Here in Detroit, they call the local parade “America’s Thanksgiving Parade”? Huh? I had never heard of it before I moved here, and I have lived in TN, NC, IN, MA, and WI, so it isn’t like I have lived in one place all my life and just know the local customs. Everywhere I have lived, the Macy’s parade is the one that is televised.
Has anyone ever heard of it, or is the name a load of hype?
Isn’t that the one where they burn down houses?
Whoops! But seriously, Halloween is the only holiday I’ve heard particularly connected to Detroit, and not in a flattering way.
With the caveat that I’m in NYC, I’ve never heard of the Detroit parade referred to as ‘America’s’. What, is there a competition or something? Even Macy’s doesn’t boast like that.
Exactly. That’s why it bugs me. The parade organizers call it that, and the station that televises it says it every two minutes or so. It just sounds pretentious and ridiculous to me to make that claim.
Hmmm. I’m in the UP, and I’ve never even heard of “America’s Thanksgiving Parade.” The one I have on TV right now is out of New York.
Athena, that proves my point. If you haven’t heard of it in the same state (the UP hasn’t seceded, has it?), it isn’t “America’s Parade.”
Sheesh. You would think Detroit would be happy with sports riots and shootings.
Boosterism and Babbitry.
I’ve never heard of it.
If there’s a single most notable Thanksgiving parade, it’s Macy’s.
Detroit? Where’s that? 
Nope, not yet, although we do think about tearing down that bridge a lot.
I grew up in Tennessee but I remember watching the Detroit Thanksgiving parade on TV in my younger years. Seems like it was sponsored by Hudsons at the time. Most likely it’s been running every year but might not have been picked up by the major networks.
On a side note, I watched a little bit of the Macy’s parade yesterday and wasn’t impressed. It’s turned into one Broadway show promotional lip sync after another.
If you Yoopers didn’t sell pasties and fudge to us trolls, how would you get by?
I never knew Detroit had a big Thanksgiving parade until this year – because my SO grew up there.
After living here for a couple of years, I don’t see the point of a parade where they don’t fling stuff at you anyway.
Well, the cheeseheads buy pasties and fudge, too. But yeah, that’s part of the reason we leave the bridge up - God knows, we get little enough from the mitten, we prolly shouldn’t just give up the Big Pasty Cash.
Given that Detroit is north of Canada, maybe what they means is that it’s the parada for America’s Thanksgiving, as opposed to Canadian Thanksgiving, which is in October.
flickster, I grew up in TN, too, and we always watched the Macy’s parade. That was in middle TN in the 60s. If you don’t mind me asking, when and where did you see it?
RickJay, I think that you might be right. 
America’s Thanksgiving Parade?
In Detroit?
Hmmm.
Is that the one where the parade watchers throw cups of beer at the floats?
That was my first thought since Detroit is next to Windsor Canada. I’m guessing it is proper to make the distinction because of television area overlap.
I grew up in Detroit, and it was the J.L. Hudson Thanksgiving Day Parade. Back when I was a kid, I think it was CBS that used to do a show that showed highlights of all the Thanksgiving Day Parades around the country. I know there was the Macy’s, Detroit, and I remember there being on in Hawaii, too.
There being *one * in Hawaii.
Anyway, here’s a link to the Detroit parade site:
I wonder if the floats just leave the parade route and drive into the crowd…
Northeast TN and the timing would have been late 50’s - early 60’s.