In a report on the coronation of King Charles, today’s online morning edition of the New York Times said: “For many, however, the coronation was an excuse to cheer, wave Union Jacks and take part in the quintessentially English experience of getting wet together.”

Well, “getting wet together” may be a quintessentially English experience, but it’s certainly one that we here on the Peninsula understand very well.  And even though ancestry.com puts my “DNA Story” at 43% Scotland and 43% England/Northwestern Europe, my genes don’t seem to carry a great affinity for rain.  Not for standing around in it watching parades, anyway.

So far, though, it looks like today’s Loyalty Day Parade in Long Beach will NOT be viewed through a curtain of rain.  So far (at 7:00 a.m.) the forecast says “Mostly Cloudy” with only a 4% chance of rain — high temperature predicted to be 54º. “Practically tropical!” would have been Nyel’s wry comment.

Mary Lou Mandel, Long Beach Loyalty Day Parade c. 1980

Not that I’m planning to go to the parade this year.  In fact, I haven’t been for some time — maybe since Gordon Schoewe’s partner, Roy Gustafson, died in 2005  For years prior to that, an ever-growing group of us gathered at Roy’s van (parked in the pharmacy parking lot) and clapped, cheered, and toasted every parade participant — especially our friends and loved ones on floats, on foot, in trucks, cars, and on horseback!

I don’t remember being rained on over the thirty years or so we gathered and cheered.  Selective memory no doubt.  But I do remember the folks we cheered with and those we cheered for!  There was nothing like the Long Beach Loyalty Day Parade — until the Ocean Park Parade came along in July.

Fourth of July Parade – Ocean Park

Says the internet:  “In an average year in London,  one can expect 200 dry days out of 365 and a precipitation total of about 23 inches (585 mm) evenly distributed across the 12 months..  By comparison, -Long Beach, Washington gets 86 inches of rain, on average, per year. ”  Sorta makes me want to re-think the meaning of quintessential.