By John Linker
Every high school has a Homecoming, but not every high school holds a Homecoming Parade.
Last Friday afternoon, Healdsburg carried on its yearly tradition of holding one such parade. Four floats, one per class at the high school, were escorted by Healdsburg police as they meandered through the town’s neighborhoods—starting at the high school, making a couple of rounds around the Plaza and ending at Rec Park, where students stood by for halftime activities.
The sudden appearance downtown of hyped-up high schoolers on floats seemed to surprise, then delight, many a passerby. In fact, this very reporter, newly retired from a long career teaching English and AVID at Healdsburg High, was likewise surprised—and delighted—to find himself as a last-minute parade participant, riding shotgun with Spanish teacher Andrea Ruiz in an enormous $100,000 black Chevy pickup truck with all the bells and whistles.
This year’s theme was “seasons.” Each class—freshman, sophomore, junior and senior—was assigned a particular season, and tasked with dressing up the class float accordingly. As in years past, school officials judged the floats, and the winners received a certain number of “spirit points” toward an ongoing contest between classes.
The 2024 parade was small but full of lively spirit, teenage enthusiasm and a specific charm that added to the local color of Healdsburg. As our caravan puttered through the borough, kids ran out to visit and wave to the slow-moving spectacle—reminded by their parents of the longstanding tradition, and perhaps treated to stories of when they, themselves, partook of the event.
The highlight of the parade was the circling of the plaza—not once, but twice. Tourists took a break from their idling and shopping, wine enthusiasts jumped from their cushy tastings, coffee shops emptied in frenzied query and window shoppers turned their gaze to the oncoming show of true Americana in action. All stood witness to the boastful cavalcade.
Driven by teachers and parents, the floats were not only seen, but heard: The seniors sang their own rendition of “Winter Wonderland” while throwing styrofoam snowballs from their winter float. Bubbles scattered. Confetti drifted. And for a short while, the entire town stopped its business to honor and pay tribute to its students.
Each year, Healdsburg’s annual Homecoming Parade presses pause on everyone’s busy life. Even for just a few minutes, we all stop to enjoy a moment of fun-filled spectacle and perhaps a bit of reflection on what really counts.
And for this former teacher, the moment was filled with joy and nostalgia. I visited my beloved Healdsburg High School that night for the first time since cleaning out my classroom in June. I saw the excited recognition in familiar young faces who sat in my room for one, two, even three years—and, music to my ears, I heard the chorus of “Linker!” as they spied me in the passenger seat of a big, glitzy truck.
Ms. Ruiz, a Wisconsin transplant, is in her eighth year of teaching at Healdsburg High. “This parade is one of my favorite things about Healdsburg,” she said on Friday. “It gives the tourists something to wonder about. These floats are the best I’ve seen!”
The seniors won this year’s competition with their winter float—adorned and outlined with silver and blue Christmas lights. The sophomores, who built an autumnal atmosphere with a backdrop of fall colors and a trailing cloud from a fog machine, came in second.
During halftime at the football game, Homecoming royalty in the parade jumped onto the field from their latest-model chariots—the likes of Chevrolet trucks and Cherokee Jeeps, kindly donated for the event—to claim their crowns. This year’s Homecoming court is as follows:
- Freshmen: CeCe Michener and Pierce McWilliams
- Sophomores: Preston Saulsberry
- Juniors: Addison Terhune and Vinny Loupy
- Seniors: Jennifer Sanchez Castro and Luis Montoya Caballero
Well done, HHS.
Love this! Nothing like a small town parade.