2004 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Yesterday was the 2004 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which we viewed from the tenth floor of Five Times Square.

The Times surveyed the scene from the street:

Soft mud squashed underfoot, idle breezes wafted into open windows, and an estimated 2.5 million spectators who lined up along Central Park West and Broadway basked in a 64-degree morning that felt more like early May than late November.

After all the hand-wringing that wind gusts might ground the giant, helium-inflated balloons, the parade turned into one of the most placid and postcard-perfect in years.

More of the postcard:

As usual, the Technicolor convoy began creeping through the Upper West Side around 9 a.m. and reached Herald Square around noon. It was led this year by a helmet-wearing Super Grover, the impish Sesame Street character.

Barbie characters sang, and Broadway actors plugged their musicals. Rock-faced marching-band leaders high-stepped by. Celebrities waved. Dancers grinned. Children in the Dakota apartment building pressed against the windows to get a better look.

Even more postcard:

Strangers took photos of one another, posed in front of giant floating turkeys. Kids played catch in the street, families planned afternoon football games, and a homeless man on 72nd Street sipped from a large Starbucks cup.

And last but certainly not least, the signature Times sociological longview:

The parade’s patriotic tone in the years after 9/11 had been subsumed by exultant commercialism.

The parade’s 59 balloons included M&M’s candies characters, Ronald McDonald and the game icon Mr. Monopoly. As they floated past, children waved and called out “SpongeBob!” and “Pikachu!” to get the balloons’ attention.

When less-commercial floats and generic turkey and elf balloons passed by, the crowds applauded politely, like parents at a mediocre piano recital.

In all, a day to remember!

Oh, and about that Pikachu thing: