Holidays

A Trip for the Ages

Jeanna G1 Comment

As I’d mentioned in my post “Mementos,” watching the Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving has been a tradition of mine since a very young age. In the early 2000s, the National Dog Show was added to my holiday routine. Every year I tune in to watch while surrounded by family, friends, and food. And every year I’d tell myself I would watch the parade in person one day, and I’d get a dog. Finally, in 2018, I did both. Thanksgiving just happened to fall on my late grandma’s birthday that year, November 22nd. It seemed fitting to finally see the parade in person that I had watched in her living room on Long Island for so many years.

On Wednesday, my daughter and I boarded the Silver Star in Raleigh, which had been delayed because of an accident involving a landscaping truck somewhere in Florida. Because of the delay, we were pushed back in the line going into just about every station along the route, changing our arrival time from 6pm to midnight. The delay put the kibosh on attending the balloon inflation event near the American Museum of Natural History. We’ll just have to go back another year, preferably when the weather is warmer. The parade first began in 1924, and the year my daughter and I went was the coldest in the parade’s history; 19 degrees in Central Park at 11am.

We pulled into Penn Station at midnight, walked to our hotel near Times Square, and slept a few short hours before bundling up and walking toward Columbus Circle. We settled on a spot at the corner of 68th and Central Park West, that also happened to be where a Macy’s employee was allowing ticket holders to cross to the other side of the street, where they could sit on bleachers for a better view. At 10 til 9, there were very few people sitting on the bleachers, so the employee turned to us and asked if we wanted to cross over. I hadn’t even grabbed my chair and my daughter was already halfway across the street. We were gifted with a front row seat over subway vents that blew up coveted gusts of hot air every time a trained passed beneath us. At 9am sharp the parade kicked off, and despite the potential for frostbite, my daughter and I had a ball. The clowns patted her head and tossed confetti all over her. We waved at the stars and were slack-jawed by the immensity of the balloons. And then there was Santa. Time slowed as he and I locked eyes. Always believe in the magic that is Santa Claus. Nothing can transport me back to childhood faster.

When watching on tv, the parade doesn’t end until noon, and you see a good hour of performances in Herald Square, including the quintessential can-can kicks of the Rockettes, before the parade marches through. We were so close to the parade kick-off at 77th street, that it wasn’t even 11am when Santa glided by. From our spot at 68th, we walked up to Strawberry Fields, where we climbed into a bicycle-driven carriage that took us for a spin through the park. It was expensive, but necessary because neither of us could feel our feet anymore. We got out at 7th and Central Park South to find a deli that had an entire roasted turkey as part of its buffet. I made Ellie a take-out box of Thanksgiving fixins, and ordered myself a turkey Reuben. We hobbled back to our hotel, only slowing to gaze at the Christmas displays in the store windows. We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner in bed while watching the Dog Show. After thawing out, we dressed up and hailed a taxi to take us to Radio City Music Hall to experience the Rockette’s Christmas Spectacular; a must-see.

The next morning we dashed off to F.A.O Schwarz to dance on the piano. I bought us both a lovie to cuddle on the train home. A quick stop at Junior’s for bagels and a cheesecake (not a slice, but a whole cake), and then we were back on the train headed south.

It was a whirlwind, but it is one of the most satisfying, memorable trips I have ever taken, and one that I hope my daughter will always treasure. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

What’s that one trip you keep telling yourself you’re going to take? What’s stopping you?

Mementos

Jeanna G2 Comments

I found myself on Google Maps the other day. I mean I was using Google Maps to look up an address. Although I did happen to stumble upon a piece of myself when I got there.

8 East Street, Hicksville, NY. (Yes, Hicksville is a real place!) Grandma hasn’t lived there in sometime near 20 years, but looking at its picture was like looking through a time portal. Gosh, I love that house. From the outside, with the exception of some new windows, it doesn’t look like it’s changed a bit. I’m grateful for that.

Thanksgiving fell around Gram’s birthday, so we’d celebrate both with the whole family at her house. Gram’s five sons and their families plus mom and our family took up all the space in that house. I can’t explain how we all fit. (Now that would’ve made for an amazing game of Sardines!) There were two bedrooms on the main floor, and the attic and basement were also used as bedrooms. There was one toilet in the whole house (not counting the chamber pot in the attic). I mean, that was hard for the two days we were there, but can you imagine growing up with five brothers and only one toilet?

Thanksgiving was extra special with the extensive family and the traditions of the parade and the spread, but Gram’s was always a place where I was happy to be. The food had a lot to do with it; homemade chocolate chip cookies, real mashed potatoes, soldiers (toast sticks and soft-boiled eggs), ham salad on Ritz, pumpkin pie. And there were other random things that I loved like the swing set in the back yard, her green Dodge Dart, the train whistle throughout the day, Little People and Fisher Price toys in the basement, the Care Bears resting on the bed pillows, and her 3-foot artificial Christmas tree. She taught me to play Rummikub, which she would play with her girlfriends on her trips to St. Martin. And of course there was Days of Our Lives. I think she might have been the very first viewer of that soap, and didn’t miss many, if any, episodes in the forty years from its air date until she passed.

I was in college when she sold the house in Hicksville. She actually moved closer to us, so I was able to see her more often, and her new home was just as welcoming and comfortable for holidays and regular days, even though it also had only one toilet.

Gram passed in 2005 at the age of 94. I miss her and I miss her homes, and now that I have a daughter, I miss her even more. I wish Ellie could have spent those Thanksgivings with her so much that I try to replicate the things I love and miss about those times.

Mementos. Trivial, materialistic, wastes of space? Or time machines in disguise that transport us to a place where our happiness grew? I found a Fisher Price retro cash register for $2 at a thrift shop and felt like I’d won the lottery. I bought my daughter Care Bears and Little People figures when she was a toddler. I have my own 3-foot artificial Christmas tree that I decorate with little multi-color lights and all of my tacky ornaments. I brought Rummikub to Turks and Caicos so I could play it with my girlfriends. I’d forgotten how to play in the 30 years since Gram had taught me, and the rum drinks weren’t helping to jog my memory, but I was happy to try, and grateful that my friends played along with me. When we moved into our home five years ago, a train whistled as it passed through town in the middle of the night, and I smiled knowing then that I had definitely chosen the right house.

Do I really need these things taking up space in my home? Yes. Yes I do. Because it is these objects that help me to find those spaces in my heart and mind where my happiness lives. It’s a good thing to have reminders of who and what nurtured your happiness, whether it’s a sound, a toy, or a tacky 3-foot artificial Christmas tree.

Where do you wish you could go back to? What mementos will you continue to hold onto?