The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph courtesy of Nancy Newlin

Some of the cars that cruised Lincoln Avenue in the 1950s may turn up again at the Founders Day classic car show.

Cars, horses, stagecoach to parade down Avenue

By John Pancharian

With all the participants lined up for the Founders Day Parade, who needs 76 trombones?

Parade organizer Diane Pietsch says a fleet of classic cars will lead this big parade, followed by local dignitaries, mounted police, honored businesspeople, a stagecoach, a marching band and more.

Pietsch, now in her fifth year of organizing the parade, says all the pomp and circumstance that moves down Lincoln Avenue each year does so only after months of often hectic preparation.

"I usually start about mid-May trying to get all the [participant] applications out," Pietsch says, admitting sheepishly she was a bit late this year. It is a grand task coordinating with numerous large organizations such as bands, schools and businesses in the months before Founders Day, but Pietsch says things really start to heat up only when the day draws close.

"It really gets hectic about a week or two weeks before," Pietsch says, adding that she usually tries to scrape together about 10 volunteers from her circle of friends, relatives and even people she meets on the street the day of the parade.

And on that day, Sunday, Sept. 20, the pace will only quicken.

"My day probably starts at about 6 a.m.," Pietsch says. "I'll be out in the middle of Lincoln Avenue setting up the little area markers."

Arranging the parade's staging area will occupy most of Pietsch's morning as she sets out markers showing each of the participating groups where to queue up. As participants arrive in the staging area on Lincoln Avenue between Willow and Garfield--hopefully on time at 10:30 a.m.--Pietsch will set them up in marching order and make sure everyone knows the drill by the step-off time at noon.

"Then I make cards for the announcers so they will have something coherent to say while people are walking down the street," Pietsch says.

If everything goes well--and probably even if it doesn't--the entire magnificent procession will roll down Lincoln to Minnesota, then disperse in the Bergmann's parking lot. Pietsch says her last concern will then be making sure local students who marched have parents waiting to pick them up. "We don't want any lost children," she says.

Leading the marchers down the Avenue will be tons of pampered pistons, push-rods and oil pans, as the classic car show returns to Founders Day this year.

"I think the parade is a concerted effort between the car show and us," Pietsch says. "This is a better way to showcase them."

Ken McKenzie, who organizes the car show, says he expects about 130 cars this year. Owners divide their entries into categories such as hotrods, antiques, classics and muscle cars to be judged by a panel of eight. The winning car in each category then has the honor of leading the parade.

And, McKenzie says, the owners may swell the ranks of Pietsch's volunteers.

"These [car owners] are really great people," McKenzie says. "Most of them end up volunteering. I've got their cars all day anyway, and they can't go anywhere."

Parade participants this year will include county Supervisor Blanca Alvarado, San Jose City Councilman Frank Fiscalini and--"I'm 95 percent sure," Pietsch says--Assemblyman Mike Honda. Also included are the Wells Fargo stagecoach, local schoolchildren and PTA officers, and members of the business community that the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association has chosen to honor.

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