It’s hard for someone who hasn’t grown up with Thanksgiving to understand the place it holds in people’s hearts here in the USA. However, I have seen images of the Macy’s parade on TV… so was not about to miss the chance to join in the fun.
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The giant balloons for the Thanksgiving Day parade are inflated the night before – on the streets to the west of Central Park.
The residents of some of the poshest apartments in the city suddenly find themselves with some rather unusual neighbours.
The balloons looked pretty big – but didn’t look happy with their faces firmly tied to the earth.
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Apparently being a balloon pilot is quite a skilled job – involving, among other things, rope and knot skills – and the correct pair of coloured overalls.
I confess we overslept on Thanksgiving morning – and had to race down to 7th Avenue to catch the parade. We missed Snoopy (sorry dog), but were just in time to see Kung Fu Panda and Spiderman pass by.
Wow – these balloons are big! I mean really, really BIG!
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What an amazing atmosphere. Thousands of people – and that’s just the ones in the parade. The streets were lined with people out to enjoy the spectacle – and we were not the only big kids there.
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New York’s finest were also out in force for crowd control – and the atmosphere was really friendly and relaxed, with moments of excitement when the big characters floated into view. Of course, this IS New York – and the parade had to stop from time to time to allow the yellow cabs to pass through.
After the parade – we set out for Turkey dinner with all the trimmings and I’ve got a pumpkin pie on the fridge for later tonight. I am beginning to think this Thanksgiving has got a lot of good points…
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And then tomorrow, starting at 05:00 AM, are the ‘black Friday’ sales.
Apparently, police in Philadelphia used to call the day after Thanksgiving Black Friday because of the huge volume of traffic, both vehicle and pedestrian, in the city that day. The term spread, but in recent years, it’s become accepted that the ‘black’ part refers to retailers making huge profits (being in the black rather than in the red) from the busiest shopping day of the year.
Whatever the reason – I think the very least I can do is participate in that tradition too – but probably not at 5:00 AM.