Standing next to a cold street waiting for people and attractions to shuffle past saps my enthusiasm. Karen and I have discovered that checking out parades prior to their start is a great way to see everything and get to interact with the participants while avoiding crowds and traffic jams. The entire procession gets mashed together along a few city blocks. Viewing is fun and easy.
We checked in with Tom, the Parade leader to see how things were going. The Giant Gobbler’s answer was a tad garbled.
The floats and folks who worked them lined up on both sides of Tryon Street. The parade was scheduled to step off at 9:00am. We arrived at 7:30am.
The familiar sound of balloons being inflated drew us in. The day was sunny and clear with light winds. That would make the handlers’ jobs much easier than what their counterparts in New York faced. It was cold early but the temp peaked near 50 degrees.
Our favorite floaty was the golden dragon. Years ago we marched in Chicago’s Christmas parade as handlers for Harris Bank’s “Hubert” balloon. It was a dark, cold, difficult experience of a lifetime we wouldn’t take for or repeat.
Santa’s elves were a shy bunch. They adopted Karen on the spot.
The pilgrims that waved from the cornucopia float were one of the few non-Christmas themed entries in this Thanksgiving Day parade.
I asked a float driver what his job was like. He said, “It’s dark, noisy and I can barely see where I’m going from in here.” Why does he do it? “It’s my tractor.”
Ms. Holland Teed is a singer/songwriter attending school in Boston. Charlotte’s weather was a nice break from the cold for her. Karen liked her candy-themed ride.
Miss South Carolina is Davia Bunch from Saratoga. She lost her mom to cancer and now advocates for people with leukemia and lymphoma. She will compete for the title of Miss America on Sept. 9, 2018. I hope she wins so I can say, “I met Miss America.”
The group from Winterfest made their own fantastic and elaborate costumes.
Every band has one member that doesn’t quite fit in. Karen was ready to join the march. It didn’t seem to bother these focused musicians.
The first band approached 9th street and Tom was ready to get the show going as we finished our tour and headed home. With no traffic to fight we got back in plenty of time to watch the performers we just met from a warm recliner.