The Man behind the floats

When it comes to floats, Kip Dingler is a one-man show.

He designs them. He constructs them. He paints and decorates them.

He does, however, need extra hands to help deliver them from his float operation in Bolingbroke to the next parade in the next town.

Dingler’s floats have been fixtures in Macon’s annual downtown Christmas parade for the past 43 years. This year’s floatfest is on Sunday, Dec. 7 at 4 p.m., with the theme “Macon It Home for the Holidays.’’

 As he prepares to roll out his holiday procession in his hometown, Dingler will also participate in nine other parades in Alabama and Georgia.

Sometimes, the caravans of reindeer, wreaths, angels and candy canes attract almost as much attention out on the highway as they do on Main Street.

“People will wave and honk their horns,’’ Dingler said. “If they see the Santa Claus float, they want us to pull over so they can take pictures.’’

His reputation as a float builder once earned him a spot on a national TV commercial for BC headache powder.

Dingler, who turned 66 earlier this month, still has a monopoly, of sorts. His nearest competitor is 190 miles up the road in Lexington, South Carolina. 

And although he’s not ready to retire or shut down, he has been selling off some of his inventory of 30 floats in the business his father, Aubrey Howard “Red” Dingler started in Macon in 1958.

“It’s pretty neat that there are still a few people left who remember my dad,’’ he said. “It’s quite a legacy. I’m trying to keep his dream going.’’

Kip’s grandfather, G.H. Dingler, is the answer to a trivia question. He drove the first Coca-Cola delivery truck in Georgia. The company  later transferred him from Cedartown to Macon. The family lived on Second Street, but his red-headed son’s second home was the YMCA. 

Red Dingler was tall and athletic, and he learned gymnastics, acrobatics and tumbling under the YMCA’s legendary instructor, E.G. Searcy.

The YMCA hosted a local circus event at Luther Williams Field, and Red became a popular performer. His first big break was when the famed Lang & Cravat acrobatic duo came to Macon. It featured childhood friends Burt Lancaster and Nick Cravat, who both went on to acting careers.

Cravat had injured his back, and Lancaster contacted Searcy at the YMCA looking for a replacement. Red got the nod. 

He later enlisted in the Army during World War II and performed in circus shows with the USO in the Philippines.  When he returned to Macon after the war, he fell in love with Ann Byrd, a tennis player and straight-A student at Wesleyan College.

 He was at Young’s Drug Store downtown with his friend, Charlie Ragan, when she stepped off the bus with some of her college friends. She was tanned, with blue eyes and a flower in her dark hair.

Red told Ragan he had found the girl he was going to marry. He sent her a dozen roses the next day – 11 yellow and one red – with a note attached: “There are a lot of roses out there but only one Red.’’

Byrd came from an aristocratic family in Augusta, and married him against her parents’ wishes. They didn’t want their accomplished daughter running off with a circus acrobat.

Together, they became Macon’s most famous circus family. They traveled and performed primarily with King Brothers, which had its winter headquarters at Macon’s Central City Park. The Dinglers later worked for Disney on Parade in Anaheim, California.

Dingler was an aerial bar performer. Ann did the swinging ladder. Using a runway and a springboard, Red could somersault over the backs of five elephants.

His circus career was the catalyst for his interest in float building. After watching Macon’s downtown Christmas parade in 1957, he was convinced he could improve the product. 

Their son was born at the Macon Hospital on November 8, 1959. He went three days without a name until his parents took him to the YMCA, where the staff and a few friends decided on John Kipling Dingler. 

“The first trick you learn on a horizontal bar is a ‘kip up,’ ’’ Dingler explained. “It’s a way of mounting a horizontal bar from a hanging position to the support position on top of the bar.’’

Kip grew up helping his father build floats. But he had no real desire to one day take over the family business.

“In my early years, I didn’t want to listen to my dad when he tried to show me how to do something,’’ Dingler said. “I wanted to cut my own course.’’

Like his dad, he was a gifted athlete who could ride a unicycle, juggle and perform flips and tricks. He was a pole vaulter at Macon’s Tattnall Square Academy. Even though the school didn’t have a track or a pole vault pit, he earned a track scholarship to the University of Florida.

Red Dinger was only 55 when he died on January 2, 1982. Kip had one college semester left. He had accepted a job offer to run a racquet club in West Palm Beach, Florida. 

When he returned home, his mother opened the doors to the building where they housed their float operation at Central City Park.

“She put her hand on my shoulder and told me we still had some commitments,’’ Dingler said. “She told me not to let it die with him.’”

He embraced the challenge of keeping the floats moving down big city streets and small town avenues across the South. He became the primary provider for Macon’s three major parades – the Christmas, Cherry Blossom Festival and Veteran’s Day.

In addition to his float business, he followed in his father’s footsteps and worked at the Macon Health Club, formerly the YMCA. He also held jobs with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Department and as assistant manager at the Georgia State Fair.

Until 2020, he was doing as many as 60 parades a year. Some of the larger parades, like the National Peanut Festival in Dothan, Alabama, have rented three dozen of his floats.

He still has some of his father’s original floats and props, including Santa’s eight reindeer and an elf he hopes to bring back after a long hiatus.

He still holds dear the heart of his father’s mission.

“He did it for the children,’’ Dingler said. “It’s still exciting. It’s still a big deal when they see Santa Claus coming down the street.’’