Nov. 1976, straight line of 7 or 8 red balls travelling northward, absolutely silent, moving up and down, changing positions

I had just left a friends apt. and was warming up the car as it was cold, and my attention was drawn to a large chimney stack from a foundry nearby. Above the stack, and I believe some distance behind it, I saw two or three red lights. At first I thought it was an airport antenna, but then realized I had never seen one in that area, and I looked again, and noticed the position of the lights had changed, and they appeared to be coming toward my direction. I then saw about 4 more behind them, in a straight line, and still moving toward me. I tried hard to listen for the sound of an engine, or helicopter blades, but there was none. I ran to the intercom of the building, and yelled at my friends to get onto their balcony and look up in the sky toward the foundry. I then ran around the back of the building, below their balcony and pointed up to where the lights were. There were 7 or 8 red balls, moving silently, and quite slowly, (perhaps 2 or 3 miles per hour), some were moving up and down, some would "fall back" and the one behind would move ahead. They were not blinking, and again, I cannot stress enough, they were ABSOLUTELY SILENT. By now they were directly in front of us, and steadily moving past us in the sky.I have no idea how high up they were, but from a layman's visual standpoint, they looked a little smaller than a soccer ball (if I were to hold one in front of me). They proceeded toward a nearby lake and conservation area, and we jumped in the car and tried to "follow" them, however, they continued travelling (south west to north east), and disappeared over the horizon. We went back to my friend's apt. and called the radio station, and when we finally got through, the person answering the phone said "Are you reporting the red lights in the sky?" They  said their phone lines were "lit up" with people reporting them. I believe it was the following day on the local 6pm news (Kitchener Ont.) that the anchorman reported the lights had been reported from the southern US to northern Quebec. Also,  he ! said tha t a Regional Police Officer, or an OPP, had stopped his car and got out to look at them, but he claimed they were the Snowbird Jet Team, flying to some air show. However, they did not appear to be attatched together on any surface, but were definitely separate, and while "interchanging" their positions, almost touched each other. A couple of them would go up and seemingly wait (hover) until the ones below moved ahead far enough until they could drop into the middle of the formation, or at the back. Some of them seemed to "circle" backwards to change positions with each other. I have never reported these lights before, have never seen anything remotely similar (or anything disk shaped or otherwise unidentifiable in the skies), but when I looked at some of the reports listed on your site, I saw a pic or illustration of the red balls I saw, except the ones on your site are in a "V" formation, and these ones were not. I'm certain the year was 1976, as I was borrowing my friend's car every evening so that I could attend trade school. Thank you.
Date is approximate.  We would welcome reports from other witnesses.  PD