Little Green Parachute Guy
Bradley and Gregory were reading over the old Quotes and Thoughts archive and came across this one, from Dec. 9, 2003:
Quote of the day: An electric cable drapes over our driveway. Several months ago, my sons noticed something caught on the wire. Close inspection revealed it was a tiny green man wearing a blue parachute. I imagine a kid walking down the sidewalk tossing the little soldier into the air and watching the parachute catch the breeze. Bradley and Gregory wonder obsessively: Will the poor parachute man ever be rescued? Will he freeze to death up there if he isn’t brought down soon? Is there a forlorn child somewhere devastated by the loss of his parachute friend? Or, even worse, is there a tiny plastic family somewhere grieving for their missing plastic husband, father, son? In fact, my older boy is not convinced the parachute guy was actually thrown onto the wire. Perhaps he landed there when he bailed out of a plane, and the plane’s crew is still desperately seeking their lost comrade’s location. “Mom!” 9-year-old Bradley yelped today, “What if he’s really Santa and he needs to get back to the North Pole before Christmas Eve?!”
When he finished reading, Bradley laughed, saying, “I remember that!” He ran out to the driveway to look up at the wire. Sure enough, after more than three years, the little green parachute guy is still suspended there, though his blue parachute has long been decomposed. In all that time, we’ve driven underneath him countless times. There have been nights of subzero temps and summer days when the asphalt below oozed with heat. There have been major rain storms, ice, snow, wind so hard to knock you down, and yet, he’s still there, waiting. I wondered if Bradley still thought of him like a character in “Toy Story” — alive and trapped and desperately missed by little green plastic loved ones. But Bradley is 12 now, older and wiser, jaded perhaps. I asked him how he feels about his 9-year-old self’s tendency to give everything a persona.
He thought for a moment. “What if he likes it up there and he just keeps hanging on? Maybe he’s a spy, a squirrel spy, running messages up and across the wires? Maybe he’s listening to the phone conversations for the government. Maybe he’s…” and the list of possibilities, none of which included the notion that it just might be a plastic toy, went on.
Thought I’d stop by and give the blog a little love. Love the parachute story Julie.
Cheers!
Craig
Comment by Craig — March 15, 2007 @ 7:53 am
I’m sitting here giggling over this
I can guarantee I’ll random look for things on the wires on my drive to work tomorrow!
Comment by Beth — March 15, 2007 @ 7:13 pm
Kids have the funniest imaginations! Santa - hahaha.
Comment by Lucky Red Hen — March 15, 2007 @ 11:38 pm
Love this story! That guy’s a little “trooper” for hanging there so long… sorry, couldn’t help it.
Love your work and how personal your blog is.
Comment by andrew — March 16, 2007 @ 8:46 am
Endurance. The test of any true parachute man. Did they give him a name?
Comment by Leah — March 16, 2007 @ 4:06 pm