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

Walter Caplan led us up Market Street in the Red and White Fleet red pickup, followed by Ralph in his elegant roadster, Steve Owsley in Walter’s sedan, Tom and Terry Machado in Eleanor – their beautiful '31 four door sedan, Barry in his coupe, Scott Nealey and his family in his ’29 sedan, David Madison and his new bride in his sedan, Dr. Ted Savio (Barry’s brother-in-law) in Barry’s ’57 Thunderbird, and Joan and Jenny in Joan’s ’67 Mustang. 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.

Our cars were loaded with happy parade goers. There was a lot of waving and picture taking.

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 up very 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 annual post parade picnic at 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? We all hope so.