As I sit here watching the Macy*s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV just like 50 million other Americans, I can’t help but think back to the year I was involved in the parade when I was working for Macy*s. In 2001 the company I was working for, Stern’s, was closed by its parent company, Federated Stores Group, which also owns Macy*s; as a result, all of the Stern’s Loss Prevention folks were transferred to Macy*s. This was easy since all but five of the former Stern’s stores were converted literally overnight to a Macy*s store. Five stores, however, did not convert; three were closed outright never to reopen, and two were bought by Bloomingdale’s to be totally rebuilt and converted to a Bloomie’s, as they are called. My store in Bridgewater, New Jersey, was one of the two that was going to be converted to a Bloomie’s, so I found myself working at the Macy*s in the Garden State Plaza in Paramus.
Let’s just say it was not a happy experience and let it go at that, shall we? More on that in a later post.
So Thanksgiving of 2001 found me working for Macy*s and getting tagged to work the Security detail for both the parade itself and the filling of the balloons the day before. All of the Macy*s Security people (they didn’t call it Loss Prevention, they called it Security) in New York and New Jersey were required to work the parade, with the junior folks – of which I was one – being detailed to work the detail for the balloon filling the day before as well. It was a busy two days, let me tell you, but I learned a lot about the parade which I’m going to pass on here. Nothing negative today, friends and neighbors…not on Thanksgiving.
So here we go…it’s Trivia Time!
The parade I worked was the 75th Anniversary Parade, and I learned that in the early days of the parade, once the balloons reached the end of the parade route they were simply released by the handlers and allowed to float away. This was in the days before air travel was huge, of course, so there was no threat to aircraft overhead. As the balloons came down – whether by lack of hydrogen (yep, HYDROGEN) or by being shot down by hunters – they would be returned to Macy*s for repair and use in the next year’s parade, if possible.
All of the handlers for the balloons are Macy*s employees and they’re all non-paid volunteers. Believe it or not, there’s actually a waiting list each year to work the balloon crew detail, even thought it means losing part of the holiday with your family. They train in balloon handling on their days off for a month prior to the parade to prepare for the big event. The balloon detail leader is given a whistle, and the commands to lower, raise, and move the balloon are given using this. There’s no way the team members would be able to hear any spoken commands with the noise from the crowd, so they use a whistle. (This also saves the voice of the team leader.) The team members are trained to recognize the commands and act accordingly.
The big logo on the street in front of the Macy*s store where all of the acts perform is actually painted on the street, and it stays there year-round. The city of New York actually blocks off that part of the street for the day before the parade so the logo can be re-painted; if it rains, the logo isn’t repainted, the wear and tear of a year of traffic rolling over it very visible. The street stays blocked off overnight with a guard from Macy*s Security posted on it so it looks fresh and new for the parade.
The man who is in charge of the parade does nothing else for Macy*s. That’s his full-time job, and the preparations for the parade begin the day after this year’s parade is over. Sometimes even before, if something special comes along that requires it. He has a full staff working for him full-time that does nothing but help him plan the parade, and they’re not detailed out to work anything else as some companies will do at times. The parade is their gig, their only gig, and they do nothing else. Period. Nice job if you can get it.
All of the people working crowd control along the 3 mile parade route are all Macy*s Security folks. 364 days out of the year they spend their day catching thieves and bad guys for Macy*s, but on that one day of the year they work crowd control to free up the NYC Police Dept for bigger and better things. And they do it wearing suits, no less.
And that’s it for now. The turkey is going in the oven shortly, and soon after that my lovely wife and I will sit down and engage in that most revered of Thanksgiving traditions – overeating!
Y’all have a happy Turkey Day!
IHC
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