Days of '47: Hot stuff!

This is the first year in two decades that Necia Christensen and her family haven't camped out the night before the Days of '47 Parade to reserve their spot along the parade route on South Temple.

Instead, she said, she and her husband rode TRAX from West Valley City at 6 a.m. to reserve their usual spot. Luckily, the number of seats they needed this year was significantly reduced. Usually, she said, they have to reserve spots for 40 people. This year, there were only two. Plus, she estimated that there were about two-thirds as many people at the parade as she usually sees.

"It's the heat," she said.

Even temperatures in the high 90s couldn't dampen Christensen's spirits. She said she has been coming to the parade since she was a child, and there isn't much she enjoys more. In fact, she planned to go home and watch the whole parade again, on TV.

"It's hot and it's fun," she said.

Ellen Christensen, a few yards down the road, has also been coming to the parade since she was a child — only when she was a child, she was told the parade was for her, as a birthday celebration. She was born on Pioneer Day in 1947, exactly 100 years after the pioneers originally arrived in the valley.

"I did not want to miss the party," she said. "And I've been coming ever since."

She was joined by grandchildren from California and Washington, who came in for the parade — and for grandma's birthday, of course.

Across the street from Christensen was Fred Bittner of Centerville with a stack of poster board. As the parade went past, he held up the appropriate sign, carefully selected from such sayings as "Your zipper is down!" For marching bands, there was, "You weren't looking forward!" and for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, "Orrin is my dream man."

The tradition of heckling those in the parade was actually started by his uncle, Bittner said, to harass another uncle on the city council. Since the originating uncle couldn't attend the parade this year, he took over.

"It's a lot more fun with the signs," he said.

Bittner said his signs weren't quite up to his uncle's caliber of originality — his uncle always includes signs about the latest political goings-on, and asks at least 16 beauty queens to marry him — but he enjoyed the experience as much as his uncle does.

Bittner and his family, unlike Necia Christensen, did stay the night on South Temple to stake out a spot for the parade in the morning. After all, with those signs, he had to have a front-row seat to be sure he was seen.