Mountain Views News          Saturday, December 7, 2013

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, December 7, 2013 

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

It is that time of year - the Sierra Madre Rose Float 
Association (SMRFA) needs your help! Have you 
always wanted to help create a Rose Float? Have 
you helped in the past and look forward to coming 
again? Come get involved in the wonderful community 
event of creating our Sierra Madre Rose Parade float.
Get involved right now! SMRFA needs construction 
and decoration crew members now and

ongoing until the float is finished. Presently we are working on Saturdays and Sundays. Bring your 
skills and we’ll teach you new ones!

 
Ready to plan for the week between Christmas and New Years? SMRFA needs lots of volunteers and 
needs you to get involved! New this year you can schedule your shifts online! 

After Thanksgiving, visit the SMRFA website www.smrosefloat.org to sign up and plan that wonderful 
week between Christmas and New Years. Shifts run December 26-December 31 between 9am - 10pm 
(and sometimes go even later), so there should be something for everyone. Have family in from out 
of town? Sign them up, too!

SMRFA is also looking for people to help with a number of things that don’t include flowers 
or seeds! Volunteers are needed to help with food for volunteers (grilling burgers at lunch, 
serving and clean-up for lunch and dinner), help with the sales booth selling t-shirts, pins and 
postcards to community supporters, picking up supplies, cleaning up after the float moves out 
on the 31st, float-sitting overnight on January 2nd when the float comes home to Kersting 
Court and selling excess flowers on January 3rd. It takes a village to produce a beautiful Rose 
Parade float which is why the City of Sierra Madre has been so successful for so many years. 
If those volunteer opportunities are not enough, SMRFA is also looking for donations of some 
key supplies including working blenders and non-steam irons, which help us prepare the floral 
materials. Or do you have an RV that could sleep 6 on New Year’s Eve? The SMRFA float crew 
needs a place to sleep while parked on the parade route and would be grateful for a one-night loan.
If you can help with any of these items or if you have further questions, please contact Bonnie, the 
SMRFA Volunteer Coordinator, at volunteers@smrosefloat.org or leave a message at the float barn
(626-355-7005) and include your name, phone number and how you would like to get involved.


WALKING SIERRA MADRE……THE SOCIAL SIDE 
By Deanne Davis


This week we found ourselves admiring the festive garland and red bows on the lamp posts, the 
outstanding Christmas display in Kersting Court, the Christmas goodies in everyone’s store windows 
and then slowing to a complete halt in front of the chain link fence surrounding the giant flat place 
next to Arnold’s Hardware which will soon be the Kensington Assisted Living Facility.

Whenever we find ourselves looking at giant earthmoving equipment, we seem to turn back into little 
kids who get a new Tonka bulldozer for Christmas and can’t wait to get outside to play with it. Our 
son, John, was particularly fond of his Tonka trucks and earthmovers and dug many fine holes down 
in our lower yard with them. Standing there, hanging on the fence, looking at that perfectly even lot, 
we were struck with a huge wave of nostalgia about what was there when we moved to Sierra Madre 
in 1967, newlyweds with no money, lots of hope for the future, three children, no furniture, and a 
downstairs apartment at the corner of Highland and Mountain Trail.

I don’t know if this is true for you, but with three kids from four to twelve, we needed to go to the 
doctor a lot. Somebody was always running a fever, bleeding profusely, or throwing up fourteen 
times in an hour. Luckily, the Sierra Madre Medical Center & Hospital was right down there next 
to Arnold’s Hardware and Peggy, the receptionist, could get you in to see someone the same day you 
called. Many of you will think this is a fantasy but it was really true! Drs. Davis, Johnson, and White 
were great GP’s and knew our children, and us, by name and chronic ailment. You’ll never believe 
this, but office visits were $9.00.

I remember vividly 
the day our son, the 
Tonka Truck guy, 
fell off the roof of 
our blockhouse, a 
small concrete block 
building where we 
stored firewood, and 
came quietly in the 
back door saying, 
“Mom? Uh…..” I 
knew there was a 
problem. His Dad, 
the long-suffering 
and patient John, Sr., 
and I leapt to our 
feet, grabbed the kid 
and the car keys and 
headed down Baldwin 
to the Medical Center. 
Dr. Johnson was 
still there, and, even 
though it was after five, he pulled on his gloves and said, “Here, just hold his hair back so I can stitch 
this up.” I held the hair, Dr. Johnson started to sew, and my husband turned a lovely shade of light 
green and said, “I think I’ll wait outside!”

Dr. Pickren, the surgeon there at the hospital, took out my appendix, and rode his horse in the Sierra 
Madre July 4th Parade for years and years, wearing a very stylish, but extremely hot blanket poncho. 
Dr. Johnson and his son drove mini electric cars in the parade and we could never figure out where 
they put their legs! Those things were tiny!

Well, enough nostalgia. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Got your lights up yet??

“Christmas! It’s almost here!

My favorite, favorite time of year,

Think mistletoe and holly,

Children’s faces, jolly.

Carols on the radio, 

Happy smiles each place you go,

Presents piled beneath the tree,

Some for you, some for me!”

(“Think Joy!” From “Star of Wonder –

 A Christmas Musical”

Book & Lyrics by Deanne Davis, 

Music by David Wheatley)


THE COMMUNITY CHORUS OF REDLANDS RETURNS 

The Community 
Chorus of Redlands 
returns to 
Sierra Madre for a 
wonderful holiday 
gift of “A Concert 
of Anthems, Readings, 
and Carols 
of the Season.” 
Be prepared for a 
moving and unique 
presentation.

 The event is on 
Saturday, December 
21 at 8 pm at 
St. Rita Catholic 
Church, 318 N. 
Baldwin (corner 
of Grandview), Sierra 
Madre. Parking 
lot behind the 
church; enter from 
E. Grandview.

 Dr. Jeffrey Rickard, 
Professor Emeritus of Sacred Music, directs a 70-voice choral ensemble with orchestral accompaniment. 
The festive evening features a wide variety of music. Also on hand is a special appearance by Ensemble XXI, a 
Redlands Camerata of over twenty voices. 

 This is the fifth visit to St. Rita by this very gifted and special group. Dr. Rickard originally asked St. Rita to host 
this event because of the widely acclaimed acoustics of the church building. He is a native of Sierra Madre and 
thus presents this very special gift to his former hometown.

 This event has previously been held on a Sunday afternoon. We hope the Saturday evening time will allow more 
people to attend and enjoy this wonderful gift and prelude to Christmas.

 Free will offering. For further information, please call St. Rita Parish Office, 626/355-1292.


SIERRA MADRE 

CHRISTMAS TREES HAS A 
NEW HOME

 Well, at least for this year. Our town’s favorite 
(and only) Christmas Tree lot has been moved to 
a temporary location for Christmas 2013. 

 Due to the construction of The Kensington 
Skilled Nursing facility on Sierra Madre Blvd., 
there was a mutual concern by both the owners 
of the Christmas Tree lot and developers of The 
Kensington that the construction activity might 
inconvenience Christmas Tree shoppes. So, the 
lot has been temporarily moved to 89 E. Montecito 
for your convenience.