we'd see the blimp

Overall, days were easier, cleaner. Not as much ambient noise. And we had bluer skies. There was less gong on. Life was slower. Thinking about it now, I can say for sure it was a quieter time. Even the new lawnmowers with motors didn't make much noise.

Back then, in the fifties in Ohio I'm telling you about, the Goodyear blimp came over once in a while. Akron, home port for the Goodyear blimp, was fifty miles away. That's the straight line of it, not like driving there with hills and curves and stop lights.

I remember the times we'd be over at Phil's gas station playin and we heard a buzz, a motor, like a plane but there was something different about it. We looked around, could be a plane. About as fast as we would notice and start looking, it came over the trees and was above us. Flying low, not high at all, it was right there, filling the sky. Hanging above. Slowly drifting overhead. The Goodyear Blimp. A big thing in our sky.

That was fun, it wasn't something on a screen on a little plastic box. Skies were open, blue with rolling cumulous clouds, and the big blimp floated right over us. We didn't call it a dirigible, we called it a blimp and that's what it looked like...it was big and fat, a shiny silver whale. Everyone was excited to see it. It only happened every now and then.

Looking back I can say the thought that some fool would use a gun and take a shot at it was about a zillion to one. Now, I don't know. Today, in these times? Are we really moving ahead or just marking time?