The 4th of July has come and gone, and the 55th Anniversary Edition of the World’s Shortest parade is one for the history books. I’ve watched many of these parades roll by over the years, but I’d never actually been in the parade until this year – and many of you never have, either! So I’m sharing with you my experience of marching in the 4th of July parade.

I marched with the crew from Mar Vista Elementary School. We started the morning with the pancake breakfast – I’d never done that, either. It was about what you’d expect from a pancake breakfast, but with notably good orange juice, coffee, and lots of friendly smiling faces – some familiar, many not.

After breakfast, we headed up to the Wells Fargo bank parking lot to join up with the folks marching for Mar Vista. On the way up there, I ran into Steve Bennett who quickly gave me the low-down on the Mar Vista Cheer. One of our contingent – Gigi, who will be in 6th grade this year at Mar Vista, her last year – has quite a set of pipes on her, so she led us in the cheer, I recorded it with my iPhone, check it out:

Video of Mar Vista Marching in the 4th of July Parade

After we marched all the way down the parade route, we headed down to the Party at Aptos Village Park, and checked that out for a bit. Lots of great food, entertainment, and even a petting zoo for the kids.

It turns out that marching in the parade is a lot like watching the parade from the sidelines, except of course you don’t get to see much of the parade itself. But the experience is similar – it’s all about connecting with the community and being part of the whole. I expect I’ll be marching in the parade in the future, but next year, I think I’ll do something else I’ve never done before – set my chair out the day before in a prime spot to watch the Aptos world roll by, in all its kitschy glory. 🙂

Photos of Mar Vista Marching in the 4th of July Parade