I was six years old in 1944 when Grandfather Jacobi set up chairs and blankets for us to watch the Christmas Day Parade from the balcony in front of his office at the New Haven J. Press store on 262 York Street. The wartime spectacle offered a key spot to view the brigade of Sherman tanks and armored vehicles clanking their treads toward the rally downtown for speeches and patriotic hoopla on the New Haven Green.
To read this story and many more, purchase the Threading the Needle book by Richard Press.
