Hurricane Hugo and Rocky Aoki — Adirondack Balloon Festival 1989
The annual Adirondack Balloon Festival opens at Crandall Park in Glens Falls this afternoon. Here is a post about the festival thirty years ago.
Thirty years ago Hurricane Hugo kept balloons grounded on Friday and Saturday of the 1989 Adirondack Balloon Festival.
“Safety has to be №1. You cannot tether a balloon now for all the tea in China,” The Post-Star quoted festival organizer Walter Grishkot.
You also could not have tethered a balloon for all the beef at a Japanese-American steak house chain, even though Queensbury Supervisor Stephen Borgos had proclaimed that Friday Rocky Aoki Day, in honor of the 25th anniversary of Aoki’s Benihana restaurant chain, famous for its theatrical chefs performing knife tricks as they cooked at table side.
Aoki, who died in 2008, was a long-time participant and supporter of the Adirondack Balloon Festival, and a good friend of Grishkot.
“Rocky Aoki was here. I rode in his Ferrari,” Walter said in 2010. “It’s a beautiful car, but it’s noisy. … It has so many gears you don’t know which one you’re in.”
Rocky had a passion for powerboat racing and ballooning. He had been part of a four-man team that crossed the Pacific Ocean from Japan to California in a hot air balloon in 1981.
Like Walter, Rocky had a passion for humor.
If you could picture an arm wrestling competition between the two men, no doubt the restaurateur, a former Olympic wrestler, would have won.
But a competition of wit? Well, that would have been a fairly even match.
One year, when the Adirondack Balloon Festival was struggling to meet expenses, the two jokesters came up with a idea to close the gap.
They walked around the field at Floyd Bennett Memorial-Warren County Airport with leftover Balloon Festival programs. Rocky autographed them and Walter sold them for a dollar each.
Hurricane Hugo’s wrath did subside at the 1986 Balloon Festival in time for a successful Sunday morning launch that included Aoki’s “Benihanna” and “Chef” balloons.
Sources: The Post-Star, Sept. 17, 23, 24, 1989; “The Biggest Kid at the Balloon Festival: The Walter Grishkot Story.”
Click here to read the most recent previous Adirondack Balloon Festival history post.
