PETAL TO THE METAL FINISHING TOUCHES GLUED TO FLOATS.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

PASADENA - The scaffold jiggled. The parade float wiggled. But Leslie and Katie Phillippe held true to their glue Sunday while decorating a Tournament of Roses Raggedy Ann.

``I can do the seaweed; it's just hard to do,'' said Katie, 18, of Ventura, sealing dark green strips on Raggedy's boots while her sister flaxed Raggedy's eyes.

``Raggedy Ann is supposed to feel like, well, taken care of.''

She was. The Phillippes, like hundreds of other Rose Parade volunteers pasting last-minute petals to the metals of dozens of Rose Parade floats Sunday, were perfect in their placement.

The 113th annual Tournament of Roses Parade, according to its sponsors, will be the grandaddy of all processions with 53 floats, 25 marching bands and 25 equestrian teams.

Among the floats will be the 17-foot-high by 45-foot-long entry ``Helping Friends in Need'' by the Chapin Medical Co., featuring a giant boy doctor and girl nurse - with a teddy bear and Raggedy Ann in tow.

``This is great,'' added Bob Grygiel, 63, of Rancho Santa Margarita, who in three hours managed to pick apart 15 red carnations and glue them to Teddy's right shoulder. ``It's going to be a wonderful New Year's.''

The New Year's spectacle, televised before an estimated 200 million viewers, will begin with a ``Salute to America,'' military flyover and a triumphal releasing of doves.

The parade will then wind 5 1/2 miles down Colorado Boulevard boosting ``Good Times'' for America before ending with a Veterans of Foreign Wars Statue of Liberty and eagle float finale.

``We are the single greatest event in the entire world,'' said Tournament of Roses member Jeanie Edwards of Pasadena, outside a tent full of floats in various stages of completion Sunday.

``I am still totally amazed that we do this,'' she said.

At Orange Grove and Colorado boulevards on Sunday, workers put the final touches onto the Rose Parade grandstands. Nearby streets posted temporary no-parking bans.

Pasadena police, joined by Rocky the bomb dog courtesy of the Orange County Sheriff's Department, patrolled what will ultimately be the most secure Rose Parade in years.

And thousands of preparade gawkers braved drizzle to tour four Rose Parade decorating pavilions, a Rose Bowl fanfest, marching band festival, and ``Equefest'' and chili cook-off.

But nowhere was there more excitement than next to the floats themselves, where final touches brought large floats to life beneath claustrophobic tents and ceilings.

``It is the most amazing thing I've ever seen,'' said Sue Huddleston, 59, on a tour from Tulsa, Okla. ``It's unbelievable.''

``I just can't believe it,'' said her mother, Madelyn Anderson of Wagoner, Okla.

``It's above my imagination,'' she said, gazing at the menagerie of entries.

Huge tortoise floats. Giant Big Bird floats. Space Shuttle floats. Fisherman floats. Floats with koala bears, elephants. Floats with dinosaurs.

A pink Cadillac float from the city of Los Angeles. A Bob's Big Boy on a float from the city of Glendale.

Floats with so many flowers, so many onion seeds, so many walnut shells, tea leaves, coffee grounds, corn husks, navy beans, rice grains and other natural fibers that they caused their makers to pine for a concrete jungle retreat.

``I'm a `dry rice on the bottom of the space shuttle and 747 transjet' technician,'' said Vern Alary, 40, of Santa Clarita, a Boeing float volunteer and employee of its Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power Division in Canoga Park.

``Best guess: 6,485,000 grains ... looks like Uncle Ben's,'' he joked. ``We were on the scaffold (half the day), and now we just want to get our feet on the ground.''

The Boeing float is broken into six parts, each representing a decade since the 1950s.

For Marti Baltazar, born blind but whose sight has been partially restored, the petals glowed crimson. Or were they bright red or vermilion?

Baltazar learned to name her colors as she glued fresh petals to the Guide Dogs for the Blind float. Gretal, her guide dog, slept by her side.

``This is really exciting for me because I can see colors,'' the Long Beach mother said. ``I'm going to see the (Rose Parade) for the first time - ha ha, yeah - I'm going to see it for the first time this New Year's.''

Madalenna Lai, originally of Vietnam, was so overcome with her chance to become an American that she sold her home to finance a Vietnamese Cultural House float.

A large golden boat with a swan figurehead and tassel of good fortune, the Vietnamese float is in honor of boat people everywhere.

``The boat of freedom,'' said Lai of Pomona, who was rescued from a rickety boat in rough seas with her sister and nine children by a U.S. vessel in 1975. ``I'm very proud.''

Her daughter voiced the same enthusiasm.

``It's quite magical, I must say,'' said her daughter Linda Nguyen, 35. Nguyen promoted herself from ``flower fluff girl'' to ``glue girl'' Sunday in order to help launch her mother's float.

``I also have a spiritual bond to it because it's a Vietnamese dream,'' Nguyen said.

PARADE TIPS

Some tips for campers and others along the Rose Parade route:

Suggested items to bring:

Ground covering beneath the sleeping bag for warmth.

Layers of clothes, a raincoat and sheets of plastic in case of rain.

Games, cards and other diversions for the long night ahead.

Snacks and drinks. Alcohol prohibited.

Along the route:

Restrooms are available.

Campfires allowed in fire-safe containers and when there is no wind.

Tents are not allowed on Colorado Boulevard.

Those under 18 years old are not allowed along the route without adult supervision from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Don't:

Arrive before noon today.

Move from the sidewalk to the street until police give the OK, usually at midnight.

Block the curb at corners, you'll be asked to move.

Use scaffolding, ladders for viewing the parade.

For more information, call the visitors' hotline at [phone].

- Elizabeth Lee

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, box, map

Photo:

(1 -- color) Marti Baltazar adds carnation petals to the Guide Dogs for the Blind float. This will be the first year the Long Beach resident, whose sight has been partially restored, will be able to view the parade.

(2 -- color) Volunteers make sure the city of Glendale's Bob's Big Boy is sharply dressed in his checkered overalls.

(3 -- color) Leslie Phillippe, 15, of Ventura adds seaweed to the eye of a Raggedy Ann on Chapin Medical's entry in the Rose Parade.

(4) Crowds watch Alicia Zepeda add natural fibers to floats for the 113th annual Tournament of Roses Parade on Sunday at the Brookside Pavilion.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer

Box:

PARADE TIPS (see text)

Map:

ROSE PARADE ROUTE