Here's what it takes to be a balloon handler at the Thanksgiving Day parade

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Sunday, November 3, 2019
Here's what it takes to be a balloon handler at the Thanksgiving Day parade
Here's what it takes to be a balloon handler at the Thanksgiving Day paradeIt's a lot harder than you think it is to work the balloons along the Thanksgiving Day Parade route in Philadelphia.

The Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia is now 100 years old, making it the oldest Thanksgiving parade in the country.

Amid dancers, singers, and floats, incredible balloons fly high, rivaling the city skyscrapers. Like every year, hundreds of volunteers strap their gloves and grip ropes in their hands to usher these balloons down the parkway.

On one brisk Saturday morning in November, just a few weeks before the parade, the volunteers and trainers converged on WPVI-TV studios for a lesson in balloon handling.