November 24, 1988. Central Park, NYC
my first thanksgiving in new york i was excited to see the macy’s thanksgiving day parade.
all my life i’d watched it on TV – now i could see it in person. i asked my roommate if he
was going. he said he wasn’t. “wow” i thought; “i wonder why”. i asked some other people.
no one was going. apparently it was not a cool thing to do. that hadn’t occurred to me.
so i went by myself.
it was snowing and very cold. i stood along the route, freezing, with thousands of other
people who seemed much better prepared than i was. they had chairs, blankets, hot drinks
in thermoses.
i quickly realized that seeing the parade live was very different than watching it on TV.
on TV there was always something interesting happening; a marching band, dancers, the
best of the huge balloon characters. and you sat on a comfortable couch in a warm house.
the actual parade moved pretty slowly. there were long gaps between things. you saw the
less famous balloons – the B-list characters – like snuggle bear (the fabric softener mascot),
an ice cream cone, a happy face.
i started to get why no one wanted to come with me.
i left the parade and walked to central park. since most people were at the parade it was very
empty and quiet. everything was covered with fresh snow. it was beautiful.
that was the highlight of the day.