Decades ago, the balloon inflation on the night before Thanksgiving was a special ritual for Upper West Siders to enjoy in their quiet neighborhood: “something semi-secret that took place in the dark and cold,” West Side Rag columnist Maria Gorshin wrote a few years ago. No longer.
The lines to get into the Thanksgiving parade balloon inflation have become enormous, with thousands of people circulating through. Matt Palton captured this video of the (surprisingly orderly!) crowds this year.
Insane lines to get into Balloon inflating, @NYPD20Pct doing an impressive job with the crowds. Busiest UWS night of year @westsiderag? pic.twitter.com/9dLBcNUDzm
— Matt Paiton (@mpaiton) November 24, 2016
“Decades ago, the balloon inflation on the night before Thanksgiving was a special ritual for Upper West Siders to enjoy in their quiet neighborhood”
The UWS is now crowded, with many people doing the same things.
Re: “The UWS is now crowded, with many people doing the same things.”
I Speak in Generalizations, Therefore I Am.
Not sure what “same things” these folk are doing, but, hopefully, nothing indecent.
And then, of course, there is the great Yogi Berra-ism:
“It’s so crowded nobody goes there”
As reluctant as I am to reply to you Scooter, here is a brief explanation of the sentence that has you baffled:
“The UWS is now crowded, with many people doing the same things.”
1. “The UWS is now crowded” means that there are more people here.
2. “with many people doing the same things.” means that more people are doing the exact same things”
Got it?
Even up til about 2006 or so, it was possible to watch without out-of-town crowds. It was especially mellow in the afternoon, after school. Really miss being able to come by with my kids without crowds…
But the TV networks started televising it – nationally – as an “event.” (BTW the Rockefeller Center tree lighting was also quiet until the TV networks made it an “event.”)
There is really nothing left for New Yorkers for New Yorkers…
same for the july 4 fireworks,anybody remember when channel 11 used to televise it just locally. a half hour telecast now turned into an ad nauseum 2 hour national spectacular
We used to go and look at the balloons on Wednesday night. Then it became so chaotic with crowds and barriers. Now we go watch the parade instead – it’s less hassle.
Decades ago is correct. Anyone living on the UWS during the 80’s/90’s will remember when it was a wonderful and personal “non-event”.
It was great fun at midnight when no one was there and it was quiet except for the pumps blowing up the balloons!
Does anyone remember the floats driving up lower Amsterdam day(s) before?
Floats still head up Amsterdam Ave. at midnight
This is why we can’t have nice things.
I love this comment.
the video looks like a bunch of zombies
I always did think of those tourist crowds on Fifth Avenue looking like something out of ‘Night Of The Living Dead’, shuffling along, mouths half-open, glassy eyes.
Now those are great additions to our neighborhood.
It’s been destroyed! It was a great neighborhood little gathering& we’d get pizzas& hot chicolate and hang with neighborhood friends. We don’t leave our house now. Never would consider going again. I enjoyed for 35 years, but stopped since it’s become a circus.
Hey, but the neighborhood is cleaner and richer and more conformist.
Gotta’ give thanks for that, don’t ya?
No doubt about it, this very neighborly event of years ago where UWS residents, especially kids, enjoyed coming together and seeing each other as a community has turned in to an over-crowded, impersonal event filled with strangers from other local neighborhoods and tourists. It has lost it’s West Side communal flavor of coming together for a shared experience and has been replaced with a large strange crowd that I personally wish would find something else to do elsewhere.
I blame DiBlasio for making the city so unsafe that no one comes to visit.
Oh wait, tons of people come and don’t become victims of crime.
I’m so confused.
We complain — yes, myself included — about the crowds, particularly tourists and transient-minded, temporary UWS-ers. But I’m always reminded of E.B. White’s “Here is New York,” in which he wrote about three New York’s. The second New York, he said, was that of the commuter, or we could add the tourist/transient, who provides much of the economic engine. (I’m in the first and third New York.)
Like it or not, crowds are our business model.
This is and has always been my favorite New York City event. When I moved to NYC in the late 80s, I would head up to CPW from my studio in Hell’s Kitchen. Was just this amazing site – made me feel like a 10 year old.
My most memorable visit was in 1992 or 1993. I was an “Upper West Sider” by then, and rode my bike down to see the balloons. Small crowd. Then it started snowing. A nice, light snow, gently covering the balloons. It was truly magical.
We moved to – don’t hate me – California last year, but always come back for Thanksgiving. Knowing what things get in the evening, I headed over at 1:00pm, walked right in and spent 30 minutes watching and interacting with the Macys crew who were blowing up “Hello Kitty.” By the time I chose to leave, the barricades were up, and they were already closing off 77th Street to non-residents.
Still a magical time – and I met some great people again this year.