Last night, Wife and I took a short trek up to the Central Park West area to see the big balloons all ready to be walked down Broadway. The balloons were…big. I was absolutely shocked to see the masses of people crowding the streets to catch a glimpse of the tied down balloons. I have not heard an official count on the number of people who were there, but it was definitely in the hundreds of thousands (if not a million or more).
Probably the most entertaining part of the evening was watching Wife digress into a four-year-old. As we approached the Scooby-Doo balloon, wife yelled out, “Scooooby-Scoooooby-Dooooooo!!!” Immediately, hundreds of children around us began picking up the chant (I have no doubt that their parents were eternally grateful). A little later we walked by Ronald McDonald, where there was also a huge balloon of an ice cream cone. Wife gleefully screamed out, “Ice cream!!!!” – again, Wife was a trend setter for the children around us (the parents loved us).
Earlier in the week, I spoke to a friend at
The Macy’s parade today has over 3,500,000 people lined up on the street to watch the balloons float by. To put that in perspective, that is approximately the number of people who live in the state of
4 comments:
Did you find the experience to be better than watching the TV broadcast? I always figured that the TV broadcast was better, because then you only see the best stuff. I've been to parades, and they're actually pretty dull!
I would agree that the view on television is MUCH better. However, seeing the balloons in person helps provide a new appreciation and perspective.
Probably made you realize how someone could actually get hurt out there! When I was a kid, I'd watch the parade every year on TV, waiting for the moment when a float got loose and some hapless soul was taken up into the sky...
OK, so I used to fantasize that I'd get hold of one of the floats and fly myself...
Actually, what I wondered was why all these throngs of people would stay up most of the night so that they could completely freeze - while the view, the commentary, and the music is so much better when watching it at home with a hot cup of coffee.
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