Posted on 11/27/2013 5:45:13 AM PST by Conservative Beacon
Like most American households tomorrow morning, the Prices’ television will be tuned to the 85th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The parade has been a part of my Thanksgiving celebrations for as long as I can remember.
Growing up, my parents and I would be the beneficiaries of two (count ‘em, two) Thanksgiving meals each year, one with my father’s side of the family and another with my mother’s family. Thanksgiving, and the holiday season for that matter, would kick off for us by watching the beginning of the parade coverage at 9AM while we were all getting ready for the 10 minute car ride to my aunt and uncle’s house for Round 1–a beyond ridiculous Thanksgiving lunch spread of dressing (yes, we made it casserole style, not stuffed inside our fowl friend), cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, an indulgent yet always delicious HoneyBaked Ham and, of course, the star of any legitimate Thanksgiving meal, roasted turkey.
We would invariably arrive at their house every year at virtually the same part of the parade festivities, which just so happens to be my favorite part: the parade! The floats, bands, and the balloons (my favorite of the favorite). I never cared for the pre-parade Herald Square Broadway performances. I am all about the turkey float with the pilgrims, or the Mt. Rushmore float, or especially the larger-than-life balloons like Woody Woodpecker, Bullwinkle, Charlie Brown, and Mickey Mouse.
Then, just as those uniquely Thanksgiving aromas of perfectly roasted turkey and crispy yet moist dressing began to dominate the air inside my aunt and uncle’s quaint house, who would appear? There he was! The jolly old fellow himself, Santa Claus, making his way down the streets of Manhattan and on television sets across the country.
This has always been a bitter-sweet moment for me. A feeling of temporary depression hits me because St. Nick’s appearance marks the close of the parade. Boom! It’s over for another long, arduous year. Then, almost immediately the realization that the holiday season is just now upon us hits me. Whew! Now that I am emotionally balanced again I can focus on the task at hand: devouring the feast!
I’ve never had the pleasure of witnessing the parade in person, but it’s still a tradition in my family. Many wonderful memories and not-so-wonderful memories have been created with that great American institution broadcasting in the background of our Thanksgiving celebrations. It is truly a tradition in the Price family.
As a result of it playing a significant part of my holiday memories, I have developed a seemingly unsatisfiable curiosity with the history of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. For me, there’s no more interesting or fundamentally American aspect of the parade’s history than its origin. It’s particularly relevant now with the push for amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens residing here, or so-called comprehensive immigration reform.
On a November afternoon in 1924, a small group of employees of R.H. Macy and Company, most of them recent immigrants, marched from Harlem to Macy’s storefront at Herald’s Square. They dressed in various costumes and were accompanied by zoo animals and floats. The event was dubbed as the “Macy’s Christmas Parade”. The occasion? Why it was Thanksgiving, of course! The impetus? As parade historian Robert Grippo notes, the Macy’s employees were thankful for the “opportunities that America and New York City gave them. They decided to give thanks and celebrate their good fortune with a tradition rooted in the festivals of their homelands: parades.”
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade exemplifies the kinds of contributions immigration should make to our great country. We should be welcoming to those immigrants who genuinely and thoroughly value opportunity and freedom–to those who desire to be truly American. But we should be unwelcoming to those who only reside here only for the purposes of taking advantage of the opportunity America provides and remaking America’s culture in the image of their homeland, not assimilating.
Those early immigrant employees brought the best of their native cultures and adapted them to their uniquely American circumstances. As a result, a venerable and perennial American institution was born, creating memories and tradition for millions of Americans!
Enjoy the parade. Enjoy the football and food. Most importantly, enjoy the time with family and friends. Celebrate and be thankful that we live in the land of opportunity!
Happy Thanksgiving!
In 1966, I had the honor of marching in that parade when my high school band, the William Penn Senior High school marching band of York, PA had the honor of leading the parade.
I guess we should expect the stooges & tools to work the immigration angle into just about every story from now on until Obama gets his nation destroying amnesty passed.
I think the balloons may be cancelled this year because there’s a big storm coming with high winds, supposedly.
Uh huh. That'd be thankful LEGAL immigrants, neh?
The bands are my favorite and they frequently are not shown in their full glory. ... just as background while the stupid commentators talk.
Thanksgiving Day Queens, NY, 1948... my grandparents, who emigrated from Italy in 1908, came to our new (to us) house for the feast. Before the meal, Grandpa walked me the five blocks to a neighborhood bar to see the parade on this new thing called “television.” I remember drinking the bitter “milk” off the top of his beers. I hated the taste, but it was my “job” to do that for him.
Thanks for that memory.
I remember when there was coverage of the parade on CBS as well as NBC. Just before it started, Captain Kangaroo would end his show with the cast sitting down to Thanksbiving dinner and bowing their heads as “We Gather Together To Count The Lord’s Blessings” played.
Macy’s New Side Show...Viva....Muslim Brotherhood Supporters to Protest Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
While millions of Americans are being thankful for giant Charlie Brown balloons, the Muslim Brotherhood isn’t feeling particularly thankful since their brutal thugocracy got overthrown and they’ve been sore about it ever since.So they’re doing the completely logical thing by protesting the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Take that Snoopy!
A group of Egyptians sympathetic to former President Mohmamed Morsi are gearing up to stage a demonstration along the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade route in New York City, according to organizers.
Several hundred activists are expected to show up to the march, which is being called “Rabaa on Thanksgiving in Manhattan.”
The name is a reference to Egypt’s Rabaa Square, where backers of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood gathered to protest the coup until being violently disbursed by the military in August.
The Thanksgiving demonstration is being organized by the Free Egyptian Americans (FEA) and Egyptian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights (EADHR), a group sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.
You don’t say. Well protesting Snoopy is easier than protesting the Egyptian military. And no one ever accused the Muslim Brotherhood of courage.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/muslim-brotherhood-supporters-to-protest-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade/
Be nice if they took a flight back home protest there.
Thank-you for your post/. I will carry the message on.
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