Less is more for golf cart parade

Gone was any attempt to set another record, but a smaller holiday parade still brought joy to Sun City Center - and toys for kids.

By JAY CRIDLIN
Published December 18, 2004

SUN CITY CENTER - There is, as one might imagine, a certain element of danger in cruising down a busy roadway inside a 12-foot pyramid of stuffed animals.

"We had a circuitous route coming over here, because we had to avoid low-hanging trees," Dick Marshall said Friday as he steered a mobile stack of stuffed dogs, frogs and donkeys through Sun City Center. "If we hadn't gone off the cart path, we would have taken the top off."

Marshall's golf cart, buried within a pyramid of plush, was among the top attractions Friday at Sun City Center's annual Golf Cart Parade, a string of 39 carts decked bumper-to-bumper with boughs of holly.

It was a major step back from last year's affair, which drew a crowd in the thousands and 306 golf carts - good enough to break the community's own Guinness record for the title of World's Longest Golf Cart Parade.

The parade had become so successful, in fact, that this fall, organizers decided it was too big to handle and called it off. For the first time in six years, it appeared the event would not take place.

At the last minute, though, officials at the Freedom Plaza independent and assisted living community stepped in to arrange a parade of their own.

"They do a lot of things around here that are fun, and this is one of them," said Irwin Dewley, 73, who has lived in Freedom Plaza for 21/2 years.

Absent from Friday's festivities was the usual cadre of state and county officials who often ride along in order to gladhand Sun City Center's senior voters. The only public official on hand Friday was Hillsborough County Sheriff-elect David Gee, who waved to the crowd from a squad car, not a golf cart.

Nevertheless, the crowd of more than 100 was impressed with the carolers, elves and Santas parading through Freedom Plaza's streets.

"For their first ever, it's beautiful," said Doris Pettit, 83, who lives in Freedom Plaza. "It's not as big as the one last year."

"But it's the spirit of it," said her friend Roslyn Kamps, 83.

Most carts had a Christmas or Hanukkah theme, but some took the opportunity to make a more personal expression. Hazel Blackman, 83, won the Most Unusual award by decking her cart with photos of music legends like Ray Charles and Duke Ellington.

"This was a form of storytelling," she said. "You'd be surprised how many people don't know most of these artists."

Freedom Plaza resident Jack Burlin, 85, designed a cart as the children's character Thomas the Tank Engine, complete with working lights, rolling eyes and fog wafting from a steampipe. It took him nine months to finish.

"I had to use two 12-volt batteries out of my mobile home," said Burlin, who took home the award for Most Technically Creative.

But the top prize, Best Overall, went to Marshall and Beth Israel, the Jewish congregation of Sun City Center, who had spent the past year collecting the 200-plus stuffed animals that covered their cart.

The plush toys will be donated to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office for distribution to underprivileged children.

"It's the kids who are the big winners," said Marshall, 66.

Freedom Plaza officials say the parade will be back next year, though it's unlikely to approach ever again the gargantuan standards set in years past.

"I hope we'll have a much bigger one next year," said organizer Sally Nichols. "If we could get it up to 50 or 100 carts, that would be perfect."

Jay Cridlin can be reached at 813 661-2442 or cridlin@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 18, 2004, 00:08:20]