Second Submission:
The Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Every autumn thousands of people line the main avenues of the Upper West Side (Central Park West, Broadway...) to get a glimpse of the Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This marching extravaganza is a staple of the American holiday tradition. The holidays truly begin when Santa appears at the parade- or so my mother says, heaving a sigh. Waiting for the big man is not for the feint of heart. It's freezing if you don't have a flask, and most people are unlikely to see anything. The bands don't often play continuously down the route, either (it's very long), so off-camera, the parade is actually quiet.
Though the parade marchers are so freezing cold that they have the stricken expressions of refugees, each one has worked all year for their moment of glory. They have won competitions, auditioned, sweat, bled, and cried. For those that work hard all year long, the chance to be in the parade is a validation, a vindication to those who said whatever it was they did couldn't be done. I love that so many kids get a chance at the network broadcast big time. Hard work and creativity should be rewarded.
Hopefully, the warm weather we've been having holds out for these folks, because the parade truly is a magical experience. Many of us fell in love with it after "Miracle on 34th Street," and we, too, dreamed of adopting a tee-totalling legally insane homeless geriatric who thinks he's Santa Claus and buys us a house. For many, dreams of the parade begin after we see this man kick a drunk out of a sled and take his place. It's here that the magic of Macy's takes hold.
I have many fond memories of watching the parade. Does anyone else remember when it used to be followed by "It's a Wonderful Life"? They don't broadcast that anymore. Jimmy Stewart having suicidal thoughts and subsequently overcoming adversity was a bit too dark for a holiday already fraught with emotional anguish for people subjected to their families. At Thanksgiving dinner when I was young, my Grandmother used to lament that Jimmy Stewart was such a nice boy, she just didn't know why he would go and make a movie like that. Now we have the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, so children can discuss with their parents for the next month about wanting a puppy for Christmas, from Macy's.
Ah, Macy's, you outdo yourself every year. For those unfortunate enough to be subject to Macy's, itself, around the holidays, we will be onslaught with perfume peddlers, makeup artists saying we need "cosmetic help," and millions of tourists inching through the garland festooned department store melee.
One is unable to avoid the Macy's self-promoting spirit even if one avoids Macy's (as many New Yorkers do). In conjunction with submission # 2 I submit:
Third Submission:
The Affinia Hotel at Herald Square
The Affinia Hotel in Herald Square, haven for tourists and parade marchers, has bedecked itself with a Macy's balloon to draw the attention and dollars of balloon lovers everywhere. This is a cheap and obvious attempt to exploit, and to turn what was once a charming little marching tradition into a piggy bank of a parade. The Affinia is not Macy's, why do they have a balloon?
I think that your grandmother and I were meant to be BFF4L
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