It's National Dragon Day! We don't know why, we just go with the flow.
Maybe it's in honour of the man who co-wrote the legendary song Puff the Magic Dragon. Peter Yarrow, of the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary, died Jan. 7 at the age of 86 (and, no, the song was never about drugs said Yarrow himself many times prior to his passing. There were quite a few people who suggested the song's lyrics were about marijuana).
Yarrow wrote the song, he said, as a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, in 1959, when "weed wasn't even available in that part of New York."
Today's story is accompanied with a photo of a dragon float from the 1945 Vernon Days parade, courtesy of the Museum and Archives of Vernon. Last year, 2024, was the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar. This year, 2025 is the Year of the Snake.
Speaking of parade, it's 24 days until the 64th Vernon Winter Carnival Parade, and if you've spent any or all of those 64 years watching the parade from a favourite spot along 30th Avenue, you won't have any problem getting the same spot or having people around you this year.
Of course, you also won't see any of the parade.
The Carnival event is taking a new path in 2025.
Instead of heading down the usual route 香蕉视频直播� south along 27th Street, west down 30th Avenue, north along 29th Street to 32nd Avenue, west again to 31st Street, and north to 37th Avenue 香蕉视频直播� there's a new plan in place for 2025.
"The City of Vernon has changed significantly since the first parade route was decided upon, and it has also grown significantly since the parade route that many came to know and love was put in place," said Lisa Fenyedi, Carnival executive director.
Due to the growth, and the loss of the Vernon Civic Arena parking lot to unload at, the old route ended up blocking in emergency responders.
"A change needed to happen," said Fenyedi, who worked with City of Vernon staff to come up with a new route.
The new route will be a 14-block straight line south down 27th Street from 45th Avenue to 32nd Avenue.
The staging area will be from the 4500 to 4800 blocks of 27th Street, and the dismantling and off-loading area will be from 32nd to 30th Avenues.
This year's route comes from multiple minds working together to keep three points in mind: city-grown, keeping parade participants safe and not blocking emergency responders.
"We encourage parade goers to park at the mall (Village Green Centre) as there is plenty of parking there for participants and spectators," said Fenyedi.
With files from Jennifer Smith, Vernon Morning Star
