{"id":1812,"date":"2018-02-08T19:17:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T00:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2018-02-08T19:17:34","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T00:17:34","slug":"reflections-on-going-to-the-super-bowl-parade-for-the-philadelphia-eagles-thursday-february-8-2018-by-jennifer-angelina-petro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=1812","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Going to the Super Bowl Parade for the Philadelphia Eagles, Thursday, February 8, 2018 by Jennifer Angelina Petro"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"philly<\/a><\/p>\n

Reflections on Going to the Super Bowl Parade for the Philadelphia Eagles<\/p>\n

Thursday, February 8, 2018<\/p>\n

by<\/p>\n

Jennifer Angelina Petro<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I picked up sons Ben and Daniel at 4:30 AM.\u00a0 After stopping at Wawa (because everyone should stop at Wawa on the way to anything–especially on their way to a Super Bowl Parade) and headed downtown.\u00a0 It took us an hour to both drive and eventually find a parking space.\u00a0 It was another 15-minute walk to where we set up camp for the next eight hours, near where the parade was going to end\u2014the Art Museum steps.<\/p>\n

The sun had yet to rise, and people were filing in the slowly-lifting darkness from Broad Street down to the Art Museum, like a jubilant river.\u00a0 It was 6 AM and people were already shouting Eagles chants, fight songs, and Brady-Sucks, and yes, people were already drinking.<\/p>\n

As the crowd grew hour by hour, the people grew kinder and happier.\u00a0 People were dancing, singing, oh, yes, and drinking\u2014and they were also happy, high-fiving, laughing.\u00a0 And as the sun rose and illuminated the Art Museum, the sea of people swelled with anticipation.<\/p>\n

People played catch with footballs that seemed to be soaring around the crowd from out of nowhere. People introduced themselves to those standing around them.\u00a0 People exchanged stories of how long they waited for this day and what it all means.\u00a0 Strangers hugged and offered each other blankets, handwarmers, and beer.<\/p>\n

And the green.\u00a0 Nearly every person there\u2014of all shapes, sizes, ages, race, gender-identity, and expression was bedecked in Eagles green.\u00a0 Looking out across the ever-burgeoning crowd, it turned into a luminous green sea that ebbed and flowed and raised its waves to heaven.<\/p>\n

Yes, there were the knuckleheads.\u00a0 One idiot climbed a tree, urinated (very poorly aimed) into a water bottle, spraying the people below with urine, and then, threw the full bottle down among the people.\u00a0 If the police hadn\u2019t been there I think he would have been beaten to a pulp.\u00a0 The people below were justifiably (pardon the pun) pissed.<\/p>\n

One nearly-naked guy with green hair smashed two beer cans together in front of his face and roared as he sprayed the crowd with Budweiser.\u00a0 The surrounding people weren\u2019t happy, but not as unhappy as those who were where the shit-brain peed on them.<\/p>\n

Then there was the guy so stoned he came tumbling through the crowd like a wobbly train, and, if I hadn\u2019t had been there to grab him, he would have plowed into the two old ladies in front of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you,\u201d he said with his voice slurred and his eyes rolling around in his head like marbles, and then he just kept stumbling through the crowd.<\/p>\n

There was no violence though.\u00a0 No meanness (yes, peeing off a tree was mean, but he was clearly drunk, and cracking up as he did his heinous act), no rage, no property being damage, no cars set on fire.\u00a0 It was plain and simply a party.\u00a0 It was a celebration of civic-pride—city pride\u2014family pride\u2014and, of course, pride for our team\u2014the bunch of under-estimated players who overcame a ton of adversity to sweep unexpectedly and remarkably through the playoffs to bring home the long-awaited Super Bowl victory.\u00a0 It is a team comprised of good and decent people.\u00a0 It is a team together in true brotherly love.\u00a0 It is a team unlike any other I have ever seen, and I was proud to be there to celebrate them and our city.\u00a0 It was glorious, hilarious, bizarre, and fun\u2014profoundly fun.\u00a0 When a city comes together to dance, sing, and embrace one another\u2014it is a truly beautiful thing\u2014I dare-say, holy.<\/p>\n

There is so much wrong with the world.\u00a0 And, I believe there is far more right with the world.\u00a0 Today was one of the right things, and I am grateful to have been there with two of my sons.\u00a0 We will never forget it, and neither shall this team, this city\u2014all the people living and dead who waited so long for this moment\u2014who suffered through agonizing years of frustration.\u00a0 This was a day of unbridled joy\u2014a collective exhale of relief and a collective in-breath of getting ready to sing\u2014arm-in-arm-again and again, as loudly as humanly possible\u2014 \u201cFly, Eagles, Fly\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"eagles<\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/form>\r\n\n

 <\/p>\n
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\n\"\"<\/form>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reflections on Going to the Super Bowl Parade for the Philadelphia Eagles Thursday, February 8, 2018 by Jennifer Angelina Petro   I picked up sons Ben and Daniel at 4:30 AM.\u00a0 After stopping at Wawa (because everyone should stop at Wawa on the way to anything–especially on their way to a Super Bowl Parade) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[1147,1148,1146,1149,1143,670,1144,1145],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1815,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions\/1815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}