Famous Ankles

This is the last of my posts on the 2008 Easter Parade.

I ended my last one saying that there was a certain regularity to the process:  spot, approach, and take a picture.  True enough, but it’s a light-hearted affair and everyone seems to enjoy it.

The young ladies above were delightful.  I had taken a couple of snaps when the one on the left spotted me, wheeled her friends into position and I got the picture.  Thank you.

Up until this year, I had never seen a man with a hat who either wasn’t escorted by one or more women, or who wasn’t a street performer.  This year, they were all over the place.

The little girl below was watching an orange-fox street performer and was trying to explain to her parents what it was.  There were a few people taking pictures of the fox, and a whole bunch taking pictures of the girl.

Okay, okay.  I got ’em both.

This group of carrots were pretty popular.  They parked themselves outside of St. Patrick’s and just kind of wheeled around getting their picture taken constantly.

The below woman had the widest hat around.  She’s being interviewed, I think by TV-1.

Yes, a bikini-wearing grandmotherly type.  It’s New York.

I couldn’t figure out the guy below.  He was posing with a lot of people and his outfit looks almost like he’s a street performer; but he’s probably just another New Yorker wanting attention.

More of the formal hats.

The below young girl never seems to have raised her head after discovering that there were just a few hundred of us wanting her to pose for a picture.  The poor kid couldn’t handle the attention.  Dad had a great time, though.

The two on the right were in some sort of rat costume.  I don’t know if they got the memo:  the parade’s about bonnets, not rodents.

And my final picture of the day.

Last year and the year before, I would see some huge, huge hats.  Some would actually be nothing less than small trees.  Another popular hat was one depicting a roller-coaster.  I remember several variations on that.  This year?  No sign of ’em.  It may have been just a touch too cold or too early for such.  Or, maybe, the larger crowds are just pushing them away or something.

In any event, I did enjoy the parade and still don’t plan to wear a hat next year.

-H

More pictures from my 2008 Easter Parade wanderings on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

The above was one of the few “grand but weird” hats.  They just didn’t seem to be as numerous as usual.  Maybe I left too early for others, but I don’t think so.

There were some, though.

The picture below captures some of all types.

Some of the more formal hat-wearings that I enjoyed.

And, yes, there were dogs.

Perhaps the most unique person in the parade was the Queen of Hearts.  Oh, yeah; she’s on stilts.  She just towered above everything.

Take a couple of kids and put hats completely over their bodies, tack on some fake small clothes much lower on their bodies and….

The guy below is at all of these events, along with his dog.

But the little girls are still the better subjects.

Some more formal wearing-types.  Quite a bit exaggerated, but that’s fine.

Another shot of the crowd.  This was the group taking photos of the people above.

Some were utterly shameless in trying to grab attention.  Tennis tog wearing women with dogs…and then the women started to play a sort of badmitten game with each other.

It’s a man under all that hatness below.  I’m guessing he agreed to wear a hat if it obscured enough of his features that would prevent his ever being recognized.  Well done, sir!

More of the more-formal-type-hats.  Not truly formal, but more than normal over the past few years.

Tomorrow, I’ll finish the posts.  There’s really not much to say:  you mill around and spot someone in the distance with a hat.  You work your way over there and find a few hundred others are doing the same thing.

-H