Paper Airplanes

The book fair is in town at Reid's school this week. His Cheri took him today and let him pick out anything he wanted. He chose a book on how to make really cool paper airplanes. He also chose a shark book but that's another post for another day. The plane book has ten different airplanes to choose from ranging from 1 in difficulty to 5. We have been making planes this afternoon and they are presently soaring over the balcony down into the den at an alarming rate. Making the planes took me back to childhood days at church when the weekly Sunday school lesson would always wind up in that familiar 5 fold simple air plane that would take flight over the playground. As we all got older we learned to fold more aerodynamic planes and small gliders. Looking through Reid's book I found one of those familiar gliders and folded one up for him. It does really well, but it really needs to be turned loose outside to reach its full potential. However, I do not believe that one of these new gliders will ever surpass the "Super Glider" that I had the pleasure of owning for a very short period of time in 1985.

I was in the sixth grade at Fitzgerald Jr. High School. To pass the time at lunch, some of the guys would fold up a little glider and let it fly around catching a nice spring wind. The gliders could fly a good 50 yards across the school yard if they were folded just right. I guess we though that we were impressing the ladies. As I folded my little glider for the days festivities, I had no way of knowing that I would soon be the talk of paper airplane legend. I made sure that I was careful in my folds because I wanted to make sure that it would fly straight and true. As the lunch hour was drawing to a close I pulled out my little glider and gave her a mighty sail in the direction of Allen Guy. It had to be in the spring of the year and the March winds must have been blowing because my little glider caught some serious air and started to climb into the lower atmosphere. It cleared one of the lower buildings as we all were running after it to see how far it would go. It cleared the pecan trees in the school yard and was headed south. It next cleared the trees across the street and was headed for the high school. The last time we saw the glider it was still climbing and was lost out of sight. It was so cool!!! True Story that I'm sure no one remembers but me!

Isn't it amazing how some of the smallest things can bring us the largest memories? Allen asks me all the time how I can remember all of these things about our childhood. Truth is, I had a great childhood! I had the kind of childhood that every kid should have. I had a ball and brought some great memories of me and my friends through life with me. I hope that I never forget them. I think that is why I still try to make memories with my friends to this day.

I hope that Reid and I can catch some wind this weekend with some paper airplanes. I'm sure that I will have made all ten of them that are in the book by then. I so enjoy spending time with him and I hope that one day he will look back and have fond memories about something as simple as a paper airplane!

Soar on son! Daddy loves you!