Dorothy Bale can't really her compulsion. She only knows that, come the morning of July 24, she has to be there, standing on the corner of 100 South and 200 East. She is driven, somehow. She just can't let the parade pass by without her.
Bale's daughter, Denise, uses the word "ardent" to describe how her mom is about the Days of '47 parade. This will be the 52nd Pioneer Day parade Bale has witnessed. Since moving to Utah in 1946, Bale has missed only two (or maybe three, she says), and those were during the years her husband was in dental school and they lived in Missouri.
"My friends think I'm absolutely funny for wanting to go to the parade," says the 76-year-old Salt Laker. "My neighbors — some of them are younger than I am — just sit and watch it on television."
Bale first discovered her passion when she was a child in Glenwood Springs, Colo. The town's population was about 2,000 back then. Come Strawberry Days, it seemed like half the town was strutting down the street — while the other half cheered them on.
That's how Dorothy got her start, by waving to neighbors and relatives. She was especially proud of her aunt, now 103, who rode a horse in every Strawberry Parade until she was in her 90s.
At the Days of '47 parade, over the years, Bale has also cheered for folks she knows. She had neighbors who were square dancers. Then, too, her LDS Church ward often entered a float. Some years, her daughters even helped build it.
Ironically, Bale herself has never been in a parade.
She tries to explain why she finds joy just standing on the sidelines. She loves the bands, she says. Especially the Scottish bands. And the clowns. "It thrills me when the clowns go down the street, shaking hands, passing out candy." She loves the royalty. She loves the floats, too, of course. Her memories make a landscape: all those eager young faces, crepe-paper flowers, satin and glitter and balloons.
Even though the Days of '47 parade is her favorite, Dorothy Bale has seen plenty of others — and has never once been disappointed. She's been to the Macy's and Rose Bowl Parades. On the Fourth of July, she goes to Park City. This year there were "luge guys" and skiers coming down Main Street, she reports.
Over the years, Bale's Pioneer Days traditions have evolved. At first, she and her husband, Dennis, took in the Horse Parade as well. Then he said two parades were too many. Still he was always happy to go to the big parade on the 24th.
Friends would often join them. A few times the Bales sat in the viewing stand, invited by a friend who was a civic leader.
For most of their parade-viewing lives, the Bales parked at the Town House Athletic Club and gathered a group on the corner of 200 South and Main, next to Walker Bank. But then the Town House was sold, and so was the bank. Eventually, their children grew up and moved away. Their friends lost interest. Then the parade route was changed. Bale had to find a new favorite corner.
Dennis died 10 years ago. After that, it was just Dorothy, driving downtown alone in the early morning. Once the crowd amassed, of course, she was not alone. Fellow cheerers surrounded her.
The past few years have brought more changes to Bale's traditions. Both of her children are now back in Salt Lake City. This year, Susan and Denise will stand on the corner with their mom, and then return to her house for a picnic on the patio.
There will just be the three of them, Bale says. She doesn't have a large family. Her one grandchild is in college.
Bale sounds a bit wistful. She is, after all, a woman who loves the pageantry of life.
She'd probably like to have some grandchildren with her on the patio, come the 24th of July. Say about a dozen grandchildren . . . armed with sparklers . . . perhaps dressed as pioneers . . . with maybe a few of them playing bagpipes.
E-MAIL: susan@desnews.com