No question, Larry Walters had an extraordinary dose of wanderlust flowing
in his blood. He was a truck driver, but that is only part of the symptoms of
his ailment.
As he drove across this great country – yea, even since he was a lad of
13 years – he dreamed of soaring into the wild blue yonder in a weather
balloon.
Who knows why? Maybe his mother was frightened by one when she was carrying
him; as we will see, it is a good thing it was not a kite.
Note: The following On Second Thought by Editor Lynn P. Clayton was published
in the March 15, 1990 issue of the Louisiana Baptist Message. It is reprinted
in this issue as Editor Clayton continues to recover from successful surgery
on a brain abscess.
No question, Larry Walters had an extraordinary dose of wanderlust flowing
in his blood. He was a truck driver, but that is only part of the symptoms of
his ailment.
As he drove across this great country – yea, even since he was a lad of
13 years – he dreamed of soaring into the wild blue yonder in a weather
balloon.
Who knows why? Maybe his mother was frightened by one when she was carrying
him; as we will see, it is a good thing it was not a kite.
Finally, at 33 years of age, his growing boyhood dreams took wings – or
balloons.
He went over to his girlfriends house and inflated 46 six-foot weather
balloons with helium. He tied these to an aluminum lawn chair that was tied
to the ground. Around the chair were tied plastic jugs of water for ballast.
Was he sober? Apparently, because he waited until the next morning to launch
his dream. And he had planned well – at least for this sort of thing. He
has a parachute, a CB radio and a BB pistol. He put into reality a dream worthy
of any 13-year-old.
Cast off!
Things went very well, but they did go a little too far – like about 16,000
feet too far. Walters tether broke.
But that was not all that got things flying – or floating – along.
Walters got carried away by the situation, to coin a phrase. He just did not
put a stop to it, at least not for awhile. Can you imagine being 16,000 feet
high, hanging from 46 balloons?
The excitement must have been exhilarating, because he stuck with it.
Soon, commercial pilots flying airliners near Los Angeles International Airport
began contacting the flight tower, reporting a lawn chair at 16,000 feet. I
wonder if their radios picked up the “Mayday! Mayday!” Walters was
crying through his CB by this time?
Eventually, the cold got to him. He decided things had gone far enough, so,
he reached for his BB pistol and shot several balloons, bursting them to decrease
his altitude. His nearly-frozen fingers could not hold on, however, and the
gun fell from his grip. One would imagine his stomach plummeted with the gun.
Eventually the chair began to drift downward, but the adventure was not over.
As his contraption neared terra firma, the ropes tangled in power lines, and
Walters was left dangling five feet from the ground, still secure in his lawn
chair. He was not isolated in this part of the saga, because his predicament
left a goodly section of a Long Beach neighborhood without power for 20 minutes.
Can you imagine what people thought when they called the utility company and
asked, “Whats wrong?” and were told about some guy tangled in
power lines, dangling from weather balloons in a lawn chair?
Well, I have to admit that I sort of admire ol Brother Walters. He at
least did something he had wanted to do since he was a kid.
How many people have dreams they never have the courage to really think about
doing? Oh, I do not imagine there are many significant scientific benefits that
came from Walters flight, like there was when those fool-hearted brothers
got that heavier-than-air machine off the ground in Kittyhawk.
But still …
I can see Larry Walters sitting up there in that lawn chair, floating silently
along at 1,000 feet. Things were going so well, why not float up another thousand,
then another and then another. After one feels secure at 5,000 feet, why not
16,000?
The problem with most of us is that we have never ventured enough to get off
the ground with out dreams. We have sat around, talking about our dreams as
though having a dream is as good as shaping it into reality.
We think having a great dream alone makes us special. It is not. It is striving
toward the dream that does that.
In Rogers and Hammersteins “South Pacific,” Bloody Mary sings:
“You got to have a dream. If you dont have a dream, how you gonna
have a dream come true?” And she could have added, “And hows
the dream gonna come true if you dont give it a shot?”
I am just thankful my mother was scared by a typewriter when she was carrying
me – and not by a weather balloon.