Article published November 27, 2009
Nation celebrates 2009 Thanksgiving
Americans pause for rituals of turkey day
Kermit the Frog floats through New York's Times Square during Macy's 83rd annual Thanksgiving parade, which had a new route this year. Miss America Katie Stam was a featured guest.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - Giant balloons, floats, marching bands, and clowns with confetti brought smiles to hundreds of thousands of revelers eager to catch a glimpse of a parade as steeped in Thanksgiving Day tradition as turkey and pumpkin pie.
Crowds lined the streets of Manhattan yesterday for the 83rd annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as merrymakers gathered nationwide for parades in cities such as Detroit and Philadelphia.
Soldiers in war zones received phone calls of appreciation from President Obama, and astronauts hovering above Earth feasted on turkey smuggled aboard the space shuttle Atlantis.
In New York City, Miss America Katie Stam waved to crowds from a Statue of Liberty float she shared with Meb Keflezighi, the first American in 11 years to win the New York City Marathon.
For the first time, the parade route bypassed Broadway, which cuts a diagonal slice through Manhattan, as it made its way south from the Upper West Side to the finish at Macy's flagship store in Herald Square.
Johanna Castillo, 38, of Guttenberg, N.J., said the new route seemed to better accommodate the crowds.Elsewhere, tens of thousands gathered in the streets of downtown Detroit for the 83rd annual America's Thanksgiving Parade.
In Detroit, where the September unemployment rate was 17.3 percent, parade organizers set up three locations where revelers could drop off donations of canned food for the area food bank.
Eugene Peterson, 35, an unemployed construction worker from Detroit, said he had plenty to be thankful for.
"I'm thankful we have a president who understands we're going through a hard time," Mr. Peterson said.
"I'm thankful they extended unemployment [benefits] because there ain't no jobs around here. It's kind of like government showing yeah, they care."
Aboard Atlantis, astronauts expecting to give thanks with pantry leftovers were surprised by turkey dinners with candied yams, freeze-dried cornbread stuffing, and green beans - just add water.
NASA suspected the station's new skipper was responsible for the Thanksgiving feast.
Mr. Obama enjoyed a quiet holiday at the White House with his family and telephoned 10 members of the U.S. military stationed in war zones to thank them for their service.
As daylight faded in Afghanistan, soldiers huddled inside a crude wooden hut to tuck into Thanksgiving turkeys and to give thanks for having survived a year of combat.
Dense fog delayed some flights yesterday for Thanksgiving travelers arriving in the Washington and Baltimore areas, the FAA said.
Departing flights were apparently not affected.
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