Macy's Day Parade

Forget it being Thanksgiving Day. In New York City it's Macy's Day. This is the quintessential symbol of the consumer's Mecca where tradition is traded on capitalism's market.

Thanksgiving, the American myth of settler and Indian breaking bread in peace 400 years ago, was officially proclaimed a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. In 1924 this annual American mirth was expanded with entreprenuer Macy creating a parade on Turkey day helping kickstart the shopping season leading up to Christmas. Over the past century, the "sacred" festival season in America has been realigned by commercial interests . Thanksgiving is only an augury for Black Friday--the most profitable American shopping day of every year.

Sharon's parents and my mom and brother, Jonathan, spent Thanksgiving with us. We got up Thanksgiving morning and went down and grabbed the northwest corner of Broadway and 49th street to stand in the 40 degree weather for three plus hours awaiting the Macy's cartoon balloons and clowns galore. We saw the old school Macy's balloons and some new school like "Dora the Explora" and "SpongeBob." Finally at the end, Santa Claus came imploring us to shop Macy's the next day.

We went home and Sharon made an amazing meal with turkey and all the right stuff. And we sat around in our little abode thankful for food and warmth.

The next morning, Margret Buth and I got up quite early and headed down to the local Williamsburgh Walgreens and supported the American cause of shopping. It was COLD. This was the coldest day yet since living in NY. It was 22 degrees in the morning with the trash frozen in place . There's nothing as befuddling as piles of Brooklyn street spew fossilized for a few days in frozen puddles.

Later, we went into town and Sharon found a black Narnia coat for our New York winters and my brother bought us a 14 inch color TV to replace our 4 inch Black and White camping special. That night we went to the Mother of all Macy's...34th Street and entered the madness of Black Friday. Afterwards we ate at the Heartland Brewery and then went to Times Square and saw the new movie about Johnny Cash, "Walk the Line."

The next day I took my brother on a pilgrimage to Yankee Stadium and then back down to the World Trade Center. We ended by coming back to fulfill another family tradition--watching the FSU-Florida football game--on our new 14 inch due to his grand benevolence.

Sunday morning we all went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle for church and got a real blessing with their amazing choir. We then ate at Junior's historic restaraunt in downtown Brooklyn (see http://dinesite.com/info/rstrnt-82989/??&t=0).

We then rushed back to our apartment so my mom and brother could catch a taxi to LaGuardia. And with that we called it a Turkey-stuffed, shopping-packed New York Thanksgiving weekend. God bless us, everyone!