On November 22, 2015, the San Diego Union Tribune (
visit link) ran the following story:
"MOTHER GOOSE GETS EARLIER START
69th annual parade draws thousands to downtown El Cajon
BY PAUL SISSON
EL CAJON
Mother Goose went bobbing down West Main Street a day early this year. The 69th annual Mother Goose Parade eschewed its usual Sunday-before-Thanksgiving time slot, stepping off on Saturday in hopes that doing so would increase volunteer participation. Switching the day of a such a long-running celebration did not come without anxiety. Parade President Debbie Dansby-Norman said organizers worried that the turnout, which usually tops 100,000, might be diminished.
“The crowd was actually larger than I expected. When you make a big change, you never know how that will affect the turnout, but we seemed to get a good crowd. We also got a lot more volunteers than we have been getting on Sundays, so I think we can say Saturday was good for us,” Dansby-Norman said.
Moving to Saturday did not come without glitches, however. The huge heliumfilled Mother Goose balloon that is always first in line got moving about a half-hour late because the group of wounded warriors who served as the event’s grand marshals didn’t make it to their float on time. “We didn’t want to step off without them,” Dansby-Norman said. “Our theme this year is ‘Super Heroes’ and they were definitely a big part of that.” And anyone who came to see San Diego-born Briana Rene, star of the Lifetime reality show “Little Women: LA,” was disappointed. Due to a shortage of available cars, Dansby-Norman said, Rene did not ride the route.
But that didn’t stop thousands from cheering as the procession made its way down Main, turning right on North Johnson Avenue before stopping at Interstate 8 near the Parkway Plaza shopping mall.
Many arrived early to get good seats.
Cynthia Elkins of El Cajon, who said she has attended the parade since she was a child, said there is one important reason to show up long before the start.
“You get here early for one reason: To get a seat in the shade. If you’re stuck in the sun, it’s a nightmare,” she said.
Though she was not so sure about the decision to hold Mother Goose a day early, or about the decision last year to change the parade route, Elkins said she still enjoys coming out year after year.
“I want to hear the bands and see who’s walking by. You want to know what’s going on in the community,” she said.
Mother Goose has marched on despite recent controversy. In 2012, former city councilwoman Jillian Hanson-Cox, who was parade president in 2007 and 2008, pleaded guilty to felony counts of mail fraud and filing a false tax return after allegedly embezzling about $3.5 million from her former employer. Some of that cash was used to book celebrities for the parade.
Today, while celebrities are still booked, there aren’t as many widely known names involved as there were when Hanson-Cox was making the decisions.
Though floats and celebrities get most of the attention, there are thousands of tiny details that take months of planning to arrange. One important change this year for the hundreds of participants who started lining up at 7:30 a.m. was a staggered arrival time. In the past, Dansby-Norman said, everyone showed up at the same time, creating a giant traffic jam in the parade’s staging area.
Anne Turschmann, a member of American Legion Post 303, which had a large, two-level float in the parade this year, said that change, though it would never be noticed by spectators, definitely made participating less frustrating than it was last year.
“Last year, it was one big mess. Everybody was all bunched up. But this year, everyone’s nice and spread out waiting their turn. It does seem like it’s a lot more organized this year,” Turschmann said.
paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com"