December 31, 2008 by Dianne.

May 2009 bring you the fulfillment of your goals and aspirations and, most of all, good health and happiness.

Love.

Dianne

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December 30, 2008 by Dianne.

Two of the balloons were representatives of commercial firms.  I think you will recognize both of them, although, Mason noted that there were no names or brand symbols displayed.  Probably they are so familiar to everyone that names are not needed, but I also suspect the parade organizers would not allow them to be displayed.

Ronald McDonald

The Energizer bunny

Unknown character:

I do not know what this character represents, but somehow I think it is also connected with some kind of an advertisement.  If anyone recognizes it, please write a remark identifying it for me.  Thanks.

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December 29, 2008 by Dianne.

There are many different balloons that have been created over the years, undoubtedly too many to include all of them every year.  The majority of them are characters in well-known stories, cartoons, or movies.  The next few postings will exhibit some of them.  The first characters you may or may not recognize.

SMURF (popular about 20 years ago in cartoons)

Sponge Bob - a really stupid character that became popular during the time I was in China.  Kids love him, but I find it hard to understand why…..

This character, I believe, is from the Japanese Pokemon cartoons.

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December 28, 2008 by Dianne.

The first balloons that passed by were quite small and included items such as pumpkins (a very common fruit used in Thanksgiving pies,) a world globe, and a Christmas tree ornament.

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December 27, 2008 by Dianne.

One of the floats contained some smaller balloon figures.  It was not very interesting, but I include it here because one year the wind was so strong that they tied the balloons to flatbed trucks and drove them along the parade route.  If this picture was typical of what it was like, I suspect it was very disappointing to the people watching it.

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December 26, 2008 by Dianne.

Three of the floats had a theme connected with New York City.  The first is a bridge (a little difficult to make out), the second is the Empire State Building, and the final one is a collage of some famous NYC buildings built around the outside of a large apple.  Perhaps you know that one nickname of NYC is “the big apple.”

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December 24, 2008 by Dianne.

 Dear Friends,

Another year has passed, but I still feel that we are connected.  I invite you to click on the link below.

http://www.123greetings.com/send/view/12321608621139018646

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December 23, 2008 by Dianne.

As was mentioned earlier, the parade contains many floats.  I have two shots of the first one that was in the parade.  Since this was a celebration of Thanksgiving, it is natural that it would be a very large turkey, the traditional meal eaten on that day.

I apologize for the blurred quality of these and other photos, but the number of people moving about sometimes made it difficult to hold the camera steady.

What impressed me about the turkey float was the fact that there were two people riding on what appeared to be a very unsteady seat.  I suspect they tried to remain quite still throughout the ride as they were very high off the ground.

The final picture is of a strange looking float that resembled  both an animal and also a mountain, which thoroughly confused me.  However, what amazed me was that there were people on both sides of the float who were hanging upside down!!!! I am sure they didn’t do so for the entire two and a half mile route, but it was rather amazing nevertheless.

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December 22, 2008 by Dianne.

The kinds of floats are definitely varied.  Here are three  completely different ones - a castle, astronomers, and a showboat (an old-fashioned kind of river boat that was used as a place where gambling was allowed and various kinds of entertainment were presented.

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December 21, 2008 by Dianne.

When Mason and I went to the parade in 1995, we got there very early and had positions right next to the street.  This time, however, we had to walk a long, roundabout route in order to get to a location from which we could leave and get to Grand Central Railroad Station in time to catch a train to go to Connecticut and meet his girlfriend and her parents for dinner.  Had we been on the wrong side of the street, we would not have been allowed to cross until the parade had ended.  That would have meant we would miss the train.

Consequently, when we located a spot, we were several rows back from the street.  You will soon see how that affected the quality of the photos I could take.

First, however, let me show you pictures of three things that were close to the area where we were standing.  The first is of a giant “screen” that presents multiple advertisements.  As you can imagine, the ads are visible from quite  distance.

One of the other buildings nearby had a similar screen on its building, but it was used for a very different purpose.  It showed beautiful leaves floating gently downward.  I wish I could have captured the video - it looked so real.  Especially after having seen the foliage in Massachusetts in October, this really drew my attention, and I kept looking at it again and again.

A third building caught my attention for a different reason; it looked as though it had been partially destroyed.  However, it was simply the way it had been built.  You can judge for yourself; what do you think it looks like?

The picture below gives you some idea of how dense the crowd was.

What made it even harder to take good shots was that some people placed their children on their shoulders, which created a substantial barrier. 

Nevertheless, I was able to see several of the balloons and some of the floats.  I will begin showing those tomorrow.

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