Santa Claus has come to town! He arrived in NY this morning--just in time for Macy's
82nd Thanksgiving Day Parade.
To get this parade "on the road," is quite a production. (Some 4000 volunteers help to make it happen.) I went last night, with thousands of others, to view the prep. What a sight! The inflated balloons were covered with netting and held down with sand bags. Streets were blocked off, barricades were up and sidewalk traffic was encouraged to "follow the crowd," which we did. So many parents were out with their children, many in strollers or happily riding the shoulders of their Dads.
This morning, I staked out my spot in my own "backyard," first time ever, at 8:20 a.m. The parade began passing by 49th and Broadway at 9:40 and Santa arrived at 11:30. Families from ND and TX surrounded me. Others were just a short train ride away.
Two-and-one-half million of us may have been out along the parade route today. There's something about a parade that lots of us can love. In this one, there were giant balloons; bands; floats; performance groups including lots of clowns, a jump rope team, a Polynesian Dance Ensemble of Hawaii, USA Baton Twirling All Stars (like something from the 60s) and a Fred Hill Briefcase Team (all wearing business suits and carrying briefcases--pretty funny), to name a few.
Great as the parade was, I would have been happy to see Santa much sooner. (Santa comes at the end of the parade--like a paragraph waiting for its final punctuation!) Still, I'm as pumped up as the helium-filled balloons. It is a grand place from which to count my blessings.
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