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Community Corner

Pepper Drive Parade (Photo Gallery)

Though the quote attributed to W.C. Fields is probably apocryphal, the fact is kids and dogs steal the show, especially at a Fourth of July Parade.

Pepper Drive has put on a neighborhood parade filled with kids, dogs (both marching and watching), horses, and vehicles of one sort or another for about four decades.

The date of the first parade is shrouded in the mists of time, but guesses by residents hover between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s.  It’s a tradition that carries an old-fashioned flavor and promotes camaraderie among neighbors.

Shirley Begley, who hosts a buffet breakfast for her neighbors at the head of the parade on Glen Canyon Rd. and Pepper Dr., told Patch, “I used to live in Pasadena. Every Fourth, I’d open up the newspaper and see a picture of the parade. I told my husband, ‘This is where I want to live.’

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“Seven years ago, I found this cottage and moved in on June 30.  Four days later, I walked out and saw this! I feel like I was led here.”

Lindsey Gauntlett, whose parents have lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, marched in the parade with her sister when they were children. She said of the experience, “We felt important.”

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There’s really only one rule for the parade, according to this year’s organizer Kirk Rogers.  “The kids go first,” he said, and indeed the informal order of march is kids on bicycles, kids walking or in wheeled conveyances, horses, and ATVs. 

Rogers and others noted that the equestrians had not participated for about three years, but a resident of Pepper Dr. whose daughter rides organized a group of riders.  About a dozen rode up from Altadena Stables on New York Dr.

“We just like to have a great time, Rogers said. “We like to see whatever people create.”

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