Bill Sands got a text when he was at work with the news. The place where he used to work closed.<\/p>\n
Sands is a bartender \u2014 at Tinto in Rittenhouse and at Bar Ferdinand in Northern Liberties \u2014\u00a0so this is part of the job. Bars open and bars close. But Sands\u2019 old job this time wasn\u2019t a bar or restaurant: It was the ZooBalloon in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
The 6 ABC ZooBalloon, in operation since 2002, was deflated yesterday after workers determined it had been damaged too extensively by the recent snowfalls. This was the second iteration of the balloon; it was already decided this would be the last year of the ZooBalloon.<\/p>\n
Sands, who worked on the balloon for two seasons in the mid-2000s, reminisced about his time working there earlier today.<\/p>\n
How did you come to get a job working at the ZooBalloon?<\/strong> So I said, \u201cYeah, I\u2019ll do that, that sounds like a blast!\u201d<\/p>\n What did you do for the ZooBalloon?<\/strong> What do you mean by \u201cputting flags in the line\u201d?<\/strong> Did you have any experience putting a balloon in the air beforehand?<\/strong> How much training did you get?<\/strong> Was the job hard?<\/strong> Did you have any problems with heights?<\/strong> What was the tour like?<\/strong> The tour itself was pretty short. I think you\u2019re up in the air for, like, five minutes. You\u2019d just give a minute tour talk and then let people look around.<\/p>\n Actually, I went back to the zoo with my girlfriend this past summer, and they no longer had someone giving tours. It was just a computer. I was surprised.<\/p>\n Did it get really hot?<\/strong> What was the clientele like at the zoo? Were the patrons annoying?<\/strong> Was spitting off the edge the most common type of mischief people would try?<\/strong> But people were generally good. It would be: Spitting, the camera thing and \u2014 it\u2019s like you\u2019re in a submarine, a comfined space. And if someone acts like an asshole, then that sucks. You\u2019re up in the air with 15 people \u2014 that was the maximum \u2014 so if someone\u2019s being an asshole, then that just blows. So sometimes you had to be a chaperone of sorts.<\/p>\n Did lots of people get scared because of the height?<\/strong> The landing could be rough from time to time, if the weather was picking up. Because it\u2019s tethered, the operator who\u2019s landing it stops it at the bottom, because you want it to land reasonably close to horizontal to land. Sometimes it was a little bit of a challenge to get it to land. It could cause an abrupt landing. It was never anything crazy.<\/p>\n
\nIt was a good while ago. A buddy of mine had just moved down to the city, and a friend of mine was going to an open call for all sorts of jobs. It just so happened that I needed a job, so I went. I talked to the Zoo, and they called me back to talk to me about a variety of jobs. One of the positions they had was the ZooBalloon.<\/p>\n
\nThere were three of us. We took turns. There would always be somebody down on the ground working the lines, there was somebody operating it \u2014 it sounds crazier than it is, you actually just push buttons to send it up and send it down \u2014 and somebody up giving tours. There\u2019s always somebody in the balloon, somebody down right below the balloon putting flags in the line and there\u2019s somebody with the line operating the balloon.<\/p>\n
\nYou had to put orange flags on the line [tethered to the balloon]. It was pretty much a regulation to be visible by planes or any sort of low-flying objects. I mean, they\u2019re going to see a huge-ass balloon \u2014 but just so they knew that there was a line there and the balloon was tethered. You don\u2019t want it to get cut.<\/p>\n
\nMy boss was this guy Matt [Monfredi], he was a British guy he had been involved in consulting putting up balloons all over the world. And he was with the Philadelphia Zoo at that time. He walked us through everything.<\/p>\n
\nMatt, the guy who ran it, showed me all the underground tethering. It wasn\u2019t any intensive military training. He was the guy who, if shit hit the fan, was going to do something. We just had general knowledge of the balloon and what to do.<\/p>\n
\nI wouldn\u2019t say it was hard. The downside: It was seasonal. It was a fun job. I had a really good time. As long as it went up. When the wind got too strong \u2014 or if it was just bad weather \u2014 the ZooBalloon wouldn\u2019t go up. That was the only bummer, because then we had to go down to the swan boats. That was a much less glorified job. And I have allergies, too.<\/p>\n
\nNo. I\u2019m sure if it were precarious enough I would. But I was fine with the ZooBalloon setup.<\/p>\n
\nIt was a little bit of everything. You told them about the balloon \u2014 I think it was a 72 feet tall by 114 feet wide helium balloon \u2014 and show people all the parts of the zoo. I always pointed out City Hall and [Eastern State] Penitentiary. And just give them a general layout of the city. You tell facts about City Hall, how it used to be the tallest building, and pretty much give them a little bit of everything.<\/p>\n
\nSometimes it got really hot, especially if you were the flag person. The whole landing pad was black. You\u2019d be cooking. It was hotter when you were down there as opposed to up in the balloon, because at least you get a change and can catch a breeze up high.<\/p>\n
\nIt was mostly families. Sometimes when there were big groups of kids, you\u2019d get people trying to spit off the edge.<\/p>\n
\nYes. Another thing that was bad was people wouldn\u2019t keep their arms inside of the balloon. It wasn\u2019t necessarily mischievous. They would reach a camera out over the side, and that could kill somebody if you dropped it and it hit somebody. People would reach their hands outside of the net with a camera.<\/p>\n
\nMost people were good. It was more when you take off and land. Most people don\u2019t ride in a tethered balloon every day. When it takes off, people go, \u201cOoh!\u201d Some people would handle it better than others once you got up there. I never had anybody totally spaz out. I had a few people, maybe a handful, who got upset. Generally, it was very pleasant and easygoing.<\/p>\n