60
Years
Inside...
Business Decoration Contest History of the Shortest Parade ...& much more!
Hosted by the Aptos Chamber of Commerce
Table of Contents 6 8 8 10 12 14 18 21 21
Letter from the Aptos Chamber President Grand Marshal 4th of July World’s Shortest Parade The 4th of July is America’s birthday Map Lucile Aldrich’s History Shortest Parade A Look at the Parades Gone By 2021 Sponsors Business Decorating Contest
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Publisher Patrice Edwards Design Jim Johnson Production Coordinator Camisa Composti Media Consultants Brooke Valentine, Teri Huckobey, Tara Carcamo Photo Credits Aptos History Museum Michael Oppenheimer
The Aptos World’s Shortest Parade Official Program 2021 Is a publication of the Times Publishing Group, Inc. Entire contents ©2021 by Patrice Edwards. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without publisher’s written permission.
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Times Publishing Group, Inc.®
Letter from the Aptos Chamber of Commerce President
Dear Aptos Community, Happy 4th of July! We are thrilled to announce that our beloved community tradition is back! Each year, our community gathers to celebrate the 4th of July together at the World’s Shortest Parade. While we are not able to host the post-parade festivities in Aptos Village Park this year, there are still several ways you can celebrate the 4th of July in true Aptos style! Support the community and the Aptos Chamber! • Local businesses are participating in a 4th of July decorating contest to promote community spirit! Check out the Chamber website July 1-July 5th (at midnight) to vote for your favorite, most spirited business. (aptoschamber.com/independence/) • Contact the Chamber to buy your 4th of July t-shirts! The t-shirts are a sweet way to celebrate the 4th of July and honor this wonderful community. (831-688-1467; chamberaptos@gmail.com) • Join us for the parade! Check the Chamber website for details about the parade. (aptoschamber.com/independence/) On behalf of the Aptos Chamber and the Aptos High community, I send my deepest appreciation and gratitude to the many community members who have supported our students, families, and staff this year. The love and support we felt from this amazing community has kept us SAILing in rough and smooth seas. Thank you! We may have challenges ahead, but we are always stronger together. Stay safe and stay positive! Sincerely, Peggy Pughe President, Aptos Chamber of Commerce Principal, Aptos High School (Go Mariners!!!)
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GRAND MARSHALS 2021 OUR COMMUNITY HEROES
Our front-line workers include health care workers, first responders, pharmacy workers and any others who had to work the front lines during the pandemic.
We appreciate you!
The entire community of Aptos
Thanks you!
4th of July “World’s Shortest Parade” in Aptos Celebrate Independence Day in Aptos at the “World’s Shortest Parade”. The parade will begin Sunday, July 4 th at 10 a.m. at the corner of Soquel Drive and State Park Drive and will continue to Trout Gulch Road. Parade sign ups and T-shirts are available at the Aptos Chamber of Commerce office at 7605 Old Dominion Court across from Seacliff Inn. (831) 688-1467 Participants and spectators are asked to follow the state and county guidelines for Covid19. We want our parade to be safe.
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The 4th of July The 4th of July is America’s birthday, and many communities have parades to celebrate that fact. We were unable to in 2020 but this Fourth of July there will be a parade! The “World’s Shortest Parade” in Aptos began in self- determination, it was not originally about America’s birthday. In 1959, a zoning change was proposed to allow a concrete batching plant in Aptos Village. The community organized to defeat the zoning change and the first “World’s Shortest Parade” was held for the first time. The parade route is one-half mile long, hence the name, “World’s Shortest Parade”. It begins at the intersection of State Park Drive and Soquel Drive and ends at the Trout Gulch and Soquel Drive intersection. It might be the world’s shortest parade distance wise, but our community loves it so much that it usually goes more than an hour and a half! People start setting their chairs out the night before so they can view it from their favorite spot. Some people also set up barbecues and make it a day! This event usually takes four to six months for the Aptos Chamber of Commerce to put together—now they have less than four weeks to do it. The Chamber is strong! They can put this together but unfortunately, this year there will be no Pancake Breakfast and no Party in the Park. 2020 was tough on everyone, but the town of Aptos has come through. We have been resilient and made the best of a difficult situation. Restaurants have been creative in ways they had never thought of. Outdoor patios have been designed; some are so awesome that we hope they stay. Retail has been creative, setting up online sales, staying open and following the rules, and doing their job to take care of the community and themselves. The people of Aptos have taken this time to improve their homes, re-do landscaping, and maybe pick up a new hobby. They have accepted the stay-at-home orders and made the best of it. By working on themselves and their homes, they have also helped to infuse revenue into our community. They have found new ways to do business from their homes through Zoom and other methods. This year there is a commemorative T-shirt for sale. Shirts are available at Deluxe Foods, Aptos Feed and Pet Supply, Santa Cruz County Bank, and The Aptos Chamber. Join us on July Fourth for the “World’s shortest Parade”, don’t forget your chairs! We are Aptos strong! Together, let’s celebrate our Fourth of July!
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Parade Founder: Lucile Aldrich
World’s Shortest Parade Has Come a Long Way! -by John Hibble is America’s birthday and many communities have parades to celebrate that fact. The freedom to determine our own future was at the center of the founding of our country. The “World’s Shortest Parade” in Aptos is also about selfdetermination but it was not originally about America’s birthday. The Granite Rock Company, founded in 1900, has been an important part of the history of Santa Cruz County. The great construction boom in houses and highways in the late 1950s and ‘60s meant that Granite had to build new cement batching plants to supply the need for concrete throughout the region. Cement, sand, and aggregate are stored at the batching plant and mixed to order, then sent out in giant “cement mixer” trucks to the construction sites. In 1959, the last remnants of the apple industry in Aptos Village closed down. Aptos was an industrial town with no industry. Granite Rock Company purchased land in the Village and applied to the county for a zoning change to build a batching plant. That is why the street across from the Post Office is named Granite Way. There is nothing wrong with a concrete plant but no one in Aptos Village wanted it in their back yard. Locals rose up against the proposal. Concerned women formed the “Aptos Ladies Tuesday
Evening Society” and organized themselves to defeat the zoning change. The group included Lucille Aldrich, Anne Isaacs, Babe Toney, Peggy Marceron, Jessie Elliott, Birdie Jacobs, Beverly Palmer, Nola Gales, Pat Thompson, Joyce West, Peggy Hunter, Mrs. Harrison Smith, Dee Small, Betty Jo Jensen, and Nita Jellison. Their efforts were successful. To celebrate their victory, a barbecue was held on Memorial Day, 1961, in the field next to continued on page 16
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deer park c e n t e r
So many reasons to celebrate! HAPPY 4th of JULY!
Highway 1 & Rio Del Mar Boulevard, Aptos
the railroad track. The event was so popular that a parade and pot luck were planned to follow on the fourth of July. Everyone turned out in old fashioned clothes and the Monterey Bay Antique Car Club brought 18 vintage cars. The parade route was from the Driftwood Gas Station at Trout Gulch Road (where Bay Federal Credit Union is now located) to the Pop Inn restaurant, (formerly Little OWL Italian Kitchen and now the Parish Publick House). The parade only lasted ten minutes and that is how the “World’s Shortest Parade” got its name. The second year, the “Sun Tan Special,” the train that once transported visitors from the San Francisco Peninsula to Santa Cruz, was in its final year of service. The Aptos Ladies had planted red, white and blue petunias along the railroad track from the Bay View Hotel to the Pop Inn. When the train reached Aptos on July 4th, the engineer stopped the train so that the passengers could get off and enjoy the festivities. “It was a happy coincidence that the parade coincided with the train passing through,” recalled Lucile Aldrich. Games were also held in the field including sack races, a watermelon eating contest, horseshoes, kick the can, peanut runs, shoe kicking, and foot races. The third year, the American Legion post was the first to set up a food booth with chili, coffee and pies. The following year, the Pop Inn offered hot dogs and soft drinks. Santa Cruz Dairy Farms wanted to sell ice cream so Lucile asked them to bring a cow for a milking contest. They brought two cows for five or six years but eventually the herd was moved away which ended the contest. In the mid-1970s the games and food booths were moved to Aptos Village Park which had just been completed. The pancake breakfast was added in 1987, as a cooperative venture between the Aptos Chamber of Commerce and the Aptos Lions Club and is currently organized by the Chamber and the Search and Rescue Team. In 1992, after thirty years of successful parade organization, the Aptos Ladies Tuesday Evening Society retired from the job and turned the parade over to the Aptos Chamber of Commerce. The once tiny parade has grown into a huge event for Aptos. The “World’s Shortest Parade” has gained national recognition as one of only seven Fourth of July parades recommended in 2013 as the “Best” by prestigious Condé Nast Traveler. Though there will be no parade this year, the history stays with us. Celebrate the Fourth of July this year by checking out the businesses that have decorated, and the cars. When you are driving through Aptos and see a decorated car, give them a wave!
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2021 Aptos 4 th of July Parade 60 th Anniversary
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A Look at the Parades Gone By
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A Look at the Parades Gone By
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APTOS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Presents
60th Year
4th of July Parade
2021 Sponsors Full Event Sponsors: Safeway Severino’s Aptos Feed Deluxe Foods Bailey Properties Santa Cruz County Bank Central Coast Medical Billing Aptos Chamber of Commerce
Business Decorating Contest Calling all businesses! Sign up for the business decorating contest and help keep the 4th of July alive in our community. The theme is red, white, and blue! The public will vote on their favorite decorations starting July 1st on the Aptos Chamber website. Winner will be announced on July 6. Sign up online at www.aptoschamber.com
2020 Winner!
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