Heroes of America

They officially call it Inflation Viewing but people just refer to it as 'blowing up the balloons'. This is the big event preceding Thanksgiving in New York that all you newcomers absolutely have to go and see. So I decided to be an obedient foreigner and went and patiently queued and rolled with the crowd to see the gigantic colourful balloons being blown up for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Now that I have made the pilgrimage and paid tribute to Snoopy, Ronald Mcdonald and Kermit the Frog, I can reveal to you, rational Europeans, that this ritual has totally no sense or meaning to it whatsoever. Children have fun trying to identify the massive cartoon figures lying face down on the ground but why adults go is beyond me. Thousands and thousands of people wait patiently for their turn to take a look. The atmosphere is jovial, could be described as pre-Christmasy, and they even play seasonal songs to keep the crowd entertained in the freezing cold. But what the balloons - or the whole parade for that matter - have to do with Thanksgiving itself is a mystery. But then we in Britain drive on the left side...