Pinedorado prep calls for bright ideas from town

February’s almost gone already? Yikes! That means it’s time to plan for Leap Day, daylight saving time, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Cambria’s Pinedorado.

Yes, Pinedorado, the annual three-day festival on Labor Day weekend. Pinedorado Chairman Greg Wilson and car-show wizard Nate Fearonce already are organizing the 2016 edition … and have been for some time. After all, this year is Cambria’s big-deal 150th anniversary.

Not to be outdone, Lani Zaragoza is brainstorming to make this year’s Pinedorado parade a bigger-than-ever hometown hit, a flashback to the days when the procession was packed with Cambria creativity, Harmony homespun, San Simeon silliness and genuine North Coast fun.

Those were the days when nearly every business had a float or entry, and most clubs with more than five members vied for honors.

As I wrote in a column in 2013, “Through the decades, the Saturday parade down Main Street has included floats, clowns and bands, cars, dogs, cheerleaders, athletes, singers, lots of marchers, people playing kelp instruments, a dog wearing a bonnet, a pastor riding a horse, an honorary mayor riding a toilet, a male bicyclist in a tutu, a Tinkerpaw wearing a barrel, Lady Tie Di as a butterfly, singer Rudy de la Mor and his feather boa, and an unreliable hillbilly car … when it stalled, the hillbilly driver would get out to crank it and his pants would fall down.”

Not to mention 1957, when William R. Hearst Jr. was parade marshal; he and Bing Crosby both rode horseback.

Good memories.

What are your favorite parade recollections from wherever, whenever — and how can you help re-create them, or make new ones, this year?

I remember joining my coworkers from KSLY Radio in the San Luis Obispo Christmas parade. We were “Captain Buffoon’s kazoo band.” We even practiced ahead of time (once or twice). We were awful. Everybody loved it.

I’ve walked or ridden in the Pinedorado parade umpteen times, photographed it annually since 1971 and helped build quite a few floats.

It’s so much fun.

Participants wanted

News flash: Zaragoza and the Lions Club can’t do it alone. They need you.

Yes, you. (Incidentally, the need for local participation is just as great in other communities’ parades.)

First, the organizers want to know what you think is missing in “your” parade. Then they need you to help make it happen.

Your bright idea doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. I remember gathering for a midsummer happy hour with some gal friends in 1994. Suzy McDonald, then the editor of The Cambrian, said she and some of our readers felt strongly that the Pinedorado parade needed to be livened up a bit with some local kitsch, humor and fun.

And most importantly, more Cambrians needed to get involved.

Pinedorado still has “it”: Those cyclists in tutus, flower-hatted gardener ladies, line dancers in bikini T-shirts, mermaids, scarecrows and Susan Buhl’s wonderful costumed dogs all add a lighthearted sense of whimsy.

But Pinedorado’s parade needs more … more local, funny, catchy, silly, musical, syncopated, ride-walk-slither-or-swim, memory-making magical entries.

Women in Red Cars

About that happy hour: Some of us had red cars, including spiffy convertible sports cars. Hmmmm. Light-bulb time! Therein was born our spur-of-the-moment “Women in Red Cars” parade entry.

We agreed to meet again to refine the concept. We did — two days before Pinedorado! We still hadn’t found our kitschy concept. But … what if each car had a passenger holding a “Women in Red Cars” sign? Maybe our placards could mimic the old Burma Shave signs, where the silly saying continued from one sign to the next and down the line ….

Scribbling faster and faster on bar napkins, we created the signs’ sayings, giggling merrily as we did. What a wonderful memory.

The kicker? Shirley Bianchi provided the entry’s caboose: her fluorescent-yellow Subaru. Her sign? “Women in Red Cars: This One’s Not Ripe Yet.”

The payoff? Not only did observers seem to love our quickly planned, off-the-cuff entry, but it also won the Sweepstakes Award that year. That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 10:23 AM with the headline "Pinedorado prep calls for bright ideas from town."