The 54th annual La Jolla Christmas Parade and Holiday Festival will transport holiday-spirited guests back in time with a flyover of antique aircraft, a display of numerous historic streetcars and dozens of handcrafted floats decorated with old-fashioned flair. June Barrymore Ash \u2014 a living legend in the La Jolla community \u2014 was the inspiration for putting “class” in this year\u2019s “Classic Christmas” theme for her endless contributions to the village as well as reinvigorating the parade many years ago with her late husband, Bob Barrymore. Although she has driven classic cars in the parade in the past, this is the first year Barrymore Ash will be riding in her own car \u2014\u00a0either a 1958 Drophead Rolls-Royce or a newer Bentley Drophead \u2014 as grand marshal of the parade. Had it not been for Barrymore Ash, her late husband and their 15 classic Rolls-Royces, La Jolla\u2019s annual holiday parade may never have re-emerged after the parade ended during the second World War. Approximately 35 years ago, Bob Barrymore \u2014 who was president of the La Jolla Historical Society at the time \u2014 was adamant about bringing the Christmas parade back to La Jolla. Despite insistence from others on the board that it was much too late to begin planning for a December event (as it was already autumn), he forged on with his plans. “He proceeded to make sure that La Jolla had a Christmas parade,” Barrymore Ash said. “He contacted the fire department and I suppose the authorities to get permits, he put in about 15 of his classic cars and we had dignitaries, members of the town council, maybe some from the City Council and the \u2018old time\u2019 La Jollans in the parade.” The “old time” La Jollans, she said, were people who lived in La Jolla their whole life and loved every facet of it. “In the 35 years, it\u2019s all changed, and the poor old-timers are no more. I think it ended with Ellen Revelle,” she said. “The old-timers were great people, had great stories to tell, and loved La Jolla \u2014 the magical La Jolla. So many of the old-timers rode in the parade.” The first parade, she said, after the gap many years ago was a brief one. There were no floats, no Christmas tree lighting and certainly no airplane flyover. She does recall music sounding from the high school marching band, but nothing like the multiple bands that will play at the La Jolla Recreation Center in this year\u2019s parade. “The following year, it really did change. They started getting more participation from other organizations. As we continued, we had Cliff Robertson as the grand marshal several times,” she said. “It\u2019s a big deal now, with a huge committee. It\u2019s grown immensely \u2014 just like La Jolla.” Barrymore Ash said she is honored and excited to lead the parade as its grand marshal this year. Likewise, the parade\u2019s committee lauds they are equally honored and excited to have her as Grand Marshal, and for good reason. In addition to revitalizing the parade, which may never have come to fruition without her and her late husband\u2019s committed efforts, Barrymore Ash has contributed to a vast number of causes in the La Jolla community throughout the years. She has served as the president of the Social Service League of La Jolla, Patrons of the Prado, La Jolla Debutante Committee and acted as founding president of the Variety Club International San Diego Chapter of Women. She has acted as the chairwoman for events like the Country Friends fashion shows and annual Christmas tea, La Jolla Debutante Ball, American Cancer Society Council of Hope, Concours d\u2019Elegance luncheons and fashion shows for the San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association. For her leadership and volunteer roles, she has received a number of awards, including the American Cancer Society\u2019s Volunteer of the Year, the Women\u2019s International Center\u2019s International Philanthropy Award, Salvation Army\u2019s Women of Dedication award, and serves as an Honorary Director at the La Jolla Historical Society. “I didn\u2019t have children, and I love La Jolla. One thing would lead to another, and I just got so totally involved, and I loved every minute of it,” she said. “All those things I was doing, it never stopped me from traveling or doing what I wanted to do. I never thought of it as a big deal.” She said over the years, she has relinquished many of her duties and titles to others. “I gave up my last organization about eight months ago as honorary chairperson of the Patrons in the Park,” she said. This year, Barrymore Ash and her husband, Neil Ash, the parade\u2019s military marshal, will both serve as honored guests, riding in their own classic streetcars down Girard Avenue and Prospect Street. Ash has also contributed his share to the community, including serving for ten years on the World Board of USO Governors in Washington, D.C., serving as president of the San Diego USO and founding the Neil Ash USO Airport Center at Lindbergh Field \u2014\u00a0the largest USO airport center in the world, serving more than 120,000 members of the armed forces and their families each year with food, telephone and computer services, entertainment and a variety of other services in Terminal 1. Barrymore Ash said although she still has kept some of the classic cars in her late husband\u2019s unique and rare collection \u2014 including a Rolls-Royce limousine and one of seven entirely coach-built, left-hand drive Drophead Rolls-Royces \u2014 most of his vehicles have been returned to England. La Jolla Christmas Parade, 2011:<\/b> \u2022 When: Dec. 4, 2 to 5 p.m. \u2022 Where: Starts at Girard Avenue and Kline Street, ends at La Jolla Recreation Center (615 Prospect St.) \u2022 Theme: “Classic Christmas” \u2022 Attractions: antique aircraft flyover, marching bands, equestrians, rare and unique vehicles, floats, fire engines, historic streetcar, Santa Claus and more The 54th annual La Jolla Christmas Parade and Holiday Festival will march to the tune of a “Classic Christmas” this year on Dec. 4 from 2 to 5 p.m. The old-fashioned holiday fun will kick off with an antique aircraft flyover at 2 p.m. followed by a parade of handcrafted floats, historic streetcars, more than 50 equestrians and a not-so-traditional 2-week-old Jack in the Box “Munchie Mobile” strutting down Girard Avenue and Prospect Street. The parade will conclude at the La Jolla Recreation Center at 3:30 p.m. with a holiday festival complete with musical performances, food, face painting, a balloon artist, an inflatable jumpee and obstacle course, and a Christmas tree lighting ceremony at 4:30 p.m. Of course, jolly old Saint Nick wouldn\u2019t miss out \u2014 Santa Clause will make his annual appearance at the holiday festival for a photo opportunity and the chance for good boys and girls to confirm their Christmas lists with him.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 54th annual La Jolla Christmas Parade and Holiday Festival will transport holiday-spirited guests back in time with a flyover of antique aircraft, a display of numerous historic streetcars and dozens of handcrafted floats decorated with old-fashioned flair. June Barrymore Ash \u2014 a living legend in the La Jolla community \u2014 was the inspiration for […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":273652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Revisiting La Jolla Christmas parades past with the grand marshal","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273651","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=273651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}