Awesome Thanksgiving Story #2

Twelve years ago, I lived in New York. I had finished two years of college and had run out of money. I figured that if I was a nanny, and I cleaned a few houses on the side while the kids were at school, I could save up enough for the last two years of school and make enough to play a little. It was a great decision. Once I got there, I found a job for Lisa as well.

Even though I worked for truly horrible people (but I loved my boys), Lisa worked for truly wonderful people. She was surrounded by one of the most generous families I've ever met. The Grandpa of her little boy was a VP for Macy's Department Store. With Thanksgiving approaching, he helped us get into the parade. We decided to be Balloon Handlers. When we were filling out our application, we came to the section where we had to give very detailed measurements of our body. (Every balloon is assigned a color. All the balloon handlers for that balloon wear matching jumpsuits.) We decided to add a few inches to all of our measurements because we knew it was going to be freezing and we wanted to make sure that we accounted for plenty of sweatshirts, coats, scarves, long underwear, etc.

Apparently, the parade organizers already account for all that stuff. When we arrived as the warehouse Thanksgiving morning, we walked over to find that our brown jumpsuits were enormous! We picked them up off the hanger and just started laughing. I am a pretty short person. Lisa is taller, but not significantly. Seriously, the parade planners probably received our applications and thought two 6 feet 2 inch behemoths were volunteering. They probably didn't assign our balloon as many handlers because they thought that we could do the job of three average-sized people. Once we stopped laughing, we walked out of the warehouse with the crotch of the jumpsuits past our knees and the arms rolled up to our shoulders. We looked ridiculous, but we were already having a blast!

We were assigned to the Peter Rabbit balloon - quite possibly the most lame balloon in the entire parade. You see small children screaming for Spiderman and Dora, but nobody cheers like crazed Beatles fans when they see Peter Rabbit coming down the street. Plus, we soon realized that balloon handling is quite difficult and actually a lot of work. There was quite a bit of wind that day. Wind is brutal in New York City. It gets trapped between those buildings and just rips it's way along the streets. Makes your eyes water, your nose run, and giant balloons can easily crash into streetlamps and traffic lights. We were given a strict lecture about NOT letting this happen.

The parade actually starts up by the Museum of Natural History and works its way through the streets until it reaches Harold Square where it is filmed (at least in years past). So, what you see on TV has actually been going on for a few hours. We were supposed to keep the balloon down until we reached the television cameras where we let it float up for a few minutes. Each balloon has a director that keeps his/her eyes on the balloon the entire time, shouting out instructions to people to pull down or let up so we don't cause any damage.

After a few minutes of this, our balloon director asked for a few volunteers to carry our Peter Rabbit Banner (it just keeps getting better). Lisa and I eagerly volunteered. Then, our director taught us a cheer:

Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, Pete

Beatrix Potter is really neat!

At this point, we are oozing with awsomeness. But to make us even more cool, we made up our own little dance to go along with the cheer.

We had a blast! Giant jumpsuits and all.

But the very best part, by far, was the end. As soon as we passed the TV cameras, we turned a corner. We had to get the balloon down as quickly as possible since there were marching bands, floats, and more balloons behind us. In order to do this, the balloon is brought down to street level, and all of the balloon handlers and other volunteers lay on it to press out all the helium. The balloon directors and other parade officials are extremely serious about this entire process. But, honestly, how serious can you take people when they are talking in that squeaky, high voice.

There were probably 50 people throwing their bodies on top of this giant balloon and other people running around the balloon with headsets and clipboards shouting instructions and pointing to areas where the balloon was still bulging. And all 50+ people were overcome with massive amounts of helium. Lisa and I were practically useless. We were rolling around on this balloon, laughing so hard we had tears rolling down our cheeks. It really doesn't matter how "official" and "serious" someone makes their face look, if they sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks, it is impossible to take them seriously.

Good times with a great sister!