Memories of a parade and a famous car chase
It was one of those days you don’t forget.
Not in the same category as your wedding day or when your kids are born. Those days are monumental life-changers. This day was a few notches below, but memorable just the same.
It was 1994. My favorite Hybrid Mom and I were big fans of the New York Rangers hockey team. The kids hadn’t come along yet, and we were (relatively) free to do things somewhat spontaneously. This day we decided at the last minute to 
take a commuter train into New York City and join other fans to celebrate the team’s championship. Friday’s scenes of the big ticker-tape parade for the Yankees brought back those memories.
Of course, that day we didn’t realize there might be a few other people with the same idea. Only about a million folks turned out for the parade. We took a subway downtown to catch the key-to-the-city portion of the event instead of helping line the streets to see the floats. When we emerged from the subway, we could hear the parade … but we couldn’t see anything. The crowds were immense. We hung out for a bit; listening to the ceremonies and the cheers of the crowd. Then we looked at each other as if to say, “OK, we were here” and then we got back onto to the subway and headed home.
The day later became even more surreal. I worked as a sports editor at my local newspaper, and the hometown Knicks were playing that night in the basketball championship series. While watching the game in the office and preparing to tell 
readers about it, TV broke in with news that a white SUV was driving on a Los Angeles freeway, followed by several police cars. Yup, O.J.
Just like everyone else, we were riveted to the TV for the next few hours (this was before news broke on websites). I remember saying to another editor that this was turning into the biggest media story of all-time. Think of the elements: celebrity, murder, sex, sports, mystery, racial overtones and more. Nobody knew that night how it was going to end, and of course the subsequent trial captured headlines for months.
Talk about a day. Hanging out with a million friends to celebrate my favorite team winning its first (and so far only) championship in my lifetime, and then watching a huge national story breaking on deadline while working in a big newsroom. See why it was memorable?
Now, in a different job and with many more responsibilities, most days are somewhat quieter and significantly less spontaneous. However, we still have the memories, and we can tell our kids about the day “we were there.”
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