Famous Ankles

I had never been to the NYC Pet Parade and I decided it was time to go. I saw the announcement and thought that it gave me a chance to enjoy something a little different. You see, I didn’t have high expectations for it as I already understood it isn’t a “parade” in the sense of marching down the street. Instead, it’s much more in the vein of the NYC Easter Parade which is more of a large gathering of people (in that case, with interesting hats).

The parade was held on the far west side. Actually, on Pier 84 right on the Hudson River. That’s at about the 44th Street level which puts it mid-town. The announcement said from 1 to 4pm. I got there a little before 1pm and didn’t see much action. At 1pm, I took the following picture of the gathering. I was way too early, but that’s part of my nature.

The parade is for all pets. Got a tarantula? A ferret? Snake? All supposedly welcome. The only pets I ever saw were dogs, though. It was cool (high 40s with some wind) and I doubt the snakes and tarantulas would have enjoyed it. Nor the cats, I imagine.

The next dog also wasn’t too happy. The owners would put the halo on him/her for pictures, but the dog would shake it off as quickly as he/she could. Hey, I would too.

The next dog was pretty popular. Pirate dog! Arghh!

NYC is a land of small dogs. Little ‘uns that don’t need too much picking up after (yeah, they enforce that). It also is a land where the owners love, just love, to dress up their dogs. This little happy gathering included one I never would have expected, a lobster-dog. Two of the others were pretty conventional sweater/collared dogs. The dog in the t-shirt is one I knew would be there: Obama t-shirt dog. It’s NYC, a political dog is par for the course. I’m sure he’s old enough to vote…at least in dog years.

I couldn’t resist this next picture. I like small dogs (and large ones, too), but the next picture shows what I consider as “fake bravery dog”. Look at the guy’s jacket and you can see a second head. That little dog never stopped barking it seemed.

As I was leaving, I ran into a few later-arrivers (it was still early, though). Just a couple of more small dogs here.

And then there was this last one. In terms of parade-quality, this one was top-notch. Yes, it’s dog in a Wonder Woman outfit. The effect was very interesting to see the dog with fake arms and all.

But that wasn’t even the most interesting part of that dog. Look closely and you’ll see it’s a Chow. This wasn’t a particularly happy Chow, either. Chows are fighting dogs and this was an unhappy fighting dog. The owner had just strapped on the outfit and maybe the dog was just out of sorts about it and didn’t want the other dogs to see her like that. She didn’t snap at me or anything, but I got one of those feelings of “just a little bit closer so I can taste those famous ankles!” A bit of an exaggeration. The dog looked great and the owner was friendly. I just had the impression of an unhappy dog.

I left after less than an hour. The parade was probably just starting to get cranked up. I hope hundreds more showed up.

-H

I started Famous Ankles in July 2007 as a way to communicate with family and friends and to detail what I kept seeing in NYC.  Then, in August 2007 I started to post daily and after a while…well, it got to be a habit.  Unfortunately, I kept seeing mileposts along the way.  Two months of daily posts, three, four…  Eventually, I started thinking about hitting the one year mark of daily posts.  And I made it.  However, the last three or four months of the run were pretty wearing on me and I’ve decided to take a bit of a break.

I will start posting again soon.  I’ve been trying to think of ways to make it a little more fresh and interesting.  So far, the ideas just aren’t working out.  Strangely enough, I do have materials for posts as I still take some pictures but it just seems like variations on posts that I’ve done before.  I could just post the pictures, but I really hate putting in a picture without context.  A picture without a story is just somebody else’s picture.  It can be interesting, it can be terrific; but I don’t think my photographic skills are able to carry the post unaided.  Besides, I like to have the context and the story.  I just want to make it interesting for me to detail what I’m seeing and hopefully convey that joy to my readers.

So, in the meantime feel free to enjoy the blog.  I purposely fashioned it so that almost any part can be read without worrying too much whether it is outdated.  The events I’ve covered like parades are actually just moments captured and preserved.  As they should be, at least in my opinion.

I’ll post on occasion.

-H

This Sunday Is The Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade!!!!!

And I can hardly wait.  It’s everything you want a parade to be.  Loud. Crowded. Boistrous. Loud. Music.  Loud music.  Louder music.  Amplifiers amplifying the amplified loud music.  Rolicking, crazy, wild, fun, and loud. This is a group that throws one heck of a parade!

I’ve been in NYC for four years now and this will only be my second of these parades.  I actually walked past the setting up once, but didn’t give it any thought.  But last year…I went.  Got myself one heck of an experience.  Wonderful.  Just a blast.

I wrote to family shortly afterward my guidelines for going to the Puerto Rican Day Parade.  For those of you going to the 2008 parade, here are Famous Ankles’ 2007 rules.

1.  Get there early.  (I didn’t.  I showed up 45 minutes before the scheduled start and barely escaped being in the third or fourth row of people.)
2.  Don’t stand behind people sitting on chairs.  (I did get behind two of them.  They looked older and shorter than most of the others around.  Didn’t matter.  They loved to stand on the chairs later in the parade despite the fact that they were at the front!!!)
3.  Speak Spanish.  (I don’t and that’s my bad, at least for that day.  One woman beside me kept asking me questions.  I think she thought it she was speaking English, but what I understood her to be asking and what she was asking appear to be different things.  She kept asking me if this was the “end of the parade” before it even started.  I think she was asking the direction they were coming from and answered accordingly.  She didn’t understand my answer.)
4.  Dance.  (I didn’t.  Everybody else did.  Including the cops.)
5.  Wave flags.  The bigger, the better.  Two flags are better.  Three if you can.  Don’t worry that others can’t see through the flags; flags are good and meant to be waved vigorously.  (They handed out flags by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.  Even I had a flag.  Although, I admit that I only waved it once or twice and then gave it to a nearby child.)
6.  Earplugs.  Ya gotta have earplugs.  (Hurray, I got this one right.  When I mentioned I was going to the parade to a guy at work, he looked at me with dead seriousness and said:  Take earplugs!  I did and I’m very grateful to him.  You wanna know how much you need earplugs?  At one point in the parade, a police car was in the procession.  It had flashing lights and the siren going full blast.  It was just background noise. The whole parade isn’t that bad, but that’s beside the point. Take earplugs!)
7.  Wear red, white, and blue.  (Well, it isn’t necessary, but you’ll be the only person there not wearing the national colors of Puerto Rico.  I stuck out like a sore thumb.)
8.  Be ready to duck (I wasn’t.  At some point, a float came by and one, count it – one, T-shirt was thrown to the crowd.  Directly – at – me.  A gift for the poor guy not wearing the national colors. I didn’t see it, but at least two people around me did and launched themselves onto me.  I got clobbered in the head pretty good.  Not knocked down or anything, but it was a bit of a blow and I sure wasn’t happy.  The guy behind me was…he got the shirt.  The woman beside me wasn’t too happy, ‘cuz she didn’t.)

 -H

No better way to start off my third and final post on Sunday’s parade than to show Miss Philippines USA.

The Jaycees. Or as they marked themselves: The Junior Chamber of Commerce.

The next group was the Filipino Social Club of New York City.

This was Mrs. Philippines USA.  Okay, that’s her well to the right in the picture.  I doubt that Mrs. Philippines looks about five or so.

Whoever originated the name of “Filipino Intercollegiate Networking Dialogue” was only interested in getting the acronym “FIND”. The marchers were only interested in tossing some beach balls amongst themselves. I approve of the beach ball fun.

I know, I know. You’ve been asking: where are the Bukidnons? Here they are. I haven’t any idea who/what the Association of Bukindons in America is; but here they are.  Cool clothing, too.

We’d gone too long without Ladies with Parasols. Here came some.

The Philippine-American Association of Connecticut marched next. I liked these ladies and their native dress.

A bunch of protestors marched next. The economist part of me is bemused. Their demands? Control the price of rice and abolish the rice cartels. Cartels are designed to control prices; that’s one of the definitions. If you control the price of rice, presumably by keeping it lower, then production lags. If you want to keep the price of rice high, demand lags.  End of Econ 101 class.

More of the protestors. A little bit of trivia: something like 10 percent of all Philippinos have left their country and work in other countries. It’s a big industry for them.  This was an immigration group, but I’m a little bemused by the idea that they are against trafficking people.  That seems to be a growth business in the Philippines.

The next group touched something that was missing in this parade. It was a remembrance for Hector Tamayo who died in 9/11. I know nothing about Hector, but they were basically saying that their community has that connection and remembers.

I always enjoyed the Ladies with Parasols and got some more. When I started writing these posts I mentioned that there were a bunch. But then, that’s just fine.

Well, we’ve had Ladies with Parasols and “brides” and now we have “girls under flowers”. I haven’t quite seen this before.

Yeah, these girls were adorable. I imagine all of this group got pretty tired walking the 14 or 16 blocks of the parade.

I am utterly baffled by the below group: The Original Maharajah USA, Inc. Who they are, what they stand for… Just baffled.

A last group of beauty queens. That’s a reporter who jumped up there to grab an interview with a queen.

The final Church group: Couples for Christ.

And the final group: the promised bagpipers (that’s what I promised in the first post; that this parade was begun and ended by bagpipers).

All in all, a mild parade that was really only distinguished by the Ladies with Parasols. I enjoyed it, but the groups seemed a little staid. Next weekend, the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Now they are not dull in the least.

-H