Growing up, I often watched the parade on television.
I was brought into the ranks of balloon handlers — it almost feels like a whisper network, you need to know someone who knows someone — by a former colleague who had marched many times.
The sign-up process involved uploading my proof of vaccination, watching a training video in the proper care of balloon handling and more.
As a native New Yorker, I’m eager to take part in such a Big Apple experience, though it’ll be a long day, thankfully, if forecasts are correct, with mild weather.
My one worry, as a momma’s boy, was being late to my family’s Thanksgiving lunch, a tradition that stems from a time when my sister and I worked evening shifts at The New York Times.