Macy*s Thanksgiving Day Parade 1989

Nine years ago today I was 17 years old and spending a week in New York City. This was the first year that cheerleaders were invited to cheer in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They invited the top 300 cheerleaders in the nation. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis, where we practiced 8 -10 hours a day. The practices started as early as 6 am and some nights we were still practicing until 11 or 12 midnight. Two days before the parade, we had our dress rehearsal in Hoboken, New Jersey. They rented out a street for us to practice walking up, getting into position, listening for the music cue and practicing on concrete. It seemed very funny to me that they had to drive across state lines to rent a small side street. The night before the parade, we actually walked down to 5th avenue and did a dry run. I remember that Scott Bacula (msp?) from Quantum Leap was there. Whoo, we were all impressed with him!


As far as the parade itself, it was not really so much fun. We had to meet in the main ballroom to 'assemble' at 3AM!!! There was a lot of hurry up and wait time, but I think they were trying to get the logistics down of how to get 300 girls (and a few boys) to the beginning of the parade route. (We had to carry/pull the big, huge balloons through the whole route.) Also, my year was the first year in the history of the parade that it snowed. That meant we were walking 4 miles in little short skirts and white keds, freezing our tails off while we were holding on to the huge balloons that had the potential to take you up into the skyline. (They warned us that if the balloon started to go up to let go and do not feel like you needed to be the one to hang on to try to save it!) The reprieve was getting to go into Macy's (the namesake store) for an hour before our official performance time and warm up our bones. When it was time, we got in our places for the 2 minute performance. They messed up the music! It was chaos, everyone was trying to pick up where the music finally faded in, but the routine looked pathetic until the last 30 seconds. We nailed the ending! Unfortunately, this is where the TV cameras are filming for the networks. After we finished, we had to turn the corner and do the performance again for the crowd. This one was flawless, but there were no cameras to catch it. The saddest thing about the whole parade? When we were done, they pointed up in the general direction of our hotel and we had to walk back. In our frozen keds. Kind of like, "good job, see ya later kids!" Most of us slept the rest of the day, buried under the covers, still trying to warm up.

We did have nice outings scheduled while we were there. They took us to a Broadway show, but I cannot recall the name of the show that we saw. We had tickets to see the Rockettes performing the Christmas Spectacular, which was phenomenal. We visited the Statue of Liberty and took the tour, then headed over to Rockefeller Center to see the tree all lit up and skate on that famous ice rink. I think best of all was the Friday night dinner cruise through New York harbour that we had the after the parade was over. We had the most delicious meal and all the stress of the whole week was released.


Overall, it was a great experience that I wish I could relive it again and I am sure I would appreciate it so much more with what I know now.