The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a cherished tradition of the November holiday, but one year, things took a disastrous turn.
This parade, known for its enormous balloons depicting popular children’s characters like Kermit the Frog, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Garfield, was first broadcast locally in 1939 and nationally on NBC in 1947.
Since then, millions of American kids have eagerly tuned in on Thanksgiving morning to watch the vibrant balloons and performances.
However, the 1997 parade remains a vivid memory for millennials who watched it as children and witnessed the powerful winds that led to chaos and injuries.
The New York Times reported that winds reached 43 miles per hour on that fateful Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1997.
The balloon collapsed on live television as handlers struggled to bring it down and trampled on it to accelerate the deflation process, enabling the parade to proceed.
The text overlaying the video asked, “Anybody else think about the time we watched Barney die on national TV?”.
The video’s caption simply stated, “Emotional damage.”
Millennials who recalled witnessing the dramatic parade moment flooded the comments section.
One commented, “The beginning of millennial trauma that continues to this day.
“When my therapist asks me where it all began, I ask her if she knows about the 1997 Macy’s Day parade,” another user responded.
A third wrote, “This was TRAUMATIZING and my family STILL makes fun of me for crying during this.”
Though Barney’s downfall was perhaps the most psychologically damaging, another mishap during that same parade is generally considered the most serious accident, as it resulted in physical injuries.
A towering six-story Cat in the Hat balloon struck a lamppost at the intersection of 72nd Street and Central Park West, injuring several spectators, with one woman reportedly sustaining a life-threatening skull fracture that left her in a 24-day coma.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
