Love LaDeDa (and Yachats!)? Say thanks to Janet Moore Burley. Eighteen years ago she was head of the Yachats Chamber. Inspired by Pasadena's DoDah parade, she applied to the city council for a permit and wrote the rules: no motorized vehicles and no green socks. Or maybe it was purple socks. Whatever.
The idea was simple—get people to town before the fireworks. The first parade was so short, it went around twice. But it caught on, and soon crowds lined the parade route, floating red, white, and blue balloons, decked out in as much R,W, & B as they could fine. That’s the spectators we’re talking about—as good a show as the people in the parade.
The exception to the motorized vehicle prohibition is the municipal manure spreader, which carries the mayor and members of city council. Now what might that message be????
Paraders come in singles and groups, families and associations. The city’s hyperactive trails committee and adjunct weed-pullers (YIPS) deck themselves out in ivy and other invasives. There’s always a science team with strange images of deep sea critters. Look for people on bikes and people on skate boards, and dogs dogs dogs. The ever-popular Umbrella Drill Team, which has been opening and closing umbrellas in something like synchronicity almost as long as the parade has existed, will march by in semi-unison.
I’ve been in Yachats almost as long as the parade and I know it is not an event to miss. Get out there and laugh, gawk, gasp in amazement, clap and let the crazies know how much we all appreciate them. Then wander around Yachats and ENJOY!! I know I will.
