19 November 2012

Nuts to this parade!

Macy's annual Thanksgiving pageantry of floats and fancy footwork is no match for a certain timeless backyard promenade. It's a longstanding tradition of parades that, over the years, never mandated any holiday be declared before the personalities readily queued up, marching with perfect precision: Sumo, Almondo, Mr. Tilty, WhiteSpot, Balducci, Little Notch Ear, Silas Marner, Sunshine, Calypso, The Brothers Grimm, Sylvie and, the very first, Scoiattolo.

Frankly, Spider-Man, Snoopy, Kermit the Frog and Papa Smurf - all of them little more than cartoon balloons - prove to be New York City lightweights in the face of parade professionals such as these.


Linus and Charlie Brown, prepare for the deflating news: Squirrels not only have their feet on the ground, they've got their paws right down in the dirt. They're the only marching band in the procession of time that we really need to mark the passage of another season. After all, if Thanksgiving is a time of bounty, who knows more about harvesting and putting things away for the winter than those who measure their steps outside our windows and doors every day?

Sorry, Macy's. Let retail madness come and go with the shortest days and longest nights of the year. Some of us prefer to take our chances with bushytail madness instead.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi there. You truly have me beat in the Grey squirrel department, what a herd!! I live in Toronto, Canada, and earlier this year, my wife, Jean, and I were in Ireland where we came upon the rarely seen Red Squirrel. To us, they actually look somewhat like our American Red squirrels, but boy, do they have long ears! We were shocked to learn that U.K. and Irish Red squirrels are contracting the pox virus from Grey squirrels, and dying. We have far to many Grey squirrels here at our feeders. But up north near Algonquin Park we have seen a few Red squirrels. We feel very lucky to have seen two Red squirrels in Ireland. We have posted some of our pictures and video of our Red squirrel sightings in Ireland, and Canada for anyone interested at: http://frametoframe.ca/photo-essay-red-grey-squirrels-canada-ireland


squirrelmama said...

Hi Bob, I look forward to visiting your site - as you can probably guess correctly, I can NEVER see too many pictures of squirrels! I love them all.
It's rather sad about what's going on in the UK, where the grey is, unfortunately, an introduced species and as a non-native, proliferates rather freely. Add to the expanding population of greys the fact that they are a vector for pox and you have the makings of a tragedy. I know the government has sanctioned "culls" of the greys, and there is even encouragement to put them on local menus (rather unfortunate) but of course, the saddest part of all this is that it was the result of humans' unthinking interference. I know the Eurasian reds are a national treasure in the UK - from Wales to Ireland to England, and yes, they sure are lovely! In Toronto I believe you are graced with the beautiful white squirrels, are you not? I know of a couple living in London, Canada, and they celebrate the population of whites near them.
Looking forward to your photos.....All the best, and thanks for stopping by.

Unknown said...

Hi again, Thanks for your thoughts and comments. I know that we have white squirrels in Toronto, but to date I have never been able to sight one. Mind you I have seen pictures of them, and they look somewhat like our Grey squirrels, but white squirrels have a slightly bigger tail.