Up at 5 a.m. for a big parade, 50 years ago

The Marching Chiefs band from La Crosse State went west at the end of 1969 to perform in Pasadena’s Rose Parade.  Three hundred people attended a dinner at UCLA for the Chiefs and La Crosse alumni.  The Chiefs would appear toward the very end of the New Year’s Day parade, playing “On, Wisconsin,” “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” and “The Beer Barrel Polka.”  They had to get up at 5 in the morning for the 8:30 parade.  Late on New Year’s Day, the band members would fly back to the Midwest, and take buses from the airport to get back to campus on January 2nd in time for breakfast at Whitney Center.   

The Packers had a winning record in ’69, but finished third in the division behind the Vikings and Lions. Minnesota played in the Super Bowl for the first time that season.  

La Crosse area restaurants had New Year’s Eve dinner specials planned.  The Holiday Inn on the pike would serve steak or lobster for two, plus a hotel room, for just $22.50.  Dinner only, no hotel, at Rocky’s in Stoddard, for a price of $10.   

A classic holiday cartoon special made its debut that December, “Frosty the Snowman.”  Shown by CBS on a Sunday night, between “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “The Ed Sullivan Show.”  Jackie Vernon did the voice of Frosty, and the cartoon was narrated by Jimmy Durante, 50 years ago, in 1969.