Cat in the Hat to Blame if Macy’s Cancels Their Thanksgiving Parade
You may have heard something in the news about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade possibly being cancelled. That’s not exactly correct.
Winds are predicted to be very high for this Thursday in New York. The city of New York has a regulation in place that says if winds exceed 23 mph (sustained) with gusts of 34 mph (or stronger) the giant balloons cannot be inflated. If this happens, it will be the first time since 1971 that the Macy’s Parade didn’t have their big inflatables.
The ’71 balloons weren’t cancelled because of the regulations, though. This was 1971. They didn’t have no stinkin’ safety regulations in 1971! That was back when you could smoke in an operating room during open heart surgery. Even if you were the patients. “Safety” wasn’t that much of a priority. From what I can find online about it in ’71 they tried to inflate the balloons and COULDN’T. It was just too windy to get them inflated. The balloons that they did get partially inflated were damaged by the high winds. The Astronaut Snoopy balloon was a total loss. So, announcers Betty White and Lorne Greene (TRUE!) had to just describe the floats and marching bands between interviews with whoever the stars of NBC’s fall replacement shows were.
In 1997, according to Time.com, The Cat in the Hat balloon caused an accident when his metal arm fell off and hit a woman, causing her to fall into a month-long coma. Due to that incident, rules have become stricter while winds are getting strong. Guess we will just wait and see if these balloons will be taking to the skies.