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A Big Apple Thanksgiving

A tale of Macy’s, the Marching Royal Dukes and 2,999,995 neighbors and frenemies

By Rebecca Maas (’04)

Dan (’07), Rebecca (’04) and Jessica Maas (’09) were grateful to spend Thanksgiving in New York City watching the Marching Royal Dukes in the Macy’s parade.

Dan (’07), Rebecca (’04) and Jessica Maas (’09) were grateful to spend Thanksgiving in New York City watching the Marching Royal Dukes in the Macy’s parade.

Despite the constant drumbeat of “more bad news” over the recent months — war, economic woes, political finger pointing — I found myself extremely thankful for many things this Thanksgiving. Not the least of which was my family, who never fails to remind me of all my blessings. This year was no exception as the four of them — my dad, mom, brother and sister — made the trip from Richmond, Va., to New York City to spend the holiday with me in Manhattan.

We decided to make the most of our New York City Thanksgiving, doing as many New York holiday activities as we could: taking long walks in Central Park, window shopping at Bergdorf Goodman and Tiffany, stopping by Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue and, of course, clamoring for sidewalk space at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Convincing everyone to go to the parade was a bit harder than I imagined — who wouldn’t want to go watch, live and in-person, the staple of the Thanksgiving tradition in America? Turns out, I had three distinct problems: my mom doesn’t like the cold; my sister doesn’t like crowds; and my dad and brother love football. It would appear those three strikes meant the outing was, well, out.

However, after I mentioned that the Marching Royal Dukes would be making their second Thanksgiving Day Parade appearance (and promising to TiVo the Detroit Lions game), everyone agreed it couldn’t be missed. After all, with two JMU alums (my brother, Dan, is an ’07 grad; me, ’04) and a current student in the family (my sister, Jessica, will graduate from JMU in 2009), it seemed downright disloyal not to go.

We parked ourselves at Columbus Circle shortly after the parade kicked off — just in time to see the iconic Thanksgiving turkey float by. To call it crowded would be an understatement — by the estimate of the New York Post, approximately 3 million people lined the streets to watch. Sounds about right. The constant pushing, shoving and grumbling was a clear reminder how harsh New Yorkers can be, even on a holiday. I started to worry about over-exposing my polite, Virginia-based family to the tough crowd until I saw my dad deliberately elbow somebody and heard my sister interrogate a woman trying to push her way to the front. Apparently they were doing just fine and didn’t need me to protect them.

To make up for the jostling, the floats — and the giant balloons, in particular — didn’t disappoint. Cheers from the crowd grew louder as each passed. From beloved cartoons like Buzz Lightyear and Snoopy, and the appearance of green icons (before it was fashionable) like Kermit and Shrek, it was every inch the spectacle it appears on TV. And, as each marching band passed, we craned our necks, hoping for a glimpse of purple and gold. After lots of patience, and unfortunately, some numbed feet, the Marching Royal Dukes finally pulled into sight. As they were toward the end of the parade route, I wasn’t expecting many from the crowd to cheer or stay engaged — everyone was waiting for Santa, who was due to arrive soon. However, I was thrilled to notice the crowd pause their side conversations as the MRD’s marched through Columbus Circle playing 76 Trombones from The Music Man. They even received an impressive round of applause and cheers — more than any other band that came through that morning. And no, not all the cheers came from our huddle of five on the sidelines.

Watching JMU, once again in a national spotlight, caused a renewed swell of pride in my alma mater. I also heard my sister telling people in the crowd she was a JMU student — and she’s not one to strike up conversations with strangers. It reminded me to be thankful for my JMU education — such a precious gift that can never be taken away, no matter how bad it gets on Wall Street or what’s happening in the White House.

And, as an added personal bonus, the post-parade traffic back to my apartment was nothing compared to the nightmare that was the Northeast corridor at the end of the weekend. For that, I was truly thankful.

About the author

Rebecca Maas works at Peppercom Strategic Communications in Manhattan.