Columbus Day in New York City

After coffee and a visit with my dear childhood friend, Celeste, John and I headed to the Columbus Day parade on 5th Avenue. (More about Celeste in a future post.) As we exited the park at the southernmost portion the parade was just making its way from midtown. Our timing was perfect.

We watched for more than 2 hours and it showed no signs of ending anytime soon.  Like other parades it had its share of marching bands,civic groups, police and fire vehicles and politicians. But, unlike any other parade I had ever seen, it also had a large contingent of Italian made vehicles, catholic clergy and a rollerskating flag bearer.

Governor Cuomo, Mayor Bloomberg, Senator Schumer, Paul Sorvino, and Susan Lucci were the "honored guests" whom we noticed.   The accents around us were interesting, the crowd was diverse and extremely well-behaved (one 4 year old notable exception who REALLY wanted a balloon!)
The choice of music for the bands ranged from James Brown hits, We Found Love in a Hopeless Place(?), Hot Stuff (Donna Summer) to Italian favorites and New York, New York.

Two good examples of EVERYONE is Italian on Columbus Day.....

This is an exceptionally LONG parade..... it is billed as beginning at 11 and ending at 3.... check out the shoes on this parade participant!!