Bay Head Prepares for Its First Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade

Ever since she was a little girl, Bay Head Council Member Macy Day has loved parades. Her favorite was always Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. "My father used to work in one of the buildings along the parade route. Every year our family would go into the city and watch the spectacle from his office. The giant balloons would fly right in front of us, and we could see all the floats and marching bands going by. It was our best holiday tradition."

This year, the parade in New York is not going to be happening as usual. It was decided that it would be a health risk to have such big crowds, so the "parade" will now be a scaled down televised event. When Ms. Day heard this news, she was heartbroken. "I understand why they decided to cancel, but it just wouldn't seem like Thanksgiving without some sort of real parade." Ms. Day decided that she wanted to do something about it. 

It occurred to her that Bridge Avenue would be a great location for a parade. The street is in the heart of town, it's very straight, and there are big sidewalks for viewing. Ms. Day proposed the Thanksgiving Parade to the mayor and city council. She was delighted when they all agreed that it was a great idea. In fact, the mayor and council decided to call the event "Macy Day's Thanksgiving Parade." Ms. Day said she was very honored.

The first step for Day and her committee was to find a sponsor. Luckily they were able to team up with IHOP. "We were thrilled when IHOP agreed to sponsor us," she said. "IHOP, or the Incredibly Hot Onion Pierogies, is known as America's favorite onion pierogi restaurant. It's the perfect fit, because who doesn't enjoy onion pierogies on Thanksgiving!"

"Our parade will be relatively small," said Day, "but I think it will be pretty entertaining and a lot of fun. We're still finalizing some things that are really exciting." Ms. Day wanted to include large balloons in the Bay Head parade, as is done in New York, but the streets aren't large enough to accommodate the huge inflatables. Then someone on the parade committee suggested they use weather balloons.

"The weather balloons are perfect," said Day. "They are only about ten feet in diameter and we were able to get them cheaply from military surplus. The only downside is that the only shape they come in is round. We've been working hard painting them with round headed characters children will recognize, although we had to change the names for copyright reasons." So far the group has created a "ParkMan" balloon and a "Charlie Brawn" balloon. They are working on making "Rod" from "Annoying Birds" and hope to also be able to do the head of "Rabble" from "Paw Police".

There won't be a shortage of celebrities, either. According to Ms. Day, they were able to get Bon Jovi to be the Grand Marshall of the parade. "We couldn't believe he was available, but Don said he'd be honored to be there!" Don Bon Jovi, cousin of the famous singer Jon Bon Jovi, has an eighties cover band that performs at weddings throughout southern New Jersey. Other celebrities who will attend include:

• Fatt Damon, overweight Matt Damon impersonator and star of the film "Good Will Baking."
• Lady GooGoo, the YouTube performer known for her songs "Blackjack Face," "Brink of Glory," and "Sad Bromance."
• From the world of sports, Eric Jeter, avid bowler and distant relative of the Yankee legend.
• Jennifer Lawrence. Not the "Jennifer Lawrence" but someone with the same name from Colts Neck who has seen most of her movies.
• Everyone's favorite local entertainer, Mantolo, King of Clowns.

There will also be two marching bands at the parade. "Our streets aren't really large enough to accommodate full marching bands, so we had to do it another way," said Ms. Day. "The mayor's niece is dating a young man who has his own band. They're called 'Contagion' and say they are a punk-metal fusion band. I'm not sure what that means, but they agreed to play their music from the back of a pick-up truck. We're also getting a barber shop quartet called the 'Be Flats' who will walk the parade route while harmonizing."

Like any good Thanksgiving parade, this one will end with the arrival of a very special guest. "We had hoped to have Santa Claus ride in on a fire truck, but we couldn't get the fire truck and we were afraid 'Santa Claus' might be copyrighted. In the end we decided to get Father Christmas who will arrive in the back of a police car," said Ms. Day. Unfortunately, the back seat windows on a police car do not open, so Father Christmas will not be able to wave to the children. Waving would be further complicated by a local ordinance that says civilians in the back of a police vehicle must be handcuffed. Father Christmas will have to wait until he comes to the end of the parade route so he can be uncuffed and wave to the children.

Macy Day acknowledges that some things about the parade won't be perfect, but she is still hopeful it will be the beginning of a Bay Head tradition. "I am really looking forward to it," said Ms. Day. "I'll be walking in the parade, wearing a giant chicken costume. I wanted to get a turkey costume, but they were already all reserved. I hope to see everyone there on Thanksgiving morning. It's sure to be a great time!"