Pasadena Mission Trip December 29, 2017

Day #2 – Friday, December 29, 2017

Our California day began early with a delicious breakfast at the Residence Inn.  The room filled with blue shirts and chatter as we fueled up for our day ahead.  By 6:45, Lonnie was there with the shuttle and we clamored aboard and we were off exploring the highways and byways of southern California.  We were thankful for the California sunshine, especially as we checked weather conditions back in Iowa and saw frigid and snow.  I hate to admit it but some may have even snickered a bit when they saw it, now that they are in sunny California.

Before much of the morning had past we were beginning to understand when the locals said they were having a heat wave.  It reached 80 degrees by afternoon and many of us took our Petal Pusher sweatshirts off.  Even a photo on a cell phone of snow falling back home didn’t cool us off.  While we survived, the flowers will not be so happy with these temperatures.  Yesterday work on the floats was slower because many flowers that should have been put on would not last until the parade.  We understand it is to be a little cooler tomorrow.

The new building we are working in this year is very large.  I estimate it may be over four times the size of the Rose Palace where we have worked for many years.  The flower tent is no longer a tent.  It is now a special section inside the building and much easier to access.  The area set aside isn’t large enough for the flowers as they arrive and are prepared for the floats.  Next year I’m sure it will be larger.

Our group was directed to the flower area for our first assignment.  Our job was to cut stems from the yellow roses and trim them to the correct length for placing in water filled vials.  As the lady in charge was showing us what to do, I asked how many yellow roses she needed us to do.  She pondered for a few seconds and estimated there were about 100,000 of them!  I have no idea how many we did but it was nowhere near that number even with our Iowa work ethic in play.

Our crew of 29 worked at top speed for over two hours on this task.  There were young people from other groups moving away our 50-gallon barrels of stems and trash, barrel full after barrel full.  Another crew brought bundles of yellow roses to each of the 6 tables so we could keep up the pace.  Just outside the building there were other young volunteers filling the green vials with water and bringing buckets of them to us.

After about two hours we were taken to other jobs in the building.  It was a deliberate move since two hours of standing on concrete was not as much fun as when we started.  An effort is made to keep the volunteers happy.  I lost track of where everyone ended up but many worked on the Honda float and I was taken to the City of Alhambra float.  There are two signs that go onto the float that needed to be redone.  The letters will be covered with overlapped red carnation petals glued on one at a time in a day or so.  The rest of the sign was covered with powdered white rice and was not smooth enough for

the glue had been put on too thick.  It had to be scrapped off and the task done over again.

Later in the day we were directed to pop off the heads of red mums, lay them flower side down in small cardboard boxes. Then we put a circle of clear glue on the underside of the petals and a drop where the stem had been.   The boxes were then handed to another crew what was on scaffolding gluing them onto the float.  Others were working with white mums preparing them for another area of the float.  Kathryn worked with white baby breath for the Lutheran Hour float.  

There was a hum of activity in the building and there seemed to be more people involved than other years but it may have been because the building is larger with more floats making it seem that way.  While we were working, small groups of people were ushered through the building to watch the decorating process.  I believe this is a fund raising effort and I expect many more people will pay to see the volunteers in action as the floats near completion.

When our shift was over about four this afternoon, our shuttle took us to the Soup Plantation for a wonderful meal.  There were more fresh salad fixins than you can imagine, delicious soups, pasta dishes, pastries and many other assorted foods and drinks.  Everyone seemed to find the twist ice cream and toppings to finish their meal.  We rode our shuttle back to the motel. The crew was tired, no doubt about it.  Ellie directed everyone to rest a bit and meet again at eight o’clock for devotions and a discussion of tomorrow’s schedule.  At devotions we talked about our experiences of the day and shared ‘pows and wows’ with each other.

Tired Petal Pusher – Lynn Menz – signing off.