It’s got to be one of the top icons for the Thanksgiving holiday. I mean there is thankfulness, overeating, football AND the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
About 12 hours before the parade, it was decided that I could leave the Dirty Gig and have a day off. I rushed to my hotel, charged up the Nikon camera and planned my parade route. (The Dirty Gig this time is disaster recovery in Manhattan, working in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Thanksgiving was the first day off in three weeks on the job.)
The Macy’s parade Web site gave step-by-step instruction on how best to enjoy the event, — the first and foremost pointer is to be in Manhattan along the parade route by 6 a.m. I hit the Lincoln Tunnel at 5:20 a.m., parked, walked about 20 blocks and landed a second row space along the street before the rest of the standing room crowd filed in.
This being my first Macy’s parade — other than the decades of partial viewing on TV — I didn’t really know what to expect. Yes … I wondered if the crowd would be unruly, and erupt into a mob scene … as my last crazy street event did … that being the New Year’s Eve celebration last year in Bangkok.
This event was more tame. But, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention I saw a guy drinking a bottle of Corona in a cafe at 5:45 a.m.
The parade is awesome. The New Yorkers are courteous and pumped with positive anticipation for the parade. They introduce themselves, save places for those grabbing coffee, and take pride in this being one of the great signature events in New York City. The huge, colorful balloon characters could bring out the kid in anyone … so surreal floating between the “canyon walls” of one of the best cities in the world. The bands are all award-winners. The clowns are funny, not creepy. And the weather cooperated, dry and holiday cold, but not miserable. The balloons are spectacular — Spider Man, Buzz Lightyear, Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty, The Pillsbury DoughDude, Ronald McDonald, Uncle Sam and Pikachu to name a few.
The only thing I would change — my parade position. Although I had an excellent view of the balloons, I was nowhere near the TV broadcast where the bands and musical artists really do their thing. Gotta admit, the au pairs knew more of the young pop stars than me, but I sort of recognized the name of Trace Adkins … and Don McClean is one of my bye bye Miss American pie favorites … saw them … and Flo Rida was there … and more. OH … I always enjoy a good Jimmy Fallon sighting too. Oh … one of my boyhood heroes rode a float – Kareem Abdul Jabbar, sporting a UCLA Bruins jacket … I am still bummed to learn that the Underdog balloon was retired years ago …
Before the parade, I had been there WAY early, got my place … so what to do for a few hours standing?
I noticed several New Yorkers opened up books. Such a literary culture — not to mention they are always waiting for something or stuck in traffic. Me … iFired up iTunes on iPhone … staying warm, moving around to the beat slightly, alternating from the trendy, bluegrass positive vibe of “I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons to the hybrid punk/black metal wake up call of Danzig’s “Mother.” Ha … great soundtrack for the diverse people watching.
Next I checked for Wi-Fi and advised the people around me that “Yes Virginia” there was a wireless network open, but that it might be suspect since the name was “AKA Times Square.” AKA is not a big trustbuilder. The group around me took interest in my Wi-Fi exploits after i whipped out a few PingWi-Fi t-shirts.
But I admit Dunkin Donuts won our brand marketer of the day award for passing out thousands of orange, fleece DD winter tukes. The parade route was a sea of orange. Everyone had the same hat.
Stefani, Manon
PingWi-Fi took honors in the international diplomacy category, sharing Ping bling with several German frauleins whiles supplies lasted … Two of my new friends were in the country working as au pairs. (I determined they were not the murdering type of au pairs … j/k). FYI, German girls think Ping t-shirts make great handwarmers.
I always enjoy these assignments, solo or not … but the parade was so much more fun with the new friends, and after seeing what has to be one of the best parades in the world, I couldn’t help but think back to some favorite parade moments. Let me point out that until now, my parade experiences have been at smaller events … much smaller than Thanksgiving’s parade which drew an estimated 3.5 million revelers in the streets of Manhattan.
Anywho … here are a few favorites:
Regardless of pomp and circumstance this is a favorite, when the tiny 20-member band in my hometown of Vega, Texas belted out a nice version of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” at the annual free barbecue and cowboy reunion a couple of years back. If Ozzy only knew.
A second memory, from the same parade route, but some 30 years prior. Firsthand, I witnessed this, because my parents forced … yes forced me to play trombone in the tiny band. So I was marching in this hometown parade when the first-chair drummer slipped in horse manure or horse urine or maybe a combination of the two — falling down hard on top of the snare drum that was tied to his leg. Ouch. He was okay, so now, looking back it was funny. Pretty sure I was horrified at the time.
OH … BTW … some of the loudest applause of the day in the Macy’s parade was for three guy following the horses in the parade with scoops and carts to clean up the mess. LOL.
Back to other parade memories …
Obviously the parade scene in the classic fraternity movie “Animal House” is a parade by which all others will be compared. You may recall the homecoming parade is hijacked by the rebel, outlawed Delta Tau Chi house, who pretty much destroy a few blocks of their college town in the name of fraternal loyalty. Love it.
Even earlier … yet another rendition of the same tiny Texas parade in my hometown, one PingWi-Fi blogger launched his career, costumed as a giant rabbit in the back of an El Camino truck, to promote a garage band.
And of course our first New York parade will always hold a special place in our heart. It was the Puerto Rican Independence Day parade and you can imagine how well that was attended, and the magnitude of the hot spicy rhythms.
You should share some parade stories too, over on our Facebook page (Wi-Fi Guy) … we will post more photos there.
Know what I sayin?
