The Macy*s Day Parade

11/24/05

Lucky me, I grew up across the street from the Planetarium. This means that one of the starting points of the parade is outside my mom's apartment. It also means that as a kid, my lovely day-off from school was punctuated by tubas and xylophones (no joke) warming up outside my window at 6am. It should not be a surprise that I grew up HATING parades.

I visited my mom yesterday for a sleepover with my wife and kids so that the little ones could see the balloons being inflated last night and then see the start of the parade from a neat vantage point this morning. After driving everyone in yesterday, I Cokered to Brooklyn and back for some work. On my way back, I found myself on Columbus Ave in the 70s. Normally this is a charming nabe, but with streets cordoned off and with police everywhere, I had no way of walking, let alone uni'ing, so I hopped off and sardined along for a few blocks till I got past the balloon-watching tourists.

At this point, a man spotted the Coker and commented that his kid would be riding in the parade on a giraffe. I replied, "Oh, you guys must be from Maine," and he was impressed that I had heard of their group. I mentioned this site and how the news had reached many unicyclists, since we're a tight group. I also mentioned that I have a uni club and told him of our website (newyorkunicycle.com).

I had to ask: Where were all of those kids and their families staying? I couldn't imagine that they'd find hotels, and the cost woulda been prohibitive. Sure enough, they were staying over in New Jersey!!! The poor kids had to be up at 4:30 this morning in time to sit around for hours in the cold, waiting for the parade to begin at 9am.

I missed seeing them ride down Central Park West, but I heard good things from the people I polled. And I'm really glad I got stuck in pedestrian traffic last night -- it was fun connecting with that dad.