Our 10th annual Peace Train in the Montrose Christmas Parade

[Brian]

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

Montrose Peace Vigil, along with our friends, families and other peaceniks from Glendale Peace Vigil and the Eagle Rock vigil, will march for the tenth consecutive year in the Montrose Christmas Parade on Saturday, December 7. Last year, 28 people marched with the Peace Train.  Vigil founding member Roberta sent out this e-mail to past participants:

Dear Peace friends,

You are all cordially welcome to board The Peace Train, Saturday, December 7th, in the Montrose Christmas Parade. Same drill — soups/libations for paraders at my home from 3:30 til 5:00pm when we need to line up, or join us on Honolulu before the parade kicks off at 6pm.

This will be our 10th year in the parade, and its our 14th year standing for peace Friday evenings in Montrose. Time flies when you’re having fun!

The Peace Train is a popular part of the parade, viewed by tens of thousands, thus we need a good turnout for the cause of peace. So please mark your calendars now — December will be here before we know it — and feel free to bring all your peacenik friends!

Love,
Roberta
For Montrose Peace Vigil

Watch this page for details, photos and a video or two.  And you can always get more information by stopping by the northwest corner of Ocean View Boulevard and Honolulu Avenue in Montrose any Friday between 5:30 and 7 p.m.

[Brian]

This is the official video of the 2018 Montrose Christmas Parade, posted on You Tube by the City of Glendale. It's cued to the first sighting of the Montrose Peace Vigil marchers, only 19 minutes into the program, followed by the Peace Train:

[Oss Rae]

Wow, seems like recent history, not a year ago.

[Sharon W]

Nov 14, 2019 10:53:26 GMT -8 Oss Rae said:

Wow, seems like recent history, not a year ago.

The years do seem to roll past faster as we get older!

[anni]

Thanks to Janice, who took that great photo as we started marching in last year's Montrose Christmas Parade.

The Montrose Christmas Parade Association updated its website for the latest technology this year: montrosechristmasparade.com/

[Brian]

Most of the 28 people who marched with the Peace Train pose before last year's parade.

Again this year, members of Montrose Peace Vigil contributed $1,000 to the Montrose Christmas Parade Association to become a Silver Supporter of the parade. Click on this link and scroll down to see our listing moving along with the Toyota dealership, the chamber of commerce and at least one of the local Starbucks.  Embedded in the roving Montrose Peace Vigil avatar is a link to the homepage of this message board:

montrosechristmasparade.com/supporters/

[Brian]

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

Intermittent showers were possible during the Montrose Christmas Parade on December 7, but only a very light drizzle fell, starting an hour into the parade -- just before we began rolling the Peace Train for the tenth consecutive year. The temperature was very comfortable. I didn't need my gloves or umbrella after all.

Many of the parade entrants did not show up because of the threat of rain, including the champion Hoover High School marching band. The crowd was thin compared to prior years, but their numbers grew as we entered the shopping park. As always, we passed a lot of beautiful people smiling, waving, flashing peace signs and calling out greetings. My favorite was the group of elementary school age girls who held up small traffic cones like they were megaphones and chanted "Peace! Peace! Peace!"

Pastor Paige and Forrest carried the Montrose Peace Vigil banner.  They were followed by Jim and Mike M. dressed as conductors, then the Peace Train, pushed from the inside by engineer Mike F. for the seventh consecutive year.  He spent a considerable sum of money on a new sound system, buying eight big outdoor speakers, an amplifier and I forget what else.  Played on a loop between train whistles, Cat Stevens' "Peace Train" never sounded better.

We'll post photos in this thread soon.

[Oss Rae]

Dec 8, 2019 0:00:19 GMT -8 Brian said:

  Played on a loop between train whistles, Cat Stevens' "Peace Train" never sounded better.

And spectators were responding to the music.

[anni]

All aboard the 2019 Peace Train!

[anni]

More of the 2019 PeaceTrain with pics from Lora G.!