One summer evening, my parents, 9 year old brother,
and I, age10, looked heavenward and watched in awe as a ten-inch thick, pure-white, puffy cloud (about the size of a child's small swimming pool) floated over
our city neighborhood like a hot air balloon. It slowly descended and landed on
the gravel lot where the moving trucks parked at night. Four or five neighbors
gathered. Everyone moved cautiously toward it, curious. The things I heard that
made no sense at all to me. And my thoughts:
"It's a
real cloud that landed." Then wouldn't it be fog?
"No, that's impossible." That's right! So
what is it?
"It's a cloud of insect spray from the mosquito
truck." Are
you kidding me!?
"Back away. It's probably poisonous. Don't
breathe. Cover your nose." Don't breathe?
"It's heavenly. It's an angel." Are you kidding me!? No facial features or
wings?
"It could be a U.F.O. Don't touch it." Are you kidding me? From outer space here
to pick up all of you crazies?
"The communists probably launched it like that
Sputnik." Who
and what the heck are communists?
Sputnik was that spiky turquoise blue ball of bubble gum I bought at the candy store.
"Someone get me a stick so I can poke it."
Someone is going
to get contaminated. Hold your breath.
"Aw, it's foam, just a big cloud of soap
foam!" Are
you kidding me!? You big bunch of grown up dummies.
And so, it was... a huge escaped blob of soap suds foam
that had drifted from the Proctor & Gamble plant located less than a mile
away.
But oh, the imaginations were running wild that
evening.