A Special Kind of Flight

I often have this childhood memory.

When my two brothers and I were

five, six and seven, our dad would

occasionally make his unique brand

of paper airplanes to entertain us.

Those acrobatic wonders were dif-

ferent than the usual kind most kids

made. They actually looked like air-

plane with wings, rudders and tail.

When thrown, they would do loop-

to-loops and barrel-roll maneuvers.

They were indeed special. In fact, at

seventy-two years of age now, and

having traveled far and wide in my

life, having experience all manner

of things, I have never seen other

paper airplanes even come close to

the kind my father used to make. I

can still see his large hands folding

and creasing the paper into intricate

shapes, tearing it with precision to

form the fuselage, wings and tail.

I remember watching him with awe

and great anticipation. And oh, the

delight in dad’s eyes when he handed

each of his boys their own airplane as

we ran out into the backyard and

learned how to fly.

Chris Hanch 4-3-19