A soft breath of warm air under a crystal clear sky told of a late summer afternoon. It was indeed a mellow, lazy day with little activity in the neighborhood, and nearly suppertime. The roar and moan of lawn mowers had ceased for a time and traffic on the road was light.

Presently the relative quiet was interrupted by the sound of a barking dog soon to be joined by another and yet another. It seemed as if all the dogs within earshot had joined in a great chorus to perform a mighty anthem. A stranger on the scene might wonder just what catastrophe was about to occur to precipitate such a response, but it was not an extraordinary phenomenon. Such an outburst occurred frequently during this season.

Being household pets with nothing pressing to do, dogs were ever on the alert for anything that might excite their dog brains. Upon hearing a hissing sound that lasted for perhaps half a minute even a sleeping dog was alerted to a happening, and thus compelled to sound an alarm. The sound did not announce anything harmful, only a hot-air balloon or two. The large, pear-shaped, colorful balloons approached over a large field across the road from the row of houses and were visible from a mile away. They were a pretty sight, hanging there above field and forest and drifting along on the slight breeze. They attracted the attention of not only the dogs, but of the human residents, many of whom always came outdoors to watch them glide by. The sight made one almost wish to be in the basket suspended below the bag of hot air. The main objection to the wish may have been the hissing sound of fire directed into the open throat of the balloon. Got to keep that air hot to stay afloat.

A variation in the script occurred one day as evidenced by the arrival of a couple of vehicles hauling open bed trailers that parked at the edge of the field where soy beans had been recently harvested. Soon after that a red and white striped balloon became visible over the horizon followed by a black and white one a little later. Evidently they had scheduled a landing just across the road from us. We had front row seats.

The red and white balloon appeared bigger and bigger as it approached and began to lose altitude. The crew on the ground scurried around getting ready to assist in the landing. As the red-and-white descended, the man in the basket manipulated ropes attached to the balloon to tilt the balloon forward as the basket lightly settled to the ground while the ground crew gathered other ropes. The balloon leaned forward and settled to the ground as the air was expelled.

While the crew worked to pack up the deflated balloon and the basket, and load the rig into the trailer, the black and white balloon was obviously descending for a landing. It seemed to be descending too slowly. At this rate it would land just short of the trees at the edge of the field and tangle up in the woods. What could stop a wreck that might injure the passengers in the basket? The operator must have misjudged the wind speed. At the very last second the burner hissed to life sending a jet of blue flame into the nylon bag causing it to hesitate in its descent. As the air heated, the balloon stopped falling and began to rise ever so slowly. The light wind carried the black-and-white on toward the woods as it gradually crept skyward. Everybody watching held his breath until at last the basket barely cleared the trees and moved on. Then its chase crew piled into their car and headed for their alternate landing field.

A great unanimous sigh of relief went up when the balloon cleared the trees. It seems that everyone in the neighborhood had turned out for the unexpected show on a normally quiet and peaceful afternoon.