A Comedy of Errors

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2005-02-01
de plane de plane!

15:28

I'm waiting for an application to finish accepting what I've changed. It's taking ages.

Meanwhile, since I have nothing to say, I'll share a story about my dad when he was little. The aeros, especially, will appreciate this.

Growing up, my dad and his cousins, John and Alan (John and my dad were the same age, and Alan a few years younger; this is of note) would spend a lot of time over at their grandparents farm. My greatgrandfather, Joe, was a mischevious prankster, a trait inherited by his sons and grandsons. My grandmother, Carrie, was a hard, no-nonsense woman (not so much passed on to her descendants). My dad can tell some doozies about the adventures of his father and uncles.

One time at the farm, dad and John decided to build an airplane. They were all of 8 or 9 years old. They took an old wooden crate, fashioned a nose, a tail and some wings, and stood back to admire their handywork and think about who would ride in the thing. They already had a launching point - the roof of the barn. Now, if you know anything about a farmyard barn, then you know that they're very large with a steeply sloping roof. This one was no exception, and I believe it was even painted the stereotypical red. John and his cousin were just old enough to have some sense of their own mortality, and neither wanted to take their contraption for a spin. However, while they had qualms about their own safety, they didn't have any with respect to little Alan, whom they easily enlisted as their "pilot". Alan eagerly climbed in and prepared for takeoff.

At about that time, Carrie realized that she had neither seen nor heard the boys in a long time, and if she knew one thing, she knew that that meant trouble with a capital T. So she immediately headed out across the fields to look for them, rounded the corner of the barn just as the airplane, with Alan inside, sailed off of the roof. Seeing Gram, John and dad hightailed it off as fast as they could and weren't seen for quite some time. Carrie ran over to Alan, reaching him just as he came to rest in a nearby stream - upright, unhurt, and wanting to go again.

The end of it was that while dad and John were in big trouble for endangering Alan's life when they knew better, the real sting was that Alan was not only not in trouble, but he had had quite a ride.

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