Ding, Ding, Ding Goes the (CVW) Trolley

If you are like me, you are counting down the hours until the Montrose-Glendale Christmas Parade. This Saturday marks the 38th anniversary of this down home tradition that is a much anticipated community event. Thousands of volunteer hours are dedicated to the parade – from those who get their groups together to make their way down Honolulu Avenue to the behind-the-scenes people who pull it all together.

Since I started the paper in 2009, CV Weekly has been proud to not only be a sponsor of the parade but to also give parade participants who line up outside our window at 3800 La Crescenta Avenue (at the corner of Honolulu Avenue) cookies, hot cider and hot coffee. Sometimes local bakeries donated these items and I was happy to promote these businesses (if you’d like to donate cookies for Saturday, just let me know). I know the hot coffee and cider, as well as the treats, had been especially welcome these last few years when it was a little rainy on parade night.

Come 6 o’clock, we’d slide closed our window facing Honolulu and climb aboard a flatbed truck provided by Crosstown Towing. Joe and Lisa have been angels to CV Weekly over the years, pulling into our parking lot early so we could load up the flatbed with hay bales and decorations before climbing aboard for our trek down Honolulu. How much fun was it to see everyone who came out for the parade while listening to Jane Kane and Rick Dinger introduce the parade participants? The crew aboard has grown over the years, too, as our writing staff, design staff, columnists and other friends of the paper joined us.

While you can expect to see CV Weekly making its way down the parade route yet again this year, the flatbed will be absent. This year, we decided to go a little fancier and, if it rained, a little drier. Please keep your eyes peeled for a trolley provided by American GTS and filled with CV Weekly folks! We are so excited by our updated mode of transportation that reflects an old fashioned style that fits perfectly with our old fashioned Montrose.

Look for us waving from inside the trolley!

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The flatbed won’t be the only thing missing this year from CV Weekly. Our dear friend, driver Jay Eatherton and his family who have traveled Honolulu every parade, have moved to Alaska. A big bear of a man with the ultimate “can do” attitude, Jay is one of the nicest people you could ever meet and it was a pleasure working with him.

CV Weekly will also be minus one of our treasured sales people. Lisa Yeghiayan, who was with CVW since the early days when we started the paper on my dining room table, has decided to take advantage of a new career opportunity.

Lisa was one of the hardest working people here at CV Weekly. She could be found at any of the many mixers, ribbon cuttings or other events celebrating local business. I often kidded her that she needed to wear roller skates to get everywhere she wanted to be. Her dedication was not lost on her clients and they grew to love and respect her.

While I am sad that she moved on, I am happy for her new path. And I’m not entirely missing out – Lisa will still be a member of the Prom Plus team.

  robin goldsworthy