ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wind and rain could not keep thousands of spectators from crowding Manhattan streets to see Big Bird, Snoopy and other signature balloons and floats of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The weather, however, prompted city officials to order the balloons flown lower than usual, none rising beyond 17 feet, for safety. That didn’t seem to bother 9-year-old Sarah Barker.
“It means a better view,” she said. She wasn’t kidding — Snoopy made his way downtown past her, his right paw seemed to almost touch the wet street.
On the other side of the world, more than 20,000 Marines quickly and quietly marked Thanksgiving during their work across Iraq’s dangerous and insurgent-dominated Anbar province, while trying to bring some home-style traditions to Iraq. There was a flag football tournament on fields of hard-packed sand that became blanketed by blinding dust whenever medical evacuation helicopters took off or landed nearby.
“Thanksgiving is food and football. That’s what we do every year. It’s America, even if we’re in Iraq,” said Cpl. Daniel J. English, a native of Antwerp, Ohio, in the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion.
A television lounge at Camp Fallujah planned to show yesterday’s three pro-football games live, even though they didn’t start here until the middle of the night. Cardboard turkeys, pumpkins and pilgrims in belt-buckle hats were plastered around many buildings.
“It’s the most important day of the year for us,” said Raymond Yung, director of one of the food service crews at Camp Fallujah.
President Bush called 10 members of the armed forces from California to Iraq yesterday to wish them a happy Thanksgiving and thank them for their service. The president spoke with two members each from the Army, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard and Navy, said White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo, and the calls went to service members stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan, Qatar, Alaska and California.
In New York, organizers and city officials also were relieved that there were no incidents at the nation’s most famous Thanksgiving parade. They had stressed safety precautions since two sisters were injured by falling debris when a streetlight snagged a balloon in last year’s parade.
Officials made their decision just before the 9 a.m. start, basing it on several factors, including information from the National Weather Service and newly installed wind-measuring instruments along the route.
“You don’t want to ground the balloons and all of a sudden have the wind die,” said Jarrod Bernstein, a spokesman for the New York City Office of Emergency Management.
The balloons, most filled with helium, have been grounded just once in the parade’s 80-year history, in 1973. Wind gusts reached 17 to 21 mph. City guidelines call for grounding the parade’s giant balloons if winds reach 23 mph and gusts exceed 34 mph.
Those rules were put into place after 45 mph winds sent a Cat in the Hat balloon careening into a metal pole during the 1997 parade, leaving a woman in a coma. This year, Garfield, Ronald McDonald, Scooby-Doo and SpongeBob SquarePants were among the many inflatable characters that took flight.
The parade also featured 33 floats with themes as varied as Charlotte’s Web and Barbie, almost a dozen marching bands from across the country, and celebrities including singers Barry Manilow, Gloria Estefan and Ciara.
Denise Walker, 47, drove with her husband for two days from their home in Clinton, Tenn., to see the parade, one of the things on her to-do list before she died, she said.
“It’s been great,” Mrs. Walker said. “It’s been all I expected, and more.”
Some people huddled under the big signs on Broadway, or sought refuge in the few stores that remained open for the holiday. Parade participants, many of them wearing outfits unsuited for November weather in New York, were shivering.
In Iraq, special convoys delivered turkey to some of the Marines manning remote outposts, but others had to settle for the same rations as a normal Thursday.
“You get used to it, missing the holidays, because you’re always gone,” said Cpl. Adam Kruse, 21, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force’s Headquarters Group.
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