to Iowa Street, will have close to 100 entrants, including eight marching bands, several historic car clubs and participants as diverse as a Rottweiler club. District 3 Councilmember Todd Gloria will be grand marshal.
\n Perhaps one of the more entertaining groups in the parade will be the staff from Bar Pink on 30th Street. Last year they performed a drill-team routine while twirling giant foam olives on sticks. This year, they are going for a Polynesian feel.
\n \u201cWe will be twirling parasols to Bing Crosby\u2019s version of \u2018Mele Kalikimaka,\u2019 \u201d said Dang Nguyen, the bar\u2019s co-owner. His wife, Robin Chiki, choreographs their moves and leads the group in Saturday rehearsals for weeks before the parade.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of us who work (at Bar Pink) live in and around North Park and a lot of us have kids,\u201d Nguyen said. \u201cWe all had a lot of fun last year marching in the parade with the kids — it\u2019s just a fun time all around.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly what Edwards imagined — bounding elephants aside — when he persuaded his colleagues to embrace the parade again back in 1985.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis parade is a party for the neighborhood,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are no rules. If you want, you can come and walk in the parade, just you and your kid — it\u2019s free, casual and low key, and just a chance to see your friends. It\u2019s all part of making North Park a neighborhood where you know business owners and they ask about you and your family.
\n \u201cI think we\u2019ve really achieved that sense of community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christy Scannell es una escritora y editora independiente que vive en North Park.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Toyland Parade By Christy Scannell It was a parade all right — but not quite what organizer Patrick Edwards had envisioned. Seeking to revive North Park\u2019s Toyland Parade in 1985 after a 20-year hiatus, Edwards had sought assistance from high school pal Joan Embery of the San Diego Zoo. \u201cCould you bring an animal?\u201d he\u2019d […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":231964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"North Park Toyland Parade","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}