The media seems hellbent on having the family involved in the Colorado balloon incident publicly stoned at a minimum. They want the parents charged and the children taken away and all their money seized and personal apologies delivered to the millions of people who who caught up in the frenzy involved in this event.

There is no recognition that a local missing child report was turned into a national event by the media, not the family.

I probably wouldn’t even comment on this if I hadn’t read Fallenmonk’s piece, Childhood Wilderness, which brought back memories of my own childhood down here, which were very similar.

The thing is, I was one of three boys, like the Colorado family, and my Dad built things.

We didn’t have a large mylar balloon, but we did have a 14-foot boat that occasionally wandered around the bayou with no one in it, as my Dad worked out bugs in remote control systems that would be used to control Air Force drones and guided weapons.

My Dad built the boat, and water skis, and anything else that was felt to be necessary on the bayou.

My brothers and I sprang up in the morning, during the summer, pulled on shorts, grabbed a quick breakfast, and headed out in the morning. Meals were the only time my Mother saw us, and no one asked what we were up to. They really didn’t want to know, because it would have just upset them.

I can relate to the kids in Colorado. I understand about having a personal hiding place that your brothers don’t know about, because there were occasions when you were hiding from your brothers.

As near as I can tell, the real reason the media is mad is because the event didn’t end the way they wanted it to. They need to grow up,

Mother and Child

When does this child leave?

[Editor: KT-2 is ready for a return to the single life. Weaning is taking longer than she thought.]

Friday Ark