Parade – Marilyn R. Gardner

We’re here where it all happens! The heart of Manhattan and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It is a bucket list idea come true as we squeeze in tight with people we don’t know and strain our heads to see the parade. It is so fun … We’re talking to total strangers, screaming at celebrities, and shouting at floats! Awesome!

Many of you who read Communicating Across Boundaries are not from the United States so let me explain what the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is. For 86 years, in the heart of New York City, the Macy’s store has sponsored a huge parade complete with amazing floats, musical performances, dance, and marching bands. This is considered the beginning, the “kick-off” to use an idiom, of the holiday season. Over 3 million people gather in New York (yes, that would be us this year!) and over 50 million watch the parade on television, safe and warm in their homes while sipping eggnog….theoretically at least.

Growing up overseas, I knew only peripherally about the parade but now that we spend Thanksgivings in the United States it has become a fun and favored family tradition to watch it on television while turkey bastes in the oven. We are not football people (another peculiar American event) but we sure love the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!

We arrived last night, surviving the day-before-Thanksgiving traffic that tries the patience of the most patient among us. A breakdown of our car in the parking lot of a grocery store in the morning had us anxious that we wouldn’t be able to follow through with these well-made and anticipated plans, but with the aid of our amazing Chinese mechanic, the trusty PT Cruiser pulled through. My daughter Stefanie’s apartment is the perfect location – 3rd floor of the Herald Towers so we have only steps to walk to see the action.

As I watch I bring you these photos live from the parade! Enjoy and wherever you are – may you know the amazing miracle of thanks and the satisfaction of a grateful heart.