Don’s Rambles: Marching Through Tradition at the Junior Orange Bowl Parade

An Adventure in which a former mayor continues to seek the “soul” of his hometown

What better way to ramble through the heart of our city center than to march down Miracle Mile in the annual Junior Orange Bowl Parade (our humble version of Macy’s and the Rose Bowl). Coral Gables has some great festivals, special events, and farmers’ markets – but the Junior Orange Bowl parade is our oldest continuously running celebration of the holiday season. This special event was first created and presented by the city in 1949 as the youth counterpart to the Orange Bowl Committee’s New Year’s Eve extravaganza in Downtown Miami. The Junior Orange Bowl Committee, now responsible for staging the parade, was not formed until 1959. During the ’60s and early ’70s, the December parade (billed as “the largest children’s festival in the U.S.”) was recorded for a nationwide broadcast during the morning hours of New Year’s Day. After losing its TV slot, the parade stagnated, becoming a minor holiday activity. However, through the dedicated efforts of Gable’s citizens and a boost of funding from Eastern Airlines, it reemerged by the mid-1980s as an end-of-year spectacular featuring up to 3,700 marchers, 17 floats,15 marching bands, and 60,000 spectators. 

My family is proud to have had a long-standing association with this event. Some decades ago, I marched in the parade as a member of the Kinloch Park Junior High School Band and a couple of years later as a Miami Senior High Stingaree. Over the intervening years, wife Jeannett, daughter Kathleen, son Don, and I have all served as Parade chairs and presidents of this outstanding organization.

Last month’s parade provided the several thousand onlookers with a bevy of floats which produced a fantasy of lights and sound, a police motorcycle drill team, stirring musical performances by some great school bands, costumed comic book characters, sports-team mascots, and a phalanx of prancing horses. The climax of this movable holiday feast was the arrival of Santa Claus perched atop a large Coral Gables Fire Department ladder truck. 

Despite being a Gables-centric volunteer production, the participating marching units feature many multi-ethnic youth groups (Scout troops, dance clubs, sports teams, etc.) from communities throughout Miami-Dade County, accompanied by a wide variety of young musicians representing schools from across South Florida.

A hearty “congratulations” to the Junior Orange Bowl President, attorney Michael Green, and parade chair and UM executive Iva Nichols. Let’s not forget to offer a sincere “thank you” to the City Commission for its continued funding support and the assistance of many city employees. It goes without saying (but I will anyway) that my previous “meandering” was not nearly as much fun as marching in the Junior Orange Bowl Parade! 

This column appears monthly by Don Slesnick, who served as mayor of Coral Gables from 2001 to 2011. If you wish to reach him with suggestions on where he should next meander in search of the city’s soul, email donslesnick@scllp.com.