We'll miss the Conejo Valley Days Parade. It helped give our community an identity. It brought people together. It was fun.

Unless it's saved by a corporate sponsor, the parade is history. The fond memories, however, will never go away.

It was fun to get up early on a Saturday morning in late April or early May because if you arrived early enough, you could stake out a prime viewing spot.

It was purely local. It captured the essence of our community.

Okay, it wasn't a major parade, but that was part of its charm. It featured local entities, including middle and high school bands, service clubs, youth groups, businesses and dignitaries. It had everything a parade should have, including music, horses, floats, cars, motorcycles, cops, firetrucks, clowns and Shriners.

You or one of your children or grandchildren may have participated in one of the Conejo Valley Days parades.

That made it even more special.

Yes, the parade will be missed, but it had been operating in the red. It had been kept alive by hard working and dedicated volunteers. They gave it their best effort, but the costs of producing the parade had exceeded its revenue.

Conejo Valley Days, like similar efforts in other places, provides service clubs and other nonprofit groups a chance to make money. The proceeds, in turn, enable them to support worthy causes.

Most of the other similar events are good, too, but Conejo Valley Days stands heads and shoulders above the vast majority of them.

And who knows? Maybe the parade will be revived.