Bastiaan “Bart” M. Drees, .July 4, 2016
July 4th, 1964 marked the middle of summer vacation for my family on Stichter Ave. I was just 12 years old, and my older brother, Herman, was 14. The last half of summer vacation in Dallas got really hot and boring: long days with little to fill them up. During the day, it got so hot that the asphalt would bubble up. Everything was as dry as kindling.
In the evenings, when the cool set in, the neighborhood kids would finally emerge from hiding inside after dinner. One evening towards the end of the summer break, Herman came up with an idea: we should build a hot air balloon. Being an aspiring aeronautical engineer, he kept up on all sorts of flying toys like those little airplanes with gasoline engines that could fly around in circles on guide strings.
He had heard that you could make a hot air balloon out of a dry-cleaning bag – very light, clear plastic. All you needed to do was make a Balsa wood strip Tic-tac-toe configuration. Birthday candles could then be fixed in placed at the junctures of the wooden slats by melting some wax and placing the base of the candle in it. Then you would tape the edges of the open, upside-down bag to the ends of the sticks, holding the top of the bag up. When you lit the four candles, they generated hot air to fill the bag and allowed it to fly.
Recognizing the danger of flying a bag containing lit candles, we decided to tether the balloon by tying a kite string to its base.
So, all was set and ready to launch, and launch it did! Higher and higher in the evening sky, we watched the glowing balloon – an amazing sight! As we were marveling at our successful mission, however, the kite string suddenly fell limp to the ground having been burned through. We panicked! Herman and I ran down to the end of the block, down Tulane and up Aberdeen Ave. It was gone. We never saw the end of the balloon’s journey, but luckily for us, we also never heard of a fire in the neighborhood that night! As I lay in bed that night, I could not help wondering what would have happened if the balloon landed on someone’s roof! This was just one of the times we did mischief that could have landed us in BIG trouble as young boys. We were so lucky never to have been caught.