Happy day-after Thanksgiving! I hope you had a good holiday and were able to share it with with those that mean the most to you.
Before our annual family get together, Gail and I had something new to do this year. Our day started with the alarm going off at 5:30am so we could get dressed and ready for the Parade. Since I was co-Grand Marshall, The Parade Company President Tony Michaels and the committee were gracious enough to send a limo to pick Gail and me up to take us downtown. Our first stop, Hockeytown, for an interview on Channel 4. Then back into the limo for a 5 minute ride to the Compuware building, for a pre-parade breakfast. (They even made an egg-white omelet for me!)
At 8:45, they limoed us, along with my co-Grand Marshall, DTE Board Chariman, Tony Earley and his wife Sarah, up Woodward to the Whitney Restaurant which was in the “holding area” location.
After a half an hour or so there, we walked across the street to our waiting vehicles: two Chrysler Sebring convertibles. We then entered the parade in our assigned position (#23) about two slots behind “The Cow Jumping Over The Moon”, and we were underway for an hours ride!
Now, having ridden up and down Woodward Avenue in 14 Woodward Dream Cruises in an open convertible, doing the same thing Thursday, was in a way similar… only colder! Gail and I had prepared for the dismal forecast - in fact I bought a rain-repellent fur-lined hat with ear-flaps. I wore it for the first 15 minutes, and then decided I didn’t need the ear flaps… besides, they made me look even dorkier than usual!
I have to say riding in the Parade as co-Grand Marshall was not only an incredible honor, it was great fun! The spirit of Detroit was never so apparent to me as it was as I watched the hundreds of thousands of people - as they say, “kids from 1 to 92” - lining Woodward Avenue on a cold, damp, blustery, Thanksgiving morning.
As I rode up Woodward Avenue in an open convertible waving to the crowd, somehow it didn’t seem so cold. Maybe it was the thousands of people waving back!
- Dick
P.S. A special hello and thanks to my friend Captain Dave Lausman, the Commanding Officer of the nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the “USS George Washington”. He and his six thousand strong crew are currently deployed off the coast of South Korea, following North Korea’s unprovoked attack earlier this week. I am truly thankful for them, their families and all of those who answer the call!
FINAL NOTE: Saturday, Michgan State vs. Penn State… Go Green!!!!! And in honor of Michigan’s game in Columbus, click below to hear “Liquidate Ohio State” and Doc Andrews famous Mr. Michigan piece. Go Blue!!!!!