Aptos' 2018 Worlds Shortest Parade: Program Guide

57

Years

Inside...

Schedule of Events Parade Route Map Party in the Park ...much more!

Published by

Hosted by the Aptos Chamber of Commerce

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY FROM

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★ Wide variety of new homes ★ Local shops ★ New Leaf Community Market ★ Water-efficient design and green

building features

★ Tree-lined streets, broad sidewalks,

bicycle parking and safe railroad crossings

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Table of Contents

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Schedule of Events

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Aptos Parade Celebrates 57 Years

2018 Parade Sponsors Grand Marshal Michael Watkins Letter from the Aptos Chamber President Parade Route & Map The World’s Shortest Parade Has Come a Long Way! SS Palo Alto Parade Categories 2017 Aptos 4th of July Parade Winners Parade Participation

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4th of July Parking lot party Bloody Mary bar open at 9:00am Outdoor bar, with Burgers, Hot dogs and Pulled pork sandwiches Live music after the parade

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Schedule of Events Pancake Breakfast

7:00am - 10:00am

Located at burger. Across from Safeway. Hosted by the Aptos Chamber of Commerce. Sponsored by Safeway, Severino’s Bar & Grill, Kiss Catering, burger. Aptos, Starbucks Coffee, Gizdich Ranch and Whole Foods.

World’s Shortest Parade

10:00am - 12:00pm

Begins at Wells Fargo and ends at the Bay View Hotel. Hosted by the Aptos Chamber of Commerce. Sponsored by Allen Property Group, Sutter Health Palo Alto Medical Foundation, New Leaf Community Markets, Aegis Living of Aptos, Sereno Group, Earth Works, Rio Sands Hotel, Coldwell Banker and Green Waste.

Party in the Park!

11:00am - 4:00pm

Family fun day! Something for the whole family: kids games, face painting, pony rides, zorbs, food trucks, caterers, and special guest artist EXTRA LARGE! Sponsored by Green Waste and ACE Portable Services.

Publisher Patrice Edwards Art & Design Jim Johnson Production Coordinator Liz Senteney Sales Representatives Don Beaumont, Tiffani Patrov Contributing Writers Noel Smith Photo Credits Times Publishing Group, Inc. Aptos History Museum Michael Oppenheimer The Aptos World’s Shortest Parade Official Program 2018 Is a publication of the Times Publishing Group, Inc. Entire contents ©2018 by Patrice Edwards. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without publisher’s written permission.

Times Publishing Group, Inc. 9601 Soquel Drive, Aptos, CA 95003 Phone: 831.688.7549 Fax: 831.688.7551 Email: sales@cyber-times.com www.tpgonlinedaily.com

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APTOS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Presents

57th Annual

“ World’s Shortest Parade ”

2018 Sponsors Full Event Sponsors:

Pancake Breakfast Sponsors:

Pancake Breakfast Table Sponsors: Bay Federal Credit Union, Shadowbrook Restaurant, Crow’s Nest Restaurant, Swenson Builders, UC Santa Cruz , Barley Properties, Kaiser Permanente, Kind Peoples and Aptos Capitola Rotary

Parade Sponsors:

Party in the Park Sponsor:

Parade Pet Sponsors:

Media Sponsors:

T- Shirt Sponsors: T- Shirt Store Sponsors:

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Deluxe Foods, Aptos Feed, Santa Cruz County Bank, Cinnamon Bay Clothing, Pacific Coffee, The UPS Store, Aptos Chamber of Commerce, and Art Supplies, Ink.

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2018

Aptos 4th of July Parade Grand Marshal

Micha el Watkins

T

his year’s Grand Marshall for the 2018 Aptos’ “World’s Shortest Parade” is Michael Watkins, the Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools, and the first African American elected to that position in the State of California. Michael has held that position for the past 12 years. He will retire at the end of this year.

Michael and his wife, Anne, have been married for 42 years and have called Aptos home since 1980. They have two grown children, Justin and Martine, and five grandchildren. Both Justin and Martine graduated from Aptos High School.

Michael has been a strong supporter of children, especially underserved children in Santa Cruz County and throughout the state.

For his work he has received proclamations from both the Watsonville City Council and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. In addition, Michael has held the positions of President of the 58 Counties Superintendent’s Association, President of the statewide Juvenile Court and Community Schools Association and he was recently appointed by the State Assembly to the prestigious California Collaborative for Educational Excellence. Michael has also served on numerous Santa Cruz County boards and committees over the years building partnerships and advocating for equitable educational opportunities for all students.

Michael and Anne are grateful for the peace and beauty that Aptos affords them. From their home in Rio Del Mar, they walk regularly along the beach, keeping their eyes open for seals, dolphins, whales, sea otters, and sea glass to add to their collection. They have regular picnic dinners with friends near the remains of the cement ship, weather permitting.

Michael has found that using his position as County Superintendent of Schools to create multiple learning opportunities for students, teachers, parents and administrators has truly been a rewarding experience.

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Featuring Local Products!

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Letter from the Aptos Chamber of Commerce President

On behalf of the Aptos Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, our members, local businesses owners, and the Aptos community, I am proud to welcome you all to the 57th annual 4th of July Festivities: World’s Shortest Parade, Pancake Breakfast, and Party in the Park. Together we join to celebrate our national independence and recognize the best of which Aptos has to offer.

The theme for this year’s events is “Celebrating our Schools, Students, Teachers, and Administrators.” All of us have had special teachers that helped shape our lives. Today we would like to recognize all the people that make the schools in Aptos so successful. As a proud graduate of Aptos High School, I would also like to say, “Go Mariners!”

The Grand Marshal for this year’s events is Michael Watkins.

As the longstanding Superintendent of Schools, Michael has contributed much to the educational landscape here in Santa Cruz County. As he leads the festivities today, we would like to thank Michael and his family for everything they have done for Aptos.

There is no question both are nation and town are evolving, hopefully for the better. Our little parade is a great reminder that no matter how much things change, some things still stay the same. The fabric of the Aptos community is strong and that will stay consistent.

Finally, I would like to thank the numerous volunteers who make this event possible; year round planning, organizing floats, closing streets, directing traffic, flipping pancakes, and of course the clean-up. It takes a village.

- Steve Allen, President

Aptos Chamber of Commerce

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Visit www.theaptosvillage.com to learn more and sign up for a free email newsletter.

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H New homes H A Village Green H Small, local shops H New Leaf Community Market H Water-efficient design and green building features H Tree-lined streets, broad sidewalks, bicycle parking and safe railroad crossings

Aptos Village is a mixed use (re)development project over a decade in the making.

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APTOS PARK

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After Parade

CALVARY CHAPEL

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World’s Shortest Parade Has Come a Long Way!

Parade Founder: Lucile Aldrich -by John Hibble

is America’s birthday and many communities have parades to celebrate that fact. The freedom to determine our own future was at the center of the founding of our country.

The “World’s Shortest Parade” in Aptos is also about selfdetermination but it was not originally about America’s birthday.

The Granite Rock Company, founded in 1900, has been an important part of the history of Santa Cruz County. The great construction boom in houses and highways in the late 1950s and ‘60s meant that Granite had to build new cement batching plants to supply the need for concrete throughout the region. Cement, sand, and aggregate are stored at the batching plant and mixed to order, then sent out in giant “cement mixer” trucks to the construction sites.

In 1959, the last remnants of the apple industry in Aptos Village closed down. Aptos was an industrial town with no industry.

Granite Rock Company purchased land in the Village and applied to the county for a zoning change to build a batching plant.

That is why the street across from the Post Office is named Granite Way. There is nothing wrong with a concrete plant but no one in Aptos Village wanted it in their back yard. Locals rose up against the proposal. Concerned women formed the “Aptos Ladies Tuesday Evening Society” and organized themselves to defeat the zoning change. The group included Lucille Aldrich, Anne Isaacs, Babe Toney, Peggy Marceron, Jessie Elliott, Birdie Jacobs, Beverly Palmer, Nola Gales, Pat Thompson, Joyce West, Peggy Hunter, Mrs. Harrison Smith, Dee Small, Betty Jo Jensen, and Nita Jellison.

Their efforts were successful. To celebrate their victory, a barbecue was held on Memorial Day, 1961, in the field next to the railroad track. The event was so popular that a parade and pot luck were planned to follow on the fourth of July.

Everyone turned out in old fashioned clothes and the Monterey Bay Antique Car Club brought 18 vintage cars. The parade route was from the Driftwood Gas Station at Trout Gulch Road (where Bay Federal Credit Union is now located) to the Pop Inn restaurant, continued on page 20

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(formerly Little OWL Italian Kitchen and now the Parish Publick House). The parade only lasted ten minutes and that is how the “World’s Shortest Parade” got its name.

The second year, the “Sun Tan Special,” the train that once transported visitors from the San Francisco Peninsula to Santa Cruz, was in its final year of service. The Aptos Ladies had planted red, white and blue petunias along the railroad track from the Bay View Hotel to the Pop Inn. When the train reached Aptos on July 4th, the engineer stopped the train so that the passengers could get off and enjoy the festivities. “It was a happy coincidence that the parade coincided with the train passing through,” recalled Lucile Aldrich.

Games were also held in the field including sack races, a watermelon eating contest, horseshoes, kick the can, peanut runs, shoe kicking, and foot races.

The third year, the American Legion post was the first to set up a food booth with chili, coffee and pies. The following year, the Pop Inn offered hot dogs and soft drinks. Santa Cruz Dairy Farms wanted to sell ice cream so Lucile asked them to bring a cow for a milking contest. They brought two cows for five or six years but eventually the herd was moved away which ended the contest. In the mid-1970s the games and food booths were moved to Aptos Village Park which had just been completed.

The pancake breakfast was added in 1987, as a cooperative venture between the Aptos Chamber of Commerce and the Aptos Lions Club and is currently organized by the Chamber and the Search and Rescue Team.

In 1992, after thirty years of successful parade organization, the Aptos Ladies Tuesday Evening Society retired from the job and turned the parade over to the Aptos Chamber of Commerce. The once tiny parade has grown into a huge event for Aptos. The “World’s Shortest Parade” has gained national recognition as one of only seven Fourth of July parades recommended in 2013 as the “Best” by prestigious Condé Nast Traveler.

What better way to celebrate Independence Day than having a “stick-to-your-ribs” pancake breakfast, and then, either watch the parade or be in it, and finally to have lunch and dance the afternoon away, with the band “Extra Large” in Aptos Village Park? You will celebrate freedom from cooking and doing the dishes, you will have a great day and also help to support the parade that gives Aptos a little slice of fame and a big slice of “home town” feeling.

Happy Independence Day!

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2018 Aptos 4 th of July Parade 57 th Anniversary

7765 Soquel Dr. (Across from Safeway)

Aptos 831-685-FEED (3333)

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Aptos Parade 57 Years For the small town of Aptos to throw a parade every year attended by thousands, it truly takes a village. The Aptos 4th of July Parade is something the townspeople look forward to and celebrate every July 4. Yes, organizing the parade takes a village—Aptos Village!

Cement Ship SS Palo Alto

-by Kevin Newhouse

celebrated her 99th birthday in May. Technically, she is a concrete ship but old nicknames are hard to drop! Whatever you call her, you won’t want to miss next year’s celebration when we look back and honor 100 years of the ship! continued on page 24

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Happy 4 of July from th

7960 Soquel Drive • Aptos, CA 95003 SERV ICE S The UPS Store 831.662.3044

Quality Water of Aptos 831.689.9710 Let it Shine Hair Salon 831.688.1116

R E STAU R A N T S Showtime Pizza 831.662.3362

Uncle Kwok’s Szechwan Restaurant 831.685.2121

R ETA I L Fleet Feet 831.662.0886

The True Olive Connection 831.612.6932

Art Supplies, Ink 831.708.2855

F I T N E S S & T R A I N I NG Bikram Yoga Aptos 831.661.5030

Kristy’s School of Dance 831.684.1800

CrossFit Aptos 831.708.4131

Tiger Martial Arts 831.611.0184

Conveniently located off Highway 1 and just outside Aptos Village, the Aptos Village Square hosts a number of local Aptos businesses.

She was launched on May 29, 1919, at the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company’s yard on Government Island in Oakland. She was built as an oil tanker for WWI but was never put to use as the war ended on November 11, 1918. For more than a decade, she sat in the Moore Shipbuilding Yard in Oakland.

Meanwhile, back in Aptos, The Seacliff Amusement Corporation planned to build a resort on Seacliff Beach. The ship was purchased to provide dining, dancing, swimming, fishing, and other forms of entertainment.

On January 22, 1930, the Palo Alto arrived at her new home at Seacliff Beach.

The ship’s dance hall, known as The Rainbow Ballroom, opened on June 21, 1930, for a special preview. Ed Rookledge’s ten-piece orchestra provided the music for the several hundred people who showed up that inaugural evening.

Despite a promising commencement, the ship’s use as entertainment would not survive the effects of The Great Depression.

As business fell off during the winter of 1930-1931 the ship was more often than not, closed.

She was boarded up after suffering damage in the winter of 1932.

The Seacliff Amusement Corporation defaulted on its loan and lost the ship to an investment company. Then, on February 12, 1936, the ship that cost $1.5 million to build just 17 years earlier was sold to The California Division of Parks for $1.

For the next 65 years, she would remain open to the public and was a favorite spot for many local fishermen. However, after enduring countless storms and heavy seas, she was closed for good on October 27, 2001.

Although her appearance was drastically altered during the storm of January 2017, when her stern was detached and turned on its side, she continues to be loved and admired by children and adults of all ages who peer through the chain links of the fence on the pier to gaze upon the once mighty S.S. Palo Alto.

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Grand Prize

Adult Groups

Bands

Best of Parade Crowd Pleaser

First Prize Judges’ Choice

First Prize Judges’ Choice

Pets

Cars

Trucks

First Prize Judges’ Choice

First Prize Judges’ Choice

First Prize Judges’ Choice

Children Groups

Individual

Schools

First Prize Judges’ Choice

Most Spirited

First Prize Judges’ Choice

Floats First Prize Judges’ Choice

Party at the Park Aptos Village Park After the Parade, be sure to stop by for fun, food, and games!

Get your groove on with Extra Large from 12:00pm-4:00pm!

We dare you not to dance!

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World’s Shortest Parade 2017 Prize Winners Grand Prize Best of Parade: Monterey Bay Training Club Grand Prize: Knox Roofing Crowd Pleaser: Pacific Arts Complex Ole’ Time Favorite: Clampers

Adult Groups First Prize: Begonia Festival Judges’ Choice: Second Harvest Most Patriotic: Aegis Living Most Unique: Worldanz

Bands First Prize: Ukulele Club Judges’ Choice: The Digbeats Most Colorful: Watsonville Community Band

Cars First Prize: Malcolm Park Most Patriotic: Aptos VFW Most Unique: Bellows Plumbing

Children’s Groups First Prize: Girl Scouts of the Central Coast Judges’ Choice: Jacob’s Heart Most Patriotic: Cub Scout Pack 676 Most Unique: Aptos Little League 7/8 All-Stars

Floats Judges’ Choice: Aptos Little League 8/9 All-Stars Most Original: Santa Cruz Warriors Best Theme: Calvary Chapel Aptos

Individual First Prize: Rex for Rent Second Prize: Linde Harum Lawrence – 1932 Chevy Coupe Third Prize: D. Mike Epperson – 1961 Maserati Fourth Prize: Keith Calderon – 1936 Ford Sedan

Pets Best Costume: St. John Baptist Church Cutest: Wilbur the Piglet First Prize: West Coast Great Pyrenees Judges’ Choice: Myrtle the Turtle

Trucks First Prize: Extreme Towing Most Patriotic: Community Bridges Most Unique: Granite Construction

Schools Most Spirited: Kristy’s School of Dance Best of Theme: St. Andrews Preschool

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Cover & T-Shirt Art is an outstanding place to live, play, and work. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy life at the beach while refining their art.

Julie Henry, known as Jules to her friends, made the decision to start designing not only for local businesses, but to create art that reflects the unique community, geography and culture of Santa Cruz.

Professionally Jules is the principal designer and co-founder of nomBat Branding and Graphic Design. Perhaps Julie’s most public work however has been the Victorian design work for LocalSantaCruz.com; a series of designs showcasing the unique elements and history of many of Santa Cruz County’s neighborhoods, parks and surf spots.

L O C A L LY O W N E D A N D O P E R A T E D

831-688-2348 7000 Soquel Drive, Aptos,CA © 2018 Curves NA, Inc.

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Parade Participation Information Please comply with the following rules for the safety of all: • Do not throw or hand out anything along parade route.

This includes candy, fliers, balloons, etc., and is for the safety of all children who run out into the street. The child you save from injury may be your own.

• Do not return along parade route until parade is over.

There are designated areas for floats and cars at the end of the parade route. Once your vehicles are parked, you are welcome to watch the parade or go down into the Aptos Village Park for the parade winners announcement and the afternoon activities. Please disperse from the end of the parade route promptly to help keep congestion to a minimum.

• No fireworks of any kind.

• No motorcycles of any kind.

• No alcoholic beverages in parade or in the formation area.

• Do not spray or throw water along parade route.

• No cars allowed on Soquel Drive until the Highway Patrol re-opens the road to traffic.

• Please be considerate of parade participants and attendants.

Thank you for your cooperation!

2018 Parade Judges Patrice Edwards, Publisher, Aptos Times KEVIN NEWHOUSE, Local Historian Mary ANNE CARSON, Santa Cruz County Bank Ray CANCINO, Community Bridges Mary RUSSELL, Mortgage Results

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831.708.8701 | CalRE# 01790818 Broden.greenley@cbnorcal.com

Aptos 831.688.6461 | Capitola 831.462.9000 | Santa Cruz 831.469.8000

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Dimitri Timm

Vice President of Mortgage Lending 7979 Soquel Dr. Aptos, CA 95003 C: 831.239.4163 O: 831.662.6591 Dimitri.timm@grarate.com Grarate.com/DimitriTimm NMLS ID: 280212

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