By Pamela Dozois

Contributing Writer

Judging by the throngs of people along the parade route, with revelers from all over the state and country, Solvang’s 4th of July Parade was an enormous success. 

Known as “the biggest small-town parade in the Danish Capital of America,” this year’s event was slightly smaller with 52 entries, down from the usual 70, but everyone was in high spirits, with the Stars and Stripes prominently displayed in celebration of our country’s Independence Day. 

According to Master of Ceremonies Allan Jones, who was dressed like “Uncle Sam” for the occasion, Denmark is the only other country who celebrates our 4th of July, due to our sister city being Aalborg, Denmark.

The theme of this year’s parade was “God Bless America.” The grand marshals were the Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital emergency room staff, honoring the professionals on the frontline “keeping us safe,” according to the parade sponsor, the Rotary Club of Solvang.  

The parade took a more intimate path through the Village than in years past due to the unavailability of State Route 246, according to Parade Chairman Steve Palmer of the Solvang Rotary Club. With the backdrop of quaint little stores, the parade featured decorative floats, dance groups, bands, antique cars, military vehicles, dancing horses, the traditional Viking Ship, the fire department, local businesses and families all participating in the hour-long event. Candy was tossed to the children, Veggie Rescue passed out bags of baby carrots, and float participants occasionally doused the spectators with water from Super Soakers, which the children in particular enjoyed, giggling with glee. 

The Santa Ynez Valley High School Band gave a patriotic concert in Solvang Park. The Rotary also had a food booth there for all to enjoy after the parade, supplementing the local restaurants who were also packed with hungry parade-goers. 

The 2021 Solvang 4th of July Parade Award Winners are as follows: Sweepstakes — Flat Fender Friends; Best Use of Parade Theme — Daughters of the American Revolution; Most Patriotic — “Stars & Stripes” Bill Hopper’s Mustang Dr. Crew; Most Original — Caleb Moon, 2021 Santa Maria Elks Rodeo Jr. Barrelman; Most Amusing — The Bachelor Ben Sieke; Most Creative — Jon Anderson’s Tiny Art Cars; Best Band — Tequileros Jovenes; Best Singing Group — Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company; Best Singing, Single — Amanda Kadlubek , SYV Community Connection; Best Family Group — Webb Family Van der Stahl Scientific; Best Church Group — San Leandro Seminary; Best Senior Group — Atterdag Village of Solvang; Best Wagon, Single — Ernest Bankston’s Radio Flyer Wagon; Best Automobile Group — Model A Clubs of Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria; Best Automobile, Single — Jeff & Barbara Winter’s 1966 Shelby GT 350 Fastback; Best Automobile, Restored — Michael & Elizabeth Snyder’s 1964 Black Cadillac Convertible; Best Automobile, Antique — Ron & Cindy Long’s Midnight Blue 1936 Ford Deluxe Roadster; Best Fire Engine — Solvang Fire Station #30; Best Tractor — Greg Fanning’s 5520 John Deere with 9ft Disc; Best Equestrian Group — Charros of Santa Ynez; Best Equestrian, Single — Rod Simmons of Solvang Riders; Best Viking Ship — Vikings of Solvang; Best Color Guard — American Legion Post #160; Best Street Sweeper — SP Maintenance Road Apple Crew, SYV Horseback Riders; Best Sport Group — SYV High School Water Polo Teams; Best Dancing Group — Garcia Dance Studio; Most Energetic — Patty’s Pickleball Express; Best Group for a Cause — Buellton Senior Center SYV Community Outreach; Best School Group — Arabian Horse Riding Academy; Best Audience Participation — Veggie Rescue; Best Dog — Tiny Art Cars; Best Candy Throwers — Vikings of Solvang; Best Trolley — Solvang Trolley and Ice Cream Parlor; Best Medical Group — SYV Cottage Hospital Staff.

The fireworks, usually organized by the Santa Ynez Valley Rotary Club, did not happen this year due to time constraints. Hopefully, it will return next year.

“It was heartwarming to see the community come together for the 4th of July Parade in Solvang this year,” said Palmer. “Even with such short notice after June 15, we were overwhelmed by the positive spirit and smiling faces of participants and spectators. Thank you to everyone who participated, watched the parade, the City of Solvang staff, IDK Events, Solvang’s County Sheriff’s Department, and volunteer Rotarians. It was a team effort to make this a successful, smooth, and enjoyable parade.  We look forward to next year’s parade in 2022 to be even bigger and better.”

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After more than a year of shutdowns and many events being canceled or postponed, the Fourth of July parade is back this Independence Day, being sponsored by the Solvang Rotary Club. 

“We are looking forward to getting people back together and celebrating our Independence Day with a fun parade,” said Allan Jones of Solvang Rotary. 

The parade will begin at 11 a.m. with a theme of “God Bless America,”.

“The route takes a slightly different, more intimate path, through downtown because State Highway 246 is not available to us this year.  Instead, the parade will begin at Alisal Rd and Oak St, travel north to Copenhagen Drive, west on Copenhagen to 2nd St., south on 2nd St. past the Solvang Festival Theatre, then east on Oak St. back to Alisal Rd.,” parade chairman Steve Palmer explained. “There will be a convenient detour in town around the Parade route with road closures starting about 10:00 am.  Hwy 246 will remain open to through traffic.”   

The Grand Marshals of the parade will be local first responders, in honor of their hard work and fortitude during the last year of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Check-in and staging for the parade will start at 9 a.m. at the 300 block of Alisal Rd and extend to Alisal Mesa Rd, and Lot 72. Announcing and judging will take place in front of The Copenhagen House at Copenhagen Dr. and 1st St. Deadline to enter is June 30.

Following the parade there will be a barbecue in Solvang Park, corner of First Street and Mission Drive, and the Rotarians ask that people patronize local shops and restaurants to help support local business. 

The fireworks, usually organized by the Santa Ynez Valley Rotary Club, is not happening due to time constraints, but the organization will be helping with the parade as will the other Rotary Clubs from Los Olivos and Buellton, Jones said.

If any business or organization wishes to have an entry in the parade visit the Solvang Rotary website at www.solvangrotary.com and download the application.

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Staff Report

Here is the list of winners from the 4th of July Parade. We hope everyone enjoyed the many amazing entries, and congratulations to the winners! See complete coverage of the parade in our July B issue out July 16. 

Photo by Open Door Photography

Sweepstakes Winner – Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital “Clean Hands Saves Lives”Best Use of Parade Theme –

Friends Of Buellton and Solvang Libraries “We The People Value Literacy.”

Most Patriotic – Patriotic Horsemen

Most Original – Willow Creek Ranch Friends & FamilyMost Unique – Ernie Bankston’s Radio Flyer

Most Creative – Wilding Museum/Los Padres ForestWatchBest Band – Santa Ynez Valley Jazz ensemble

Best Singing Group – Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co.

Best Singing – Single – McKenna Smith sings The National Anthem

Best Family Group – Crowell/Morsch Family Reunion

Best Church Group – Santa Ynez Valley Presbyterian Church

Best Senior Group – Atterdag Village of Solvang

Best Animal Group – Santa Ynez Valley Humane Society

Best Wagon Group – San Lorenzo Seminary

Best Wagon – Single – Capuchin Franciscans Vocation Office

Best Automobile Group – Local Metropolitan Car Owners

Best Automobile – Single – Richard Abrams’ 1947 Ford

Best Automobile – Restored – Charles Linquiti’s 1949 Farmall Tractor

Best Automobile – Antique – Dr. John Baeke’s 1924 Brown race car

Best Automobile Antique Group – Model A Clubs of Santa Ynez Valley & Santa MariaBest Fire Engine – Alex

Geremia’s St. Francis Ranch1928 Sanford

Best Tractor – Larry Grossini’s 1948 Case

Best Equestrian Group – Cowgirls, Ponytails, & Horsetails

Best Donkey Group – Monighetti’s Farrier – Feed & Pet

Best Viking Ship – Vikings of Solvang

Best Color Guard – American Legion Post #160

Road Apple Crew – Lucky Clover 4-H Teams

Best Clown – Lompoc Shrine Club

Photo by Open Door Photography

Best Sport Group – Santa Ynez Valley Union High School Football Team

Best Military Group – Flat Fender Friends

Best Walking Group – Swedish Candy Factory

Best Dancing Group – Garcia Dance Studio

Most Energetic – PCPA’ Million Dollar Quartet

Best Group for a Cause – Veggie Rescue

Best School Group – Santa Ynez Valley Union High School Water Polo Team

Best Youth Group – Lucky Clover 4-H

Best Candy Thrower – Rich Condit

 

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For the fan who wants to get up close to the actors and players, the place to be is backstage at the theater, in the locker room at the big game — or in the Mission Santa Ines parking lot at the Solvang Independence Day parade.

During the pre-parade staging in the parking lot is the time for the car lover to have the best chance to see some pretty cool old cars and meet their owners.

Thank you again, Solvang Rotary Club.  It was a great parade.

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Rutledge “Putty” Mills stepped carefully as he made his way to the lower part of his acreage in Santa Ynez. At 95 years old, he moved quite spritely as he chattered about the upbringing that led him to become part of American history.

Near his barn, to an untrained eye, sat a gray go-cart-looking contraption with a NASA sticker on the front. But as he talked he revealed that this was the prototype he built for American astronauts to practice driving the Lunar Rover before their trip to the moon during the Apollo 17 landing in 1972.

NASA paid $41 million for four moon rovers, but Mills built his prototypes for $2,000 each.

“I built two of them that the astronauts trained with, with surplus military supplies that cost about $2,000 each. NASA paid more than $40 million for four rovers that went up,” Mills said, proud that he had saved the government millions of dollars.

Mills and his fellow members of the Santa Ynez Valley Men’s Forum will be parading his prototype in this year’s Fourth of July Parade in Solvang.

Mills was born in the suburbs of Philadelphia in 1923 and remembers making the long trek across the country when his family decided to opt for warmer weather and moved to Santa Barbara on the advice of a friend.

“My mother had the trunk of the Buick packed and off we moved in 1930. Santa Barbara was an amazing community to grow up in, and I loved riding my motorcycle so much that I became the youngest member of the Santa Barbara Motorcycle Club,” Mills said.

When he graduated from Santa Barbara High School during World War II, Mills applied to be a fighter pilot. At the time, most kids idolized fighter pilots and Mills was ready to take the two-day test to become one of them.

“Out of two million people in the military the officers told me that I had the best scores. I guess I was pretty good, but by the time my training was over the war was just about finished,” Mills said.

Because he had “amphibious training,” which included very little water training in Morro Bay, Mills was flown overseas after the first assaults on Japan.

“I was staged in the Philippines for a year as cleanup, but we still took fire every day from enemies,” Mills said.

Mills shows pictures of the moon that were taken during test-landings of an unmanned moon shuttle.

After his tour was over, he was assigned to landing test shuttles on the moon with Saturn V rockets, which took 10 tries before one actually landed.

“During the flight the rocket took pictures that were sent back,” Mills said as he showed the original photographs from the project.

When the idea of the moon rover project was proposed, it was the design by Boeing that won. Then it was subcontracted to SB Research of Goleta.

“The engineers said they needed someone with experience in hardware and driving off-road, so I guess that’s when my name came up because my colleagues knew I rode motorcycles,” Mills said with a laugh.

He ended up moving to Flagstaff, where the rover testing would be done on rocky desert terrain that was similar to the surface of the moon. He worked closely with Gene Shoemaker, who was a renowned geologist and astronomer who trained the astronauts for their geological activities.

“When the Russians sent Sputnik up, it was extremely embarrassing to America and I remember Gene calling up President Kennedy and suggesting getting a man on the moon, and Kennedy told him go for it and by any means necessary,” Mills said.

He said he got to see Kennedy in person once, but never got to meet him.

As Mills was taking the designs from Boeing and creating the prototypes, they estimated the costs of building to be near half a million dollars.

“Being a conservative man … I put together most of the supplies from my surplus military catalogue,” Mills said.

After building the prototype for the moon rover, Santa Ynez resident Rutledge “Putty” Mills stayed in Flagstaff to train the astronauts how to maneuver it.

The batteries had to be made of silver zinc, which could stand up to extreme conditions. Everyday lead-based batteries would not work in extreme cold. Mills also made gear reductions because the rover could travel only at low speeds.

“The rover was in one-sixth of our gravity, which meant it had to go really slow in order to stay on the surface,” he said.

With a 90-day turn-around for the prototypes, he got them built in 89 days, he laughed.

He also stayed to train astronauts Gene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, Jim Irwin and Dave Scott to drive it.

Thinking back over his time and historic influence on space travel, Mills said he was proud to be called for the assignments. As a kid who never graduated from college, he is a self-taught engineer and still studies 40 hours a week.

“I love studying history and spend a lot of time reading. It keeps the brain sharp and youthful,” Mills said.

Mills said he is thrilled to present the prototype in the Fourth of July parade and hopes that everyone enjoys seeing a piece of American history up close.

“I was going to donate it to the space center that was going to be built on Vandenberg, but when that project was delayed, I hung onto it because I think it belongs in a museum on the Central Coast,” Mills said.

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