Monday, November 29, 2021. 47 degrees as I write this late Sunday night with the holiday weekend over. And now it’s on to the next four weeks which are most often the busiest it gets in the city. Historically, that is.
Meanwhile, we complete the weekend over here at NYSD with the final chapter of Paige Peterson’s Thanksgiving Weekend covering the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. She’s been doing this for us for years. It seems like. Someone remarked to me — before the actual parade — that we’d all “been there/done that.”
I looked at this year’s version with that in mind. Curious only. Not true; it’s new every year. Perhaps because we didn’t have a parade in honor of the pandemic last year. So this year was a revival of good spirits.
Because it’s a tradition and because Paige has been following it from her living room windows and on the pavement for years, I’ve come to look forward to it. The security got tighter this year on the avenue (CPW). Spectators along the avenue had to enter CPW coming from Columbus Avenue (one block to the west). There was otherwise no foot traffic on Central Park West from 86th Street to Columbus Circle.
Today we’re running Paige’s photos on the ground and from her friend Peter Brown’s apartment ten blocks to the south of her apartment. I wasn’t there but Paige’s photos give me a good sense of it. Highly creative, energetic, young people participating; amazing floats all for the pure pleasure of Wonder which our early selves engaged and participated in with pleasure. Remember that wonder in yourself? It’s still there, and still a good thing (at least for the moment).
