<p>We walked up onto to the FDR Drive from the East Village–with a huge group of friends. What a great night.</p>
<p>I live in the frozen north. I have to ask… do the floats smell as good as they look? All those flowers… I bet it’s heavenly.</p>
<p>I enjoy watching parades…</p>
<p>as a former high school marching band member and member of a drum and bugle corps… I do not like marching parades. Not being able to feel which valves you are pressing on an instrument because your hand is numb isn’t the best feeling.</p>
<p>cheers and jazzymom – I was also at the 100th B’day fireworks for the Brooklyn Bridge in '83! They were one of the four most memorable fireworks displays I’ve ever seen. (We were on the Watchtower building on the Brooklyn side, if I remember right…)</p>
<p>(The other 3, all 4ths of July: one in downtown Manhattan, standing in the windows on the 65th floor of the WTC, seeing the coordinated displays on the East and Hudson Rivers; one on the Mall in Washington DC; one from a sailboat on Long Island Sound, returning from a week at sea, with displays firing off left and right on both the LI and CT sides of the Sound.)</p>
<p>I like live parades and have attended our local halloween parade every year since we’ve lived here - 9 years. The reason I’m hooked though is because I’ve always had at least one child marching in it as a cub scout, boy scout or marching bando. If I lived as close as 30 minutes to the Rose Parade I would probably have done it at least once. I love the idea of looking at the floats close up afterwards. Around here the tv parade to watch is the Philadelphia mummers day parade. Some people actually attend it but with the weather likely to be rainy/cold/or snowy, (and it being a long drive) I have never been tempted to attend.</p>
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Different strokes for different folks. There are just so many things that I enjoy purely as a spectator, I can’t imagine not having them in my life. Broadway shows, wonderful symphonies, great concerts in all types of musical genres, lectures, good movies. Not to mention anything my kids are involved in.</p>
<p>As a child, we watched Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade religiously every year on TV (once we bought one). It was my dream to see it in person. When D was about 12, we went and had a wonderful time! My next dream is to see the Rose Parade in person. Never miss it. I don’t care about the teams or the bands, but those floats, and how they create them is something to see on TV - I can’t wait until I can see it in person someday. Sorry about the family pooping out on you. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Someday, when your sons have little girls, and they say they want to go, who knows? But for next year, get a friend sng GO, GO, GO! See it for those of us who only dream of it.</p>
<p>SS: I agree with you. If you think about it, the spectators in any event play a pretty important role and in my book, you’re doing something by getting out there and being a part of it by cheering from the sidelines. Or the theater seats or whatever. You may not have as clear a view as watching from home, but being there live is what cements that feeling of connection to a community, the community that keeps such traditions going. </p>
<p>ejr: ahhh, you’ve touched on my unspoken wish: a chance to take a grandchild or two to this event and others. Boys or girls. Their parents can come along, or sleep in instead. Tis devoutly hoped for. You know, you made it to NY for Macy’s, you can make it to CA for the Rose Parade. I guarantee the weather will be better.</p>
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<p>From standing a few feet away I don’t remember being able to smell the floats. Maybe by time all those flower petals get glued and pasted into place the smell is suppressed.</p>
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<p>Or spend the night on the sidewalk only to have late arrivers TRY to step in front of you when the street opens…</p>