Nope, they want even more. So every first Saturday of December, they expect me to gather the staff to participate in the Children's Christmas and Holidays Parade through the heart of downtown Los Gatos.

You know the event, or at least you should. The 49th annual parade will get under way at 11 a.m. on Dec. 3, thanks to the sponsorship of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Community Education and Recreation Department and the Los Gatos Lions. And for the fourth straight year, I'll be there with the other staff members representing the Los Gatos Weekly-Times and Saratoga News.

It wasn't always that way. There was a time when I was a parade watcher, not a participant. So this parade brings back fond recollections of childhood, of fatherhood and of so much more.

I have vivid memories of a crisp December morning in 1950-something. My mom had me get all bundled up to ward off the cold--you know how bitter cold it can get in Los Gatos in December ... must have been at least 60 degrees.

Anyway, we picked up a couple of doughnuts at Polly Prim Bakery and camped out on a choice piece of N. Santa Cruz Avenue sidewalk. I vaguely recall that cups of hot chocolate were involved, because I distinctly remember what I was feeling as the parade started to pass by--I had go to the bathroom ... I had go to the bathroom real bad. The sidewalk was cold, but I was squirming like a barefoot child on hot pavement in July.

"Do you have to go?" Mom asked, knowing all too well the answer.

"No," I said firmly, hoping my denial would delay the inevitable long enough for Santa Claus to head down the street.

It didn't work.

"Yeah," I finally conceded.

With that, she gathered up our stuff and marched me down the corner to the Live Oak Inn (where Double D's is today), which was owned at the time by our neighbors, Bob and Velda Markum, and later by Bus and Rudy Benson.

Velda let us use the bathroom, and we were back on the sidewalk in time to see the giant sleigh start down the street, marking the end of the parade. Of course, our space on the sidewalk was long gone, so I could barely see Santa Claus over the heads of the other parade watchers--but from what I could see, I was surprised that Santa looked so much like Bus Benson.

That was the late 1950s. My next experience came more than 20 years later when I took my oldest, and at the time my only, son to the parade.

We stopped at Winchell's just outside of town to pick up a few doughnuts, and staked out a great spot on N. Santa Cruz Avenue near the Los Gatos Times-Observer office on Royce Street. And, yes, there was hot chocolate involved.

So when I saw the taletell squirm somewhere between the Indian Guides and the high school marching band, I knew exactly what was happening.

"Do you have to go to the bathroom?" I asked, understanding better how Mom had instinctively known the answer years earlier.

"No," he said, craning his neck in an effort to see the next parade group heading down the street. But I didn't wait for him to change his mind. I whisked him up and hustled him over to the bathroom in the T-O office.

Much like 20-some years earlier, we returned to the parade just as Santa's float was heading down the street. And, much like 20-some years earlier, our spots on the pavement were gone, filled by other parade enthusiasts. But unlike the scene of my childhood, I had a plan. I tossed Michael up on my shoulders so he could get a good look at jolly Santa Claus (and, boy, was I glad he'd already gone to the bathroom ... Mike, that is, not Santa).

So now it's another 20-something years later, and my wife and I are taking the grandchildren to the parade of my youth. The experience is much the same as it was nearly 50 years ago when my mother first took me. The parade is homespun and speaks volumes of the close-knit community. The pavement is still pleasingly cold and hard on the backsides of the children in the crowd. And there's still something special about starting the morning with doughnuts and hot chocolate.

But there is a difference: In the 49th annual Children's Christmas and Holidays Parade, I'll be riding not watching ... so with no bathroom stops on the parade route, that means no hot chocolate for me!

Want to talk? Give me a call at 408.354.3110, or write to dsparrer@community-newspapers.com.