June 28, 2015

This year we had six cars in the Pride Parade, one more than last year. All the cars were elegantly adorned with multicolored leis, flags, and new magnetic placards on the doors as well as big parade buttons, both courtesy of Ralph Hoffschildt.

Walter Caplan led us up Market Street in his beautiful sedan followed by Ralph in his elegant roadster. He was flanked by Mike Cunneen in his flawless 32 Phaeton and John Bettencourt in his bright red roadster. Bob Faber and I brought up the rear in our less than lovely but reliable coupes. Each car was filled with happy and smiling passengers waving their hands to the shouting crowds, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, who were lining the length of Market Street.

There was just as much bling and foolishness as in any previous parade. There were the floats, the politicians, dancers, and bikers. It is always a mixed bag of displays and performers. However, this year there was a little more enthusiasm. This was a special time and a special parade because it followed by two days the United States Supreme Court decision on marriage equality, granting lesbians and gays the right to marry under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Our cars were loaded with happy parade goers. There was a lot of waving and picture taking. I kept an eye on the Motometer and tried not to slip the clutch more than necessary.

The crowd was large, responsive, enthusiastic, and well behaved. The costumes in the crowd rivaled the ones in the parade itself. Eye contact with anyone in the crowd would get you an immediate smile and a wave.

We were positioned near the front of the parade. Walter pulled some stings with parade organizers and got us the number five spot. The result was that we finished ahead of the crowd and were able to speed away to our post parade picnic at the the UCSF Mission Bay campus. Walter had arranged for reserved parking and sandwiches from Molly Stone’s. It was a friendly, warm, and comfortable day. Might we do it again next year? I hope so.

Photos by Frank Cheng and Scott Williams