PUP SUN I T E .ORG | 34 the airfield, Jim asked me in a most serious tone this question, he said, “ Mike, if you die, can I have your van?” We burst out laughing and that made the entire trip fun again. At the airport, we were among a group of about 20 people, mostly guys but several girls as well. Heck, if girls could do this, we could do this blindfolded … right? No offense ladies, but I was looking for every reason I could to reinforce in my mind that this would be safe and easy. After a few hours of learning how to exit the plane without turning flips or other unusual moves, how to turn right/left so you can steer yourself from landing in the trees or on a building or on top of a grazing bull and of course how to land w/o breaking an ankle or worse…. You are Ready !! Next step was to get the chute on. Very cool. In a way, this reminded me of my Army days. Then you get in the aircraft. Then you shut up and do what the jump master tells you to do. The plane takes a few minutes to climb to 3000 feet. Looking out the windows the ground gets smaller and smaller and my stomach felt stranger and stranger. I said to myself several times, A handshake is serious stuff…no going back! I went before Jim so he wouldn’t dare back down. It was thrilling to say the least. The Jump Master opened the door, the wind was something… blowing, you get in the door and he slaps you on the back side and says ‘go’. You go! Wow. The next thing you see is the plane pulling away and then you open your chute. A very small jolt then you are actually sitting not hanging under the canopy. It’s totally quiet so you can yell, cuss, fart ( if so inclined ) and absolutely no one will hear you. Believe it or not, you don’t even have a sensation of falling… at least not until you get closer to the ground. That’s when you prepare yourself for your touch down or hit down or crash whatever you end up doing. In my case, I landed in the middle of the runway…not bad. I never saw Jim land. I did see him cross a corn field about 10 minutes later carrying his chute. He landed in a farmer’s field adjacent to the airport. Naturally, I dogged him all the way home. Well, we did it. We were true to our word. On the way home, we stopped at the first drive thru we could find then on to the same bar that started this the night before. This time it was us who were full of excitement and the life of the party. On the way back to Springfield, I asked Jim how he ended up so far away in a corn field. He said he never opened his eyes after the chute opened. The wind took him where the wind wanted to take him… of course I howled laughing. Jim never jumped again but he can always say he did. He was living on the edge as has done many times…and we had a blast. As for me, one and done, was not enough. The ‘edge’ was still calling my name. Many of the things I’ve done, if I caught the grandkids doing them, there would be hell to pay. The ‘edge’ for today’s generation must be different then it was for mine. That might be a good thing, I don’t know. What I do know is life really begins at the ‘EDGE’! P.S. JUMPING WAS THE BEST ‘EDGE’ MOVE I EVER MADE.
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