Before the 75-plus entries in today’s two-hour West Seattle Grand Parade rolled, roared, marched, glid and strolled down the route, they gathered at/around the starting line, which is California/Lander – unpacking, arranging, in some cases, even posing for photos (particularly the most famous of the entries, like JP Patches). On assignment for WSB, Edgar Riebe of West Seattle-based Captive Eye Media roamed around behind the scenes in the pre-parade hours – the video above is the result! ADDED EARLY SUNDAY: And from inside our electric car as the parade began, here’s the first minute (shot by WSB editor TR) as we got the go-ahead to start rolling:

One thing we noticed, riding in a vehicle for the first time – people yelled and waved as they saw the signs on the side of the car, not the banner on the front (so the audio you hear doesn’t synch with the video – we had the camera pointed forward most of that minute). Thanks again to everyone who came out to see the parade; our coverage – before, during, after – is in the WSB West Seattle Grand Parade archive, newest to oldest.

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli – Daffodil Festival wins 2 categories)
We will continue adding photos/video to this progressively – but in case anybody’s waiting eagerly for the info, West Seattle Grand Parade co-coordinator Dave Vague just sent the list of judges’ picks from today’s parade:

(WSB video by Tracy Record – All-City Band, overall #2, marching band #1)

Overall Winners
1st Place __Daffodil Festival “Carousel of Spring”
2nd Place __Electronettes Jasslyn Diva’s Drill Team & Drum Squad
3rd Place __Seattle Schools All-City Marching Band

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli – Vancouver, B.C., PD, 1st place, motorcycles)

Motorcycles
1st Place __Vancouver Police Motorcycle Drill Team

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli – All-City Band, overall #2, marching band #1)

(Photo by Steve Mohundro – PNW Drumline, 2nd place, marching bands)

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli – JFK HS, 3rd place, marching bands)

Marching Bands
1st Place __Seattle Schools All-City Marching Band
2nd Place __Pacific NW Drumline
3rd Place __Kennedy Catholic High School Marching Band

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli – Seafair Clowns, 1st place, clowns/comics)

Clowns & Comics
1st Place __Seattle Seafair Clowns
2nd Place ___Ronald McDonald
3rd Place ___Keystone Kops

(Photo by Steve Mohundro – Lake City Western Vigilantes, performing acts, #1)

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli – Seafair Pirates, performing acts, #2)

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli – Evergreen Tang Soo Do, performing acts, #3)

Performing Acts
1st Place ____Lake City Vigilantes
2nd Place ____Seattle Seafair Pirates
3rd Place ____Evergreen Tang Soo Do

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli – Sweet Mahogany, junior drill teams, #1)

Drill Teams – Jr. & Cheer Squads
1st Place _____Sweet Mahogany Drill Team
2nd Place ____Electronettes Pretty Girls Drill Team
3rd Place ____Super Steppers Marching Team

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli – Electronettes JDs, senior drill teams, #1)

Drill Teams – Sr.
1st Place ___Electronettes Jasslyn Diva’s Drill Team & Drum Squad
2nd Place ___Chinese Community Girls Drill Team

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli – JP Patches, commercial, #2)

Commercial
1st Place _____Daystar Retirement Village
2nd Place ____Bill & Cynthia Reid/John L Scott Westwood & JP Patches
3rd Place ____Hadlock’s Towing

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli, OLG, community, #1)

Community
1st Place ___Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish & School
2nd Place ___Girl Scouts Chinook Service Unit #550
3rd Place ___WS Friend to Friend Volunteer Program

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli -LRFD, antique cars, #1)

Cars & Antique Cars
1st Place ____Last Resort Fire Department
2nd Place ___Lincoln Towing’s “Pink Toe Truck”
3rd Place ___Senior Center of West Seattle

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli -Marysville float, #2 in its category)

Floats – Motorized
1st Place (Legion Trophy) __Daffodil Festival “Carousel of Spring”
2nd Place (Alki Trophy) ___Marysville Strawberry Festival

(WSB video by Tracy Record)

Floats – Conveyed
1st Place (Festival Trophy)___Holy Rosary West Fest
2nd Place (Marshals Trophy)___ West Seattle Sportsmen’s Club

Dave notes that some regular entrants – Seattle Police and Fire, and West Seattle Hi-Yu – ask to be excluded from the judging (just in case you’re wondering why you don’t see them in the list). More parade coverage to come!

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli, substituted 3:17 pm for previous Twitpic by @zenbard)
The streets are reopening – now that the West Seattle Grand Parade is over for another year. We had a blast riding in the Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) loaned to us by MC Electric Vehicles (which is on the south side of downtown, by Goodwill) – it’s more traditional to ride in a convertible, but we wanted something electric-powered for the occasion! Got to watch most of the parade since we were the fifth entry out and done before the other 70-plus; will add a few photos shortly, with much more coverage to come a bit later. Our favorite iPhone photo taken just before it began – that’s the U.S. Coast Guard flyover, with the Color Guard and Post 160 Commander Chris Shea in the foreground:

And here’s a closer look at the chopper itself:

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli)
Thanks to everybody who waved and yelled along the way – as the sign on the back of our vehicle read, “Thank YOU for being part of WSB” – !!! (And thanks to parade-presenting American Legion Post 160 for honoring WSB with the Orville Rummel Trophy – from what we learned about the other recipients while researching the story we published this morning, it’s awesome company.)

On California SW by the Admiral Safeway parking lot, Holy Rosary School volunteers were putting flowers on their WestFest entry for the West Seattle Grand Parade, which starts at 11 am. Not far away, this bubble-breathing dragon is getting ready for its star turn – we won’t spoil the surprise by showing you who’s towing it:

We got here just after 9, convoying with the mystery vehicle we’ll ride in the parade – spotted staked-out spots outside ArtsWest in The Junction along the way (and more than a few in other areas, including some whose “owners” were already in place):

Back up here at parade-start central, the Seafair parade marshals – more than 30 of them – are helping American Legion Post 160‘s Grand Parade coordinators get everybody arranged:

One of our later reports will have more behind-the-scenes glimpses; we have photojournalist Edgar Riebe here covering that side of the parade-day story; photojournalist Christopher Boffoli will be along the route to cover the parade itself. See our earlier previews (all archived here) for info on the route and times and some of who you’ll see – the action all starts at 11 am, though the motorcycle drill teams (Seattle followed by Vancouver, B.C.) scheduled to go down the route a bit sooner, so you’ll definitely want to be in place by 10:30; even The Junction, end of the line, will see parading soon after 11, since the Rotary Club of West Seattle-presented Kiddie Parade will travel south from California/Genesee at that point. Not sure if we’ll add more pre-parade pix here – but you can definitely watch our @westseattleblog Twitter feed (even if you’re not a Twitter member) for photos we’ll “tweet” before and during.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

In this morning’s West Seattle Grand Parade, your WSB co-publishers will be proudly carrying the Orville Rummel Trophy for Outstanding Service to the Community, bestowed by parade-sponsoring American Legion Post 160. It’s been awarded annually since 1984:

When parade organizers shared the news, they also observed that aside from the trophy itself, which each recipient gets to keep till the following summer, there wasn’t much written history about it. So we set out to see if we could take a swing at starting to change that.

Orville Rummel founded the parade back in 1934. The photo at left is from a framed, crinkled-but-treasured copy of the front page of what the logo declared to be the “West Seattle Herald Incorporating The West Seattle News,” published at the start of the Hi-Yu Festival, that same year. It hangs on the north wall of the American Legion Post 160 Hall in The Triangle; Rummel was the post’s commander, and chair of the Hi-Yu Committee, in 1934. Unfortunately, he’s not still around to tell his stories; online records show he died in Kitsap County right about Hi-Yu time in 1998 – July 16, to be exact – just a few weeks short of what would have been his 99th birthday.

Back in Orville Rummel’s heyday, the Legion stopped running Hi-Yu after a few years; it resumed as an independent effort in 1949, though Post 160 remains a Hi-Yu trustee.

Ahead, the list of a quarter-century-plus of winners. And then – we check in with two of the longtime West Seattle businesspeople who’ve been honored with the Orville Rummel Trophy.Read More

Just confirmed with the Seattle Seafair Clowns‘ own “Officer Lumpy” – a West Seattleite – that this year’s “Prince of Mirth” will be with them tomorrow in the American Legion Post 160-presented West Seattle Grand Parade. The Prince is a Duke – none other than local restaurateur Duke Moscrip, of Duke’s Chowder House fame. This year, as the Seafair Clowns’ announcement points out, Duke has been a Seafair hero, helping bail out first the hydro races and then the Seafair Pirates’ Landing (WSB coverage here). Last year, TV personality Jim Dever rode with them.

Tomorrow’s parade starts at 11 am from California/Lander in the Admiral District and continues south to California/Edmunds in The Junction. Any and all West Seattle kids are also invited to join in the Rotary Club of West Seattle-presented Kiddie Parade, leaving California/Genesee at 11 ahead of the main parade (with time to get back to your seat!). To see our previous previews – and coverage of previous years – check out the WSB West Seattle Grand Parade coverage archive (in reverse-chronological order).

(WSB photo from July 2008 at California/Lander, where the West Seattle Grand Parade begins)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Everybody loves a parade, it’s been said.

All you have to do is stake out your spot on the route, and it unfolds right in front of you – the honor guard, the bands, the drill teams, the floats, the royalty, the sign-wavers, the clowns … In all, more than 75 entries will travel California SW from the Admiral District to the south end of The Junction tomorrow morning (here’s the map), starting at 11 am, right after the Rotary Club of West Seattle-sponsored Kiddie Parade (all kids can join in!) strolls and rolls down the route from Genesee south.

But the West Seattle Grand Parade doesn’t just happen, much as co-coordinator Jim Edwards would try to have you believe otherwise. “It’s a juggernaut now,” he insists. “It would happen with or without us.”

He commented Monday night during a small but pivotal gathering that happens each year before the parade: The lineup meeting. At American Legion Post 160 in The Triangle – the organization that presents the parade every year (not Hi-Yu, though they’re an important participant every year) – Jim, co-coordinator Dave Vague, and parade chair Walt DeLong took two hours to finalize the parade running order.

Read More