# I was in the 2018 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade - thanks to an awesome Doper! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 26, 2018, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-in-the-2018-macy-s-thanksgiving-day-parade-thanks-to-an-awesome-doper/825090 "2018-11-26T00:19:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-in-the-2018-macy-s-thanksgiving-day-parade-thanks-to-an-awesome-doper/825090/21 "2018-11-30T13:31:44Z")
**beowulff** that is one fucking fantastic story, and well-told. Big props to you for doing it and HUGE props to your Mysterious Benefactor for helping make it happen. Ddamn, the Straight Dope totally fucking rocks! ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-in-the-2018-macy-s-thanksgiving-day-parade-thanks-to-an-awesome-doper/825090/22 "2018-11-30T13:37:59Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Great story! Glad you got to do that. > > Question: are you a Macy’s employee? My wife insists only employees get to handle the floats. I called BS but no way to validate. No, I’m not a Macy’s employee. The huge majority of the parade positions go to Macy’s employees, but my understanding is that an employee can sponsor a family member or guest. That’s what makes this experience so incredible - the number of non-employees in the parade is very small, and my sponsor was very generous to give me a shot at it! ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2018, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-in-the-2018-macy-s-thanksgiving-day-parade-thanks-to-an-awesome-doper/825090/23 "2018-12-02T13:08:41Z")
Thank you for sharing this what a terrific experience! I wonder if we should start a thread for bucket list wishes like this. We dopers have our fingers in a lot of different spots all over the planet and I bet this is not the only one that could be brought to fruition. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-in-the-2018-macy-s-thanksgiving-day-parade-thanks-to-an-awesome-doper/825090/24 "2019-11-30T15:33:54Z")
Congratulations, **beowulf** — and kudos to your generous sponsor. A friend of mine (also a non-employee) had to work his way up; it wasn’t until his fifth or sixth parade that he got to handle a balloon. (I did it once. Carried one end of a banner with Usher’s name on it in front of a float he was on. Was hoping to do it again the following year, but never got that mid-summer e-mail from Macy’s.) ---
**Author:** ![drpepper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@drpepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drpepper)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-in-the-2018-macy-s-thanksgiving-day-parade-thanks-to-an-awesome-doper/825090/25 "2019-12-02T03:05:15Z")
Love it!!! Thanks for writing this up. I really enjoyed reading about your experience — truly once-in-a-lifetime! And thanks to that anonymous Doper for making that cool thing happen! ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-in-the-2018-macy-s-thanksgiving-day-parade-thanks-to-an-awesome-doper/825090/26 "2019-12-02T04:35:24Z")
What an experience! Thanks for posting. Anonymous Doper, you’re incredible! Thanks for brightening my day. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-in-the-2018-macy-s-thanksgiving-day-parade-thanks-to-an-awesome-doper/825090/27 "2019-12-02T05:19:04Z")
PIKA, PIKA… Sorry Teehee. Not sorry. Lovely story 🙂 Thank you, both to **beowulff** and to **Anonymous**. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-in-the-2018-macy-s-thanksgiving-day-parade-thanks-to-an-awesome-doper/825090/28 "2019-12-02T12:11:39Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Everyone should have “March in a parade” on their bucket list. How about “Ride on a Parade Float?” Eons ago, when my uncle worked for Pepsi, I was on a float in a muu-muu, because a blond of Eastern European descent can pass for Hawaiian! 😃 Then when I was in college (and in the Navy) I marched in 3 Mardi Gras parades carrying the Navy flag. That was much less fun than waving from a float. But neither was even close to as cool as your experience! How exciting!! Thanks for sharing!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-in-the-2018-macy-s-thanksgiving-day-parade-thanks-to-an-awesome-doper/825090.md?page=1)