Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Posted on by Thor

We were staying at Steve Wallace‘s house out on Staten Island. Steve works at the Police Academy in New York City. He drove us to the Academy which is right in the neighborhood of the School of Visual Arts where I went to college. After a quick visit to his office where we left Reese’s, Carol’s Dachshund, we were escorted up to Macy’s by another officer, Joe Deligate. We drove through barricade after barricade until we were right across from Macy’s. There was a special section reserved for police family and we pressed in.

I sketched as we waited for the parade to begin. My older brother Don Thorspecken showed up with his kids, Nicki and Kyle. There was a long wait. Cheerleaders sat in the street hugging their legs trying to stay warm. There were bleachers set up across the street and that was where the TV camera’s were. Macy’s had a large Believe sign on the side of the store. I believe it had to do with the newspaper editors reply to Virginia when she asked if there is a Santa Claus.

Confetti cannons announced the start of the parade. We were at the point where the parade turned right, so we had an unobstructed view of all the floats and balloons as they approached. One balloon was of a Shelf Elf. Carol practices this tradition. A shelf elf is in the home in the week prior to Christmas. This elf reports back to Santa telling him if the children have been naughty or nice. Each day the elf is hidden in a new hiding spot and the kids try to find him. As we ate breakfast one morning, the Kids, Anna and Kirsten discovered the elf sitting right on the light above the table. I hadn’t noticed, since I wasn’t looking.

Floats stopped at our corner so we got to shout out to the stars in the parade, like Whoopie Goldberg and Adam Sandler. Teen pop stars got the loudest shout outs. I didn’t recognize them, but the teens behind me certainly did! Singer, Carley Ray Jepson, who sang that “Call me Maybe” song was on a float. The huge balloons loomed over us as they shifted in the wind. The parade went on for like five hours before we got to see Santa on his sleigh. Nini Thorspecken, my 17 year old cousin visiting from Germany, was right up front, pressed against the metal barricade. I think she was impressed by this American tradition.

Macy’s Parade Balloons

Posted on by Thor

Terry and I went up to New York City over the Thanksgiving break. A distant cousin, Nini Thorspecken, was visiting America from Weisbadden Germany. Nini is just 17 years old so we wanted to give her an authentic taste of the Big Apple. My sister Carol Martindale came down from upstate New York and we all stayed on Staten Island. The ferry ride across the harbor to the city was gorgeous, going right past the Statue of Liberty. Carol had passes to get into the 9/11 Memorial, so that was our first stop. The memorial is amazing, with two huge square holes where the towers once stood. Water cascaded down into the wells like Niagara Falls and then the water leveled off before dropping into a smaller deeper well. Names of everyone who perished that day were etched in steel along the outer perimeter. It is an amazing sight and I plan to return someday to sketch.

We all took the subway to the Upper West Side to see the Macy’s balloons being blown up on 77th street next to the Museum of Natural History. When I lived in the city, this was an annual sketch ritual. I would stay up all night sketching and then watch as the crews allowed the giants to lift up into the breeze. There was always some balloon that would blow over into a light post, popping a limb. This year the crowds were astonishing. There was a line that branched off for two solid blocks and then wrapped back to where I was standing to sketch. The traffic cop standing in front of me tended to ignore all the pleas from suburban moms who wanted to know how to get in. Occasionally he would point but he never spoke.  Terry went to visit an old friend named Kent Brasloff so I decided I had time to do this one sketch. Carol and Nini decided to go get dinner and they would meet me back here when they were done.

The only balloons I could identify were an Aflac Duck, a Koolaid Pitcher and some Anime dragon. By the time I finished the sketch, the line had backed up to the point where I was in the crush of the crowd. I hadn’t noticed since I was so focused on the strange nocturnal scene. When Carol and Nini came back, I was done. We texted Terry to let her know we were heading back down to the Battery to catch the ferry back to Staten Island. When we got off the subway, Terry called out to us as we were walking up the subway steps. She must have been in the next car.