By Dee Richard
Queens, without a doubt, has to be the most patriotic borough. I don’t think the others can begin to compare with the total number of parades held over Memorial Day weekend in Queens. There were parades all over the place and you didn’t have to travel far from home to view one.
They were all great in their own way. When you think about it, Queens is like a group of small towns and villages operating under one umbrella, but each maintains its own flavor and individuality — a great place to live.
Congratulations to Jim Rodgers for once again managing to successfully pull off one of the country’s largest and oldest Memorial Day parades. The reason for the commentary is the fact there were rumors the parade would be small or not even happen — due mainly to some dissension in the ranks, the usual “too many chiefs and not enough Indians.” You can love Jim or hate him, but you can’t take away the fact he is one of the best in the business when it comes to organizing a gigantic parade.
A word of advice from one old war horse to another: Just be more discriminating in the selection of volunteers and committee members. They are not all your friends just because they say so. Toxic people with equally toxic personalities are like cancer. They can destroy an organization from the inside out. Avoid at all costs dysfunctional, control−freak toxics.
We all look forward to the parade every year and are therefore interested in its survival. Again, congratulations and thank you for your efforts in keeping the Little Neck−Douglaston Memorial Day Parade on track in memory of all our veterans. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.
This year’s honorees were Master Sgt. Chester Marcus Jr., who was the grand marshal. Marcus is with the U.S. Army Reserve 99th RSC at Fort Dix, N.J. He was formerly stationed at Fort Totten for many years and was always a great help with the parade in the past.
George Grasso, the NYPD’s first deputy commissioner, was this year’s parade “Man of the Year.” Rita Cosby, TV host and best−selling author, was this year’s parade “Woman of the Year.”
The honorary grand marshals were Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Borough President Helen Marshall.
The icing on the cake was a barbecue at the home of George Grasso and his wife, Regina, in Douglaston. What a lovely way to end a thoroughly enjoyable day, which started in the morning with the Whitestone parade, then proceeded in the afternoon to the Little Neck−Douglaston parade and ended up with a fantastic barbecue.
The Grassos must still be recovering from the invasion of the parade−goers. While I had been at numerous events in the past with Commissioner Grasso, this was the first time I had met his wife. Not only is she a beautiful lady, but a lovely one as well.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m raring to go for next year. See you then, as well as numerous other times, on the Queens circuit.
The Bloomberg campaign opened its northeast Queens headquarters located at 157−16 Northern Blvd. in Flushing, across from St. Andrew Avalino Church. If you have the time and are so inclined, stop by and volunteer some time, as I’m sure they’d love to have you.
The great move is still ongoing, but we have enlisted the help of an outfit called 1−800−GOT−JUNK? It will pack up and cart away any and all stuff for a fee, but how else are you going to dispose of mountains of stuff you accumulated over the years that you thought you couldn’t live without? Now it’s obvious as well as pretty costly to get rid of stuff that wasn’t worth saving to begin with.
That’s it for this week.
I look forward to hearing from you with information on people, parties and politics or gossip.
I like to receive your voice mails at 718−767−6484, faxes at 718−746−0066 and e−mails at deerrichard@aol.com.
Till next week, Dee.
