The Encyclopedia of Fall: U is for Up-Up
Ten years have passed, and still I remember the sensation of floating above the Pioneer Valley, as if tethered to a hawk. Hot-air ballooning is a dawn-and-dusk sport, when the air temperature is right for launching. In the late-afternoon light, we rose above the Connecticut River, just outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Within moments, our balloonist, Paul […]
Ten years have passed, and still I remember the sensation of floating above the Pioneer Valley, as if tethered to a hawk. Hot-air ballooning is a dawn-and-dusk sport, when the air temperature is right for launching. In the late-afternoon light, we rose above the Connecticut River, just outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Within moments, our balloonist, Paul Sena, who has been flying passengers since 1991, took us to the silence of 1,500 feet. The wind carried our rattan basket northward at five miles per hour over the valley. We saw Mount Monadnock in faraway Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and skydivers opening parachutes. We rose to 3,000 feet over the hill towns, and floated for more than an hour before slowly descending. Deer, startled by the breathing of the balloon, bounded away through the trees. When we landed, children who’d been following in their parents’ cars came running, full of smiles and wonder; the balloon swelled out, while the propane burner inside whooshed heat, as if from an unseen animal. We stepped out. I felt as though I’d landed in Oz.
Worthington BallooningWorthington, MA. 413-238-5514; worthingtonballooning.com
Mel Allen
Mel Allen is the fifth editor of Yankee Magazine since its beginning in 1935. His first byline in Yankee appeared in 1977 and he joined the staff in 1979 as a senior editor. Eventually he became executive editor and in the summer of 2006 became editor. During his career he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel, while his pursuit of long form story telling has always been vital to his mission as well. He has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, profiled astronaut Alan Shephard, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. He also once helped author Stephen King round up his pigs for market, but that story is for another day. Mel taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 29 children through months of Maine winters. He learned you had to grab their attention and hold it. After 12 years teaching magazine writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he now teaches in the MFA creative nonfiction program at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Like all editors, his greatest joy is finding new talent and bringing their work to light.
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