Our 12th Peace Train entry in the Montrose Christmas Parade

[Brian]

Mike engineered the framework that put the Peace Train on wheels in the 2013 Montrose Christmas Parade.

Roberta sent out an e-mail to launch Montrose Peace Vigil's 12th consecutive entry of our Peace Train in the Montrose Christmas Parade on December 2. If you didn't get one, I've copied it here:

Dear Peace friends,

This is to invite you to get on board the Peace Train for our 12th year in the Montrose Christmas Parade (montrosechristmasparade.com), on Saturday evening, December 2nd, 2023.

There will be the usual hearty refreshments starting at 3:30pm at my home on Sycamore Avenue, very near the start of the parade, or you can come find The Peace Train on Honolulu Avenue, west of Rosemont/Roselawn Avenue, after 5pm when the parade lines up to step off at 6:00pm.

The Peace Train is a wildly popular part of this hometown event viewed by thousands, and now more than ever our goal is a big turnout for the cause of peace. I welcome any questions, and will be thrilled if you let me know you will join us.

Montrose Peace Vigil long-sleeved shirts are still available (perfect on parade night over layers), for $20.00 each OBO. If interested let me know and your size(s).

We hope you can join us and that you mark your calendars now. And feel free to invite your peacenik family and friends!

Love,
Roberta

P.S. Your presence is the best and also appreciated are donations of any amount for our “Silver” ($1000.00) sponsorship, which promotes peace on parade publicity, and helps support the parade. Ask me ASAP for more info, particularly if you’re interested in the tax deduction.

This is the link to last year's Peace Train thread on this message board with brief reports about the parade along with photos and professional and amateur videos cued up to our appearance on the route:

montrosepeacevigil.proboards.com/thread/1379/peace-train-montrose-christmas-parade

New people march with the Peace Train each year. Feel free to ask questions by making a Quick Reply below -- guests are allowed to post on the Montrose Peace Vigil message board.  Or stop by the vigil any Friday between 5:30 and 7 p.m. on the northwest corner of Ocean View Boulevard and Honolulu Avenue in Montrose, CA 91020.

[anni]

Reminder: The Peace Train rolls in the Montrose Christmas Parade this coming Saturday, December 2.

As she has every year, Roberta secured Montrose Peace Vigil's Silver sponsorship of the parade. Here's the link to the official webpage, where you can see our Peace Train logo scroll alphabetically with the other Silver Supporters:

montrosechristmasparade.com/supporters/

[Brian]

17 peaceniks march with the Peace Train in the Montrose Christmas Parade

After engineer Mike swapped a suddenly flat tire for his spare before we left Roberta's house, the Peace Train rolled perfectly Saturday evening in the Montrose Christmas Parade.  At first, we were placed behind a marching band, but the parade staff let in a few other entries right in front of us at Rosemont Avenue so everyone could hear Mike's excellent sound system playing Cat Stevens' "Peace Train" on a loop between train whistles.  As always, we passed thousands of smiling people clapping, waving, flashing peace signs and calling out greetings. The kids were especially delightful.  One boy leaped off the curb to give me a high five.

Russell and Nancy carried Montrose Peace Vigil's Peace Train banner.  Thanks to Barb for bringing two first time participants -- her husband Wayne and Alexis, the bass player in the Crescenta Valley United Methodist Church band.  The marchers, in order of arrival:  Roberta, Jim, me, Ross, Catherine, Mike, Russell, Nancy, Janice, Molly, Jeanne, Paige, Barb, Wayne, Alexis, Pearl and Bruce.

[Brian]

That's everybody who marched with the Peace Train in the Montrose Christmas Parade last Saturday except for Mike, Catherine, Bruce and yours truly, the photographer. Somehow the photos I took with my antique digital camera were better lit and slightly less blurry than those it coughed up last year. Even though I've only used first names on this message board, I quit writing captions years ago when Facebook started tagging photos and spewing them all over the web, connecting first names with last names and faces. Now that generative AI is taking over the internet, I'm glad that I stopped. You peaceniks know who you are anyway. Here are a few more of the 15 shots I got before we started rolling:

If you took photos at the parade and are willing to have them published here, please e-mail your files to Anni or me. We'd be grateful -- jpg's and png's are the easiest kinds for Anni to post, if you have them.

[Sharon W]

Thanks to all the beautiful Peaceniks who marched with the train!

[ELF]

Not sure this link to Armen 4K's youtube video (we're at 11:25) will work, but here goes:

[Brian]

Thanks, ELF! I just searched You Tube thoroughly, and so far that's the only video showing the Peace Train. I don't know about what might be on Tik Tok, Instagram or any other platform.  Last year, we were part of three amateur videos on You Tube. Camera Guy, who edits well and has great production values, included the Peace Train from his perch at the intersection of Honolulu and Rosemont in 2022 but we didn't make the cut this year.  Looking forward to the official City of Glendale video -- last year, Mat's Mom posted it here on the Montrose Peace Vigil message board on the 16th.

In the Crescenta Valley Weekly's report last Thursday on the parade, Mary O'Keefe wrote that "the conservative estimate is anywhere from 18,000 to 20,000 people were in attendance to support the parade along the route," and more than 1,400 people marched:

www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/featured/12/07/2023/thousands-turn-out-for-montrose-christmas-parade/

[Brian]

On Wednesday, the City of Glendale posted the Montrose Shopping Park Association's production of the entire 2023 Montrose Christmas Parade on You Tube.  I cued up the embedded video below to 28:35, the first appearance of Montrose Peace Vigil in the distance.  The Peace Train is also featured in the opening montage of this official video.

[Nancy]

My grown-up Yule wish: Prior to the Peace Train rolling down the parade, I asked someone to join us. He didn't march with us but came to watch and called me out. I got especially literal in beckoning him aboard. I got to thinking a la Arlo Guthrie Alice's Restuarant - something like - friends - can you imagine just one person from the audience climbing aboard the peace train...two people...all of the people in Montrose, Glendale, Los Angeles...can you imagine all the people in the world climbing aboard the Peace Train, marching down all the streets, allies, roads, trails on the planet, laying down their arms, vowing to never kill people again, never killing people again, living life in peace...so I'm just waiting for the train to roll around again..I'm not proud -- or tired....I don't have Arlo's skill to end this on an up note but that doesn't stop me from trying and it shouldn't stop any of you either.

[Brian]

That photo was taken earlier with a different assortment of Peace Train personnel. I glommed my shot just as others were photographing the group, which is why some marchers are looking the other way. Below are more photos I took while we were hanging out waiting for the parade to start.