Balloon Man (2021) Movie Script

Okay, this determines
if we pull out or not.
You can make that work.
-But stay below the tree line.
-It's not in a hurry.
Seen it go much faster.
Okay, go ahead.
From the year
I was born, I was flying.
I don't remember my first steps
or the first words
that came out of my mouth,
but I do remember looking
through a tiny peep hole
of a large wicker basket
with the entire world
beneath my feet.
If you had told me
when I was a little boy
that I would be
a hot-air balloon pilot,
I would've thought
you were crazy.
As a pilot's kid,
I've learned so many lessons,
and each one has profoundly
shaped my life.
You have
to have ice in your veins.
You have to be fearless.
You have to trust
your instincts.
You have to think quickly
on your feet.
Make things up as you go,
because literally
the wind is changing
every second
you're up there.
You want to bend
your knees a little bit.
Okay.
- Might hit a little hard.
- Now come up
and kiss the basket.
Why would anyone want
to get in that little basket,
and put a balloon on the top
of it and go up in the air?
I don't like
big commercial planes,
and I'm gonna get in a little
four-foot basket
and go up in the air.
No, that's a no no.
Bye!
My dad has always
seemed to be
searching for something
and what he was searching for,
he found in the sky.
If you look around
at the other balloons
and the crews,
you don't see
people of color.
I told Bill, the only color
that mattered to me was green.
And we laughed. Big hug.
And that's true.
I feel that way today.
We came down like
we were parachuting.
We hit the ground,
we dragged 15 or 20 yards
and my heart's pumping.
I just loved this.
I thought that's the way
it was supposed to run
until my friend Keith came
across the field and said,
"Everybody okay?
That was quite a crash."
I mean, crash? If that's
a crash, I'll do this again.
- We arrived alive.
- Alive!
There's no reason I should be
sitting here today in a balloon.
- This is the reason.
- That's right.
Because all of these
other friendships
would not have happened.
This became the nucleus,
one that just spread.
And that was God's plan
in terms of spreading
the friendship
- and the connection
of camaraderie.
- Right.
My first flight was
when I was nine days old.
Um, I was literally
out of the hospital,
nine days later, in a balloon basket and flying.
Being up in the sky,
and it's nothing but you
a basket and an envelope,
to me, that's
the definition of freedom.
Yeah, we're right on time.
We gotta go pick up
Al and Bev.
Tony and Laura,
they probably will be leaving
about five or six o'clock.
Which type of places,
which state park...
Heard a couple of people
talking about
how beautiful it was
to fly in the gorge.
The gorge is actually
the Grand Canyon
on the East Coast.
So the object
of flying up there
is taking off
from the little park,
flying right across the street,
and then dropping 900 feet
down into the gorge,
right by the river,
way down below.
Are there festivities
up there at the race?
Not really. This is more
of a private party.
We got about 30 balloons coming.
And we just get together
and fun fly.
I've been flying with Bill
for about 28 years.
Every weekend,
we'd be coming home
and we'd see a balloon
in the distance
and we'd try to be there
when it landed,
and most of the time we did.
Most of the time it was Bill.
And then we asked him
if we could help,
and he said, "Sure."
So, we helped him one time.
And then
a couple of days later,
we saw him land again.
So we helped him again.
Okay, let's see what we got.
Oh, let's just through...
-Oh my...
-Oh, my God.
-Sure you don't want us
to take our car?
-No.
One day he just turned to us
and said,
"Wouldn't you like to be
on the crew?"
And we didn't know
what to do and he says,
"Do exactly
what you're doing now."
Good morning.
Balloon 91517.
I'd like to get a weather
briefing in the Bradley area
between now and 10 o'clock
and he winds
at 3,000 and 6,000 feet.
Let's see,
we've been flying with Bill,
um, I stopped counting...
just like birthdays.
I want to say 30 years.
I'm one of his oldest
crew members.
When you find a good family
and good team and good people,
you stick with it.
I was selfish, naturally.
Finding a balloon team,
when it became a mission
and I looked over and said,
"Huh, here's an all-female crew with Bill."
This seems like
a good crew to be with.
I think I'll start
with this one,
and I never left.
Bill is one of a kind.
When we met him, I mean,
he's 6' 6" or 6' 3",
whatever it is,
and I'm 5 feet
and he wraps
his big arms around me
and gives me a hug
and that's it.
You know, it sets it all off.
And Bill's always been
good to us.
We're part of the family,
I believe.
Lot of traveling,
lot of races.
It was a great
wholesome family experience.
And it started off selfish.
It was all about me at the time,
but then it grew into a family
and here was a great thing
to take your kids
and build family experiences
and family ties
and really good...
Build a lot of memories,
and it makes your relationship with our children
all the better in the long run,
now that they're adults.
I have been crewing with Bill
for 13 years now.
Tony's mom, Jean Russotto,
was one of Bill's
original crew members.
Tony was about
10 years old at that time
and came out with her
to some festivals.
And so he had his first flight
way back when with Bill.
Oh, my God!
You are lighter than air.
One thing our crew
will do is when you take off,
they just follow
the major roads
in the path of which
you're going.
So once you land,
you're able to pack up
and drive back to the original starting point.
He's got more speed
than I thought.
He's starting
to pick up a tiny bit.
The flow is starting
in the valley a tiny bit.
Got a little more
air movement.
Um, because, normally,
he always beats me here
to do all that driving
we just did.
Look at him go.
Yeah, he, um,
he stayed on the deck
and milked it
for everything he'd get,
to keep from flying out
of the area.
I can look at a balloon
from the ground
and know exactly what
the pilot is doing in the air.
So I'm very, very good
at chasing a balloon down.
And just by a glance,
just by the pattern
of the burns,
and how fast is he burning,
how long is he burning,
it will tell me
if he's climbing,
he's falling, and I know
the terrain so well.
I know downwind,
where he sees
and what he's trying to find.
So, you know, that was
part of the challenge too,
was chasing. It's pretty
interesting to chase
down a balloon
and be there before it lands.
I get to go play
in the morning
when nobody else
in my house is interested
in getting out of bed.
So you go and have
a great time
and to be wherever
you wanna be,
most of the year,
by 7:30 in the morning,
working back
and cooking breakfast,
whatever needs to be done.
I'm a teacher and people that
I work with think I'm nuts
to get up at four o'clock
in the morning
on my days off
to come out and do this,
and my response
to them always is,
"I get to see the sunrise.
"We meet new people
all the time,
"who are many times
out for their first flight,
"and we always have
a lot of fun together.
"And it's an adventure
every time."
-Okay, get in here.
-Okay, wait on the basket.
I've been flying with Bill
since about 1986, I believe.
My first flight
was with a cousin of mine
who wanted to go
for a balloon ride.
And I found a way
to get a hold of him.
And been doing it ever since.
I like being up high,
looking down on things,
and this is a great way
to do it.
You have time
to focus on things.
On a plane, you're passing
over real quick,
and you don't get to really see what's down there.
Which in a balloon
you can do,
and you don't have
the frosty window between you
and the outside as well.
Are we out of the way
of the golfers?
When I started crewing
with Bill 13 years ago,
he could be calling me
seven days a week.
And there were some times
that that had happened
and I loved every minute of it.
Hold up at the top.
One leg all the way over.
All the way over.
Sit down.
Slide off.
Okay. I need you
to grab this rope.
There are many of us
that are loyal
and have devoted
a lot of time and effort
and we do it
because we enjoy it.
It really wasn't scary.
It was very quiet,
very peaceful.
We were up there saying
this is what
heaven must be like.
Everything I've tried
in my life
was something less
done by the masses.
And that truly has made
the difference in my life.
Being an entrepreneur
is probably
the greatest thing you can do,
because you're doing
your passion.
I've always said,
"Find something you love,
"go in head over heels
and make it work."
The dynamic in my family
when I was growing up
was a very close,
lovable family.
I really respected my father.
He was the pillar
of our family totally.
My mother
was very strong.
She was very lovable.
Omaha, Nebraska,
is where I was born.
And this is when
I'd met my girlfriend
and we got married.
I met Dolores on 24th Street.
I said, "Ooh, boy, look
at this beautiful girl here."
And I got interested.
And we made conversation
and it went on from there.
She was everything.
Uh, when you say
she swept me off my feet,
and, uh, I don't know,
we just struck it off
right at get go.
And we had
our first son, Billy.
That was a big delight.
Then came Carmen,
another big delight.
Then came Stephen,
and then Little Bud in the rain.
This is where
we used to live.
41-11, and boy, is it over here.
Still got that chicken wire up.
-For the pheasant.
-Yeah.
We stayed in the first
house that I lived in
until about sixth,
seventh grade.
It was a little,
quiet neighborhood.
A lot of people over the years have asked me,
you know, "Are there
any Blacks in Omaha?"
and actually, there were
a lot of Blacks in Omaha.
Uh, I went to
an all-Black school
up until high school.
Quiet town, didn't have
to lock your doors.
You could go anywhere
you wanted to
and leave your door open,
your windows open.
At nights, it would get so hot.
A lot of the time
we walked down
to Carter Lake.
And we'd see a million
other families
down there at Carter Lake.
All the families
in the neighborhood
took care of
the other families.
If you did anything wrong,
you'd got whippings
based on one of the
neighbors telling on you.
We were all
strict on each other,
I believed in
if they were doing something,
you take care of them.
And don't say, "Wait till
your daddy gets home."
You take care of them then.
If I see him, I'm going
to take care of him
automatically.
And that's the way
we managed things.
My mother,
she used to work
at the phone company
and she got sick during the middle of the week.
She had to go to the hospital,
and I remember
they got us a rabbit.
We had a rabbit that day,
and we all piled in a car
because we was gonna go
to Aunt Shirley's house
because Daddy had to take her
to the hospital.
And we was all in the car,
and Stevie, Lorraine,
Billy, me, was sitting
in the back seat
and she turned around
and she kept staring at us.
She just kept staring at us.
And I kept saying,
"Why is she staring
at us like that?"
I said, "Why is she staring
at us like that?"
I think she knew that was
gonna be the last time
she would see us.
Shirley took us back home.
So I went upstairs waiting
for her to come home
because I just thought
she was coming home
and I waited and I waited
and then all of a sudden,
Daddy came home
and he had Mama's coat.
And I said, "What's he doing
with Mama's coat?
"I don't see Mama."
And Daddy came upstairs
and he says,
"Carmen, you gotta be
a big girl now,
"because, um, you're gonna
have to take over everything
"and everything," he said,
"Because your mother,
"your mother's passed away,"
or whatever.
And I started boo-hooing,
boo-hooing
I was seven going on eight.
Lorraine was about two.
She was one going on two.
I think Stevie was about three.
So that makes Billy about...
I guess he was about nine
going on 10.
I don't remember
anything with my mom.
That's strange. I can't explain it or anything.
When my mom died,
I took it very, very, very hard.
I think somehow
I lost memory of her.
'Cause I can't even remember
sitting on her lap or homework.
I don't remember anything
about my mom.
There was a period of time
after that in school,
I always used to
look up in the clouds
and visualize, you know,
that my mom was up there
with God.
And I was just telling a guy,
I said, "See those clouds
up there?"
I said, "I can go up higher
"than those clouds
tomorrow morning if I want,
"I can just go up in the sky,
fly like a bird."
Hey, Gary. How are you?
Hey, Bill. Good to see you, man.
Brought my boots.
Okay, it's one step
in the right direction.
-Kneepads?
-Kneepads, yeah.
Kneepads, helmets.
Weather does not look good
for the weekend.
Um... I think we got a shot
tomorrow night.
We got a shot for Sunday,
but it's kind of iffy
all the way around
and it's the kind of stuff that
you probably won't know
until a couple of hours
beforehand.
Um, right now, there's a front
that's going all the way
from the Panhandle of Florida
all the way up
to Caribou, Maine.
Bill, as a pilot, I think
he's been flying 35
almost 40 years now.
And I have never had a problem flying with him.
When he says
it's too windy to fly,
his judgment is always right.
-How you doing?
-What's the scoop?
-Rain.
-No go?
Probably not.
Maybe one or two might take off.
Most of them won't.
Unless it clears up real quick.
-Radar don't look good?
-Uh-huh.
Getting depressing. I don't know
about you guys, but...
We came
from Connecticut.
-How depressed could that be?
-Oh, yeah!
Over the years,
going to different
balloon festivals,
everything is based on weather.
Usually, we have
four opportunities to fly,
usually four or five.
Usually it's Friday night,
Saturday morning,
Saturday night, Sunday morning.
So out of the four chances
that we get,
we're always hopeful
that we can get all four in.
But we knew
the Friday of Letchworth,
we knew that the weather
was gonna be iffy
the whole week.
You still see
that high ball, sir?
They went down over
on the other side of the trees.
High ball.
Just a little party balloon,
filled with a little helium.
Release it, and as it goes up,
you'll see it do
different things.
If it's less erratic,
and if it's a good direction,
then you make decision to fly.
We'll sit on the ground
and watch other pilots fly.
He's always
very cautious and safe.
So when he says
it's my turn to fly,
I jump at the chance
because I know
I'm in good hands.
He's looking after the safety
of his passengers.
The 28 years that I've been flying with him,
we've always, always
had a safe landing.
Some landings were a little bit
riskier than others,
but we always had
a safely landing.
And everybody walked away.
So how did that kid do
in the chair that went out?
-You don't know?
-We don't know yet.
-We had some night shots.
-I saw him when he came back up
and that's it. I ain't seen him.
He'll be a hero.
We'll see it on the news.
-Did you get any footage of him?
-No.
You know, I was
running my mouth and forgot.
-So I went over there...
-Stand up landing.
But he was handicapped
already, I believe, ain't he?
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Doing what he
doing now, right?
- No?
- Kind of.
He was in Albuquerque.
Him and another pilot
were flying.
And wind picked up
and they went
into power lines
and it cut the balloon
right from the basket,
right from the balloon
and came down,
the other pilot got killed,
and he broke almost
every bone in his body.
That's why he's handicapped.
-Oh, he haven't
gave it up though.
-No.
He cheated it once.
You never know
where you're gonna go,
what you're gonna do.
We've come out to the field
and it will be a little windy
and so we can't fly.
Uh, the next time
we'll look at it,
and if it's not windy,
and we will fly.
And then,
once you get in the air,
it's a little bit windier
than you thought.
I have seen many miracles
while I was flying
in the balloon,
and that's nothing but God.
I know some pilots
think it's their ability,
but that is totally God.
And if I'm landing fast,
I just ski, literally.
I would not
recommend somebody
with this real small
and frail bones
to land that in a fast landing.
Mm-hmm.
-I wouldn't...
I just wouldn't fly,
but I've landed
at 22 miles an hour.
- Okay.
- It's fun.
It's fun.
- Yeah.
- How was your flight?
Landed at two
and a half miles an hour.
-Way past...
-How far did you end up going?
9.7 miles, I landed
way up at 408 Ridge Road.
There's a saying
in ballooning.
"There are old pilots,
there are bold pilots,
"but there are
no old, bold pilots."
I've had my share
of crash landings,
windy landings, rainy landings.
Over 36 years,
I have seen it all.
So I don't take any chances.
My life in Omaha, Nebraska,
when I was young
consisted of my house,
church, school,
and my grandmother's house.
And that was a radius of about eight or nine blocks.
This is Hope Lutheran Church.
This is the church
that I grew up in.
And we had a school
not too far from here.
It was called
Hope Lutheran School.
The school had two rooms.
One classroom
was kindergarten to third.
The other classroom
was four through eight,
and then all the students
actually went to this church.
My life at that age
was my family.
You know, my cousins,
we were really tight.
We were totally outdoors.
We'd leave the house
at eight o'clock
in the morning
and get back
before it got dark.
And we were just
playing all day,
running, riding our bicycles
and playing sports, baseball,
basketball, football.
The front door of our house
was about right here.
We had a huge lot on this side
that had a lot of fruit trees,
apple trees, pear trees.
Then on this side
of the house was a lot
that we used to play
football in and baseball in,
and it turned out,
my father said that
the guy who lived
right next door
when he was a little boy,
um, he saw my grandfather
walking on that lot and said,
"You can't walk on there.
"That's private property."
And my grandfather,
he used to be
a private car porter on the Union Pacific Railroad.
My father said he went
right down to City Hall
and bought that lot,
and the guy was so mad
that he moved out,
once he found out
that my grandfather
bought that lot.
You know,
when you're away
working during the day
and then when they
come home from school,
my mother used
to take care of them,
and then later on,
I remarried.
That was five years later.
And, uh, I think
they all became successful
with their new mother.
When I was young,
I never wanted
my father to remarry
because I didn't think
anybody could
replace my mother.
And I was always
shocked at the fact
that here's a woman,
I mean, she was really classy.
That's one thing
about my stepmother.
She was a classy lady
you ever want to see.
Intelligent, I mean,
well-read, just...
I mean, she was
a wonderful, wonderful lady.
There's no other woman
that could have replaced
my mother like she did.
And my father
has said so many times,
he said, "You know,
I was very lucky.
"I had two good women.
She was
my third grade teacher
and she was
a tough disciplinarian.
I remember getting paddled
on several occasions
during that time,
but she was
a wonderful teacher
and very much dedicated
in her job also,
and she expected
nothing less than your best,
and so you tried
to give that to her.
Growing up as kids,
we always looked up to Billy
because he was
the oldest one, and big.
So he was like
our big brother.
When they choose
a baseball team
or something like that, he was the first person taken,
because he'd always hit home runs and stuff, you know.
When he got in the Scouts,
you know,
he did everything right
and was the best one at it
because nobody
was in Eagle Scouts,
especially a Black person
You know, I don't remember
anybody being an Eagle Scout
besides him.
Once he got into something,
and put his mind to it,
he would usually be
the best at it.
This is
Central High School
where I graduated
and back in my junior
and senior year,
I used to play football here.
It was just no fun doing all that practice and hard work
and then never getting
into the game.
Coach never put me
into the game.
I remember my father
came to see me,
once, to play, because
he used to work nights.
So this one time,
he came to see me.
The Coach put me in the game
with one minute
left on the clock.
I think my total playing time
in my junior and senior year
at Central High School
was about two minutes.
So Central High football and me
didn't get along at all.
The Montgolfier brothers
invented hot-air ballooning,
which is different than gas
ballooning, helium or hydrogen.
But they invented
hot-air ballooning...
... in the Champagne Valley
in France in the 1780's.
On they were
paper manufacturers.
And the first hot-air balloons
were predominantly
made out of paper
and women silk undergarments,
that would fly off,
cool down and then crash
in the vineyards
in the Champagne Valley.
And the farmers
would see these strange things
landing in their vineyards.
This is all very true.
And they would attack
the balloons
with their pitchforks
and their sickles.
They'd destroy the balloons.
So they started tying
a bottle of champagne
to the balloon.
And they go through the process
and the balloon would fly off,
crashing in the vineyards.
And the farmers would come up...
And they'd see the champagne
and they would leave
the balloon alone
and they would just lay down
in the fields and get drunk.
I've been coming
to the New Jersey
Balloon Festival
for about 20 years.
It's probably
the biggest festival
of the East Coast in terms of
how many people come versus
how many balloons
are actually there.
We inflated the balloon
for the first time,
right at the Atlanta Stadium.
The very next day was the race.
So, we, you know, got all
the kinks out of the balloon
and everything.
And then the very next day,
right when we were ready
to take off,
you could just see
the rain clouds coming in.
And Bob said, "Hurry,
we've got to get this
"race off the ground,"
because you know
the sponsors,
you know,
it's always sponsor pressure.
So, uh, and then,
I was a private pilot,
so I couldn't take
people up for hire.
So my first 50 hours
was pretty much flying solo
by myself.
So I took off in the, uh...
raise and the clouds
just came right upon us.
It started pouring down rain.
Here I'm flying over
the tall Georgia pines,
a low ceiling.
The ceiling was all the way
down to the pines.
So, the whole flight,
I'm in the clouds.
I couldn't come down
because of the tall pines.
All the rain was coming right
down the center of the balloon.
It was like a waterfall
right on me,
in the actual balloon.
Couldn't find
no landing spot.
It was foggy.
Couldn't see nothing.
I said,
"I'm about to die today."
Kept flying, kept flying.
I had been flying about an hour
and a half until I looked out
and I saw this big, huge field.
I said, "Thank you, Lord,"
and I just headed
right for the field.
Soon as I hit the field,
I went in
maybe this much mud
and I was just happy
to be on the ground.
I just sat there
and this was
out in rural Georgia in 1979.
So I said, "Well, the Klan
is about to capture me.
There was one house
right across the street.
Door open and out came running
six white men running toward me.
I'm in a field.
There were horses
back in the field.
There's horse
manure everywhere.
Mud water. And here comes
six white guys after me.
They got up...
They got right up
to the balloon.
"Can we help you?" I said,
"Uh, uh-huh."
I went
to the University of Nebraska
to become an architect.
But during 1965,
every freshman has to take
the required courses.
And I remember
there were two courses.
One was called Linguistics,
and another course
was called Rhetoric.
Now, who wants to take
Linguistics and Rhetoric?
I hated those two courses.
One day, I ran into a guy
and he says,
"You know how to play poker?"
I said, "No."
So he taught me
how to play poker,
and we were playing poker for pennies and nickels and dimes,
and I learned
the game real quick,
and I started winning money.
My first semester,
I ended up with a 1.3 average
because I chose poker
over studying.
And the second, um...
The second semester,
I did a little worse,
and I only got a 0.7 average
for a total cumulative
average of 1.0
at the University of Nebraska,
all because I like
to play poker.
I had to go see my counselor,
and he sat in front of me
and said,
"Son, you are not
college material."
I went home.
I was dejected.
I knew I had to
tell my father that
I wasn't gonna be
able to go back
to University of Nebraska
and that was
a hard thing to do,
and he was disappointed,
and, uh...
At the time,
I had gotten a job
on the Union Pacific Railroad.
I had made a few trips
and the money was good
and I had made a decision then,
I was gonna work full time
on the railroad.
But my father didn't
want me to do that,
and he told my uncle
what happened,
and my uncle definitely didn't want me to drop out of college.
He said, "Look, um, if I can
get you into college,
"will you... Will you promise me
that you will do everything
"different and get
your grades up?"
I said "Okay," because I really
respected my Uncle Jim,
and, uh, he pulled
some strings
to get me into
Morris Brown College.
And it turned out I got
four As and one B-plus,
and I was really mad
at the teacher
that gave me a B-plus.
But, you know,
I accepted the honor roll.
My freshman year, I lived
with my uncle and aunt
and my three cousins...
When Jim came in and said,
"Billy is going to
come to Atlanta"
"and he's gonna live with us
until he finishes college,"
it was not a question.
It was an affirmation.
Billy is coming. I said,
"Wow, that should be fun."
Somebody asked, "How long
is he gonna be here?"
I said, "Until he finishes."
Because that's the way
southern African American
people do.
They come to a place
they will stay until
they are ready to leave.
I was seven years old
when Mr. Bill came to Atlanta.
All I'd know is there was
a cool cousin
coming from Omaha, Nebraska.
He was like a big brother.
And plus, he was coming
from Omaha, Nebraska.
My cousin.
Bill was not easy
to roll off our tongue.
Billy didn't seem appropriate.
And we always had to
ask him for stuff.
So he was Mr. Bill.
It didn't matter
what time Mr. Bill came in.
It was, "Mr. Bill.
Mr. Bill, take me
to the store, Mr. Bill."
"Mr. Bill...
Oh, my little cousin,"
you know...
"Take your little cousin store, Mr. Bill," and he would...
He would be so calm.
He's so cool.
My cousin was so cool.
He was like...
-Okay...
-"Okay,
"go out into the car
and wait for me.
"I'll be out there shortly,"
and I'd just go
watch TV or whatever.
"Okay, Mr. Bill."
And knowing the day before,
he told me the same thing,
but we never got to the store.
But every day was
just as exciting as...
as if he...
I knew he was coming.
When I first came
to Morris Brown,
I was ineligible
to play football,
but I wasn't gonna play anyway, because I never played
at University of Nebraska,
and I sat on a bench
two years in high school.
So I didn't think I was
any good at football.
And my roommate said,
you know, I was weighing
about 275 pounds
and he said, "You're too big
not to play football."
He said, "Get your behind
on the football team."
So I tried out for
the football team that year
and I earned a scholarship
and it turned out that I was
pretty good on the team.
I was usually
a defensive tackle
or defensive end,
and I became pretty good.
I made all conference,
Bill had
a real strange, stiff run.
So when he was playing football,he was Josse Smith, and...
And although the college
that they played...
I could always
pick my cousin out
because he had that...
that proud run
off to the football field.
Way back when we used to
sit on this wall,
we used to wait for
the freshman women
to come driving up with
their father and mother,
and all the football players
used to sit up here and, uh,
pick out the new freshmen
that they wanted to date.
It was always funny
because some of the girls
would come in
with their boyfriends,
and some of the football
players would say, uh,
"Get your kisses now,
because she's mine
"from this day forward.
So, this...
I met Bill
when we were both students
at Morris Brown College,
And, um, he was
at a party and I was there
with my friends
Marlene and Judy,
and we kind of clicked instantly
and we became
very close friends.
Bill was very much
of an academic person,
athletic person.
He loved to have fun.
You remember all the parties
on the water, Monroe?
- Oh, yes. Every week...
It was...
I think his name was Jim.
Yes, I remember that.
As a matter of fact,
it was always...
Everybody was like, just...
Bill's having a party.
He's, um...
mannerable, he's respectful,
he has integrity, you know.
But he has just this
wide open way
of looking at, like,
you know,
how a child has a way of
seeing the beauty in life
and humor and...
He still has maintained that.
You remember Mrs. Ramsey?
She was a librarian.
And she lived right
next door to Jim.
Yes.
Every time we had
a party over there...
She said, "Talk to Costen."
Uh, "Do you realize
"there are a whole lot of cars
in front of your house
"while you were
in South Carolina?"
We used to have 50, 75 people
in my uncle's house.
Oh, yeah.
-Reverend Costen's house.
-Yes.
Yes, it was... It was just,
like, a lot of fun.
Drink and dance.
And... And then...
No... No drugs.
No drugs that we knew about.
We're talking the '60s.
I never saw any drugs, ever.
Mm-hmm. And... And...
Oh, my goodness!
What have I been missing?
And... And before...
When everything was over,
it was just, like, make sure
everything's put back in place.
It was just like
nobody, you know,
had a party or anything
in the house,
but it was always...
They're gone!
It dawns on me that
when little Bill
came to Atlanta,
we were in the midst of
the civil rights movement.
In fact, my husband had been
one of the leaders
in North Carolina,
and when he was
offered the job to Atlanta,
he was excited
about coming, because
he would be able to spend
much more time with
Martin Luther King Jr.
So here we sat with Martin,
many an evening,
and, you know,
all of us were just in awe
of being in his presence.
But he was so, so down to earth.
I remember,
I was standing on
this bridge in 1968
watching Martin Luther King's
funeral procession
coming down Hunter Street.
And I remember
running down that walkway,
and I jumped in
the funeral procession
right behind the casket
and I had my father's
video camera.
And we walked all the way down and turned left
and went over to
Morehouse College.
On the stop, number 21.
Good for 23 yards.
Time out.
I felt,
out of all the guys
that I came up against,
there wasn't a single guy
that I couldn't handle
one on one,
mainly because of my strength
that I was pretty quick.
A scout came up to me
and he said he was from
the Dallas Cowboys
and he was interested in me.
I was like, "What?"
You know, I was shocked.
You know, shocked.
I was totally shocked
that a pro scout
was interested in me
after the background
that I had in football.
So I started getting confident.
You know, I had four or five
different teams coming up,
giving me aptitude tests, timing me in the 40-yard dash,
watching me play the game,
and they were promising me
a high draft pick.
My senior year was coming up,
and we had a scrimmage game
right before
the regular season started.
In the scrimmage game,
I ended up breaking
my left wrist.
I was scared at that time,
because I had had
so many scouts
looking at me,
and I didn't wanna
jeopardize me
not getting drafted
by the professional teams.
I said, "Okay, I'm not
gonna tell anybody."
So, each game, I used to
wrap my wrist real tight.
I really worked on my strength.
So I had a lot of strength
in my right arm
and I had strength
in my left arm,
I just had to keep
my wrist straight.
I think he had
hurt his arm in training
or in practice or something,
and I jumped on his chest and I grabbed his fingers and I
started wiggling them like this
and he just laid there
and he said,
"I'm gonna throw you
across the room
when I count to three.
Agh! He said, "One...
"two, three!
And I go across the room.
But what's amazing
about that is that...
It's as if I wasn't
hurting his hand.
His hand was broken.
And that was my image
of Mr. Bill, just invincible.
Just, you know,
a real big guy,
didn't have
a lot of fat on him.
He was very strong.
So I got drafted
by the Buffalo Bills
and, you know,
I was really happy
and all my friends were,
you know, running around.
"Oh, he's going to the pros!"
and, you know.
George, who was going
to the Miami Dolphins.
You know, we were all excited,
and over the next few days,
you know, on campus,
you know, a lot of people were,
you know, happy for us that...
Uh... You know,
guys from Morris Brown
were going to the pros.
And, you know,
it was just a fun time.
When Billy first
was going to
the Buffalo Bills, you know,
I bragged to
all my friends, you know...
I said, "My cousin Billy,
you know,
playing for Buffalo Bills.
You know, that was
a proud moment.
I mean, that' a rare... That's a rare thing. I mean...
There's a lot of people
that play a lot of
different sports
who don't make it to the pros,
so I mean, that's huge.
You know, to have a cousin,
and a close cousin
playing in the NFL.
That was a big
bragging rights thing there.
All right.
We're clear for takeoff.
Everybody,
now is the countdown,
here we go.
Five, four, three,
two one. Fire!
We're on our way
to the field now.
I have to check in
before five o'clock.
What the FAA will do,
they check all your log books
and your license
and all the insurance cards
and everything,
so you have to be
current and up-to-date.
Otherwise, they won't
let you fly.
Here to welcome you here to New Jersey,
pray for no more
thunder and lightning,
we have the mayor here,
we have a council person...
committee woman here,
who are here to encourage you
to stay around until
the weather gets cleared up.
I want to say thank you.
What you do is important
to the economy.
But more importantly,
where is my son?
My 10-year-old is here,
and I don't think you can
put a dollar value
on how important it is
that you get children exposure
of what you do as a hobby
or as a business.
Mother Nature
is the one that's
telling us what to do
and you don't see it coming.
Um...
You're at the mercy of the winds
and the winds can blow
in different directions
and they can change
on you real quick.
We had a thunderstorm that just
went over pouring down rain.
But the briefer said
that behind the thunderstorm,
there's clear skies.
So he's gonna let us know
definitely at seven o'clock,
whether we should fly or not.
So if that's the case,
if it's still clear
and no more cells pop up,
then we'll give it a shot.
I enjoy being out there
and seeing how happy people are
when they go for a ride.
Most of the passengers we have are first time flights.
And seeing the smiles
on their faces,
and how happy they are
once they land.
We've had people go up
that are afraid of heights,
and they need encouragement
to get in the basket from
who they're flying with.
And once they come down,
they can't believe
how pleasant it was
and how much they enjoyed it.
And seeing
that kind of experience
is really enjoyable.
Notice right now
that the balloons are touching.
You really don't want
that to happen.
Yeah, what happens?
It's okay.
I've seen
my dad under pressure,
and he is the most
pinpoint, focused individual
I've ever seen
in my entire life.
I've seen that look
on my dad's face.
Um, you know, sometimes
when he's thinking
about landing spots,
he's thinking about
potential flight paths.
He's just, like,
focused on his game.
At the speed we're going,
we need to land...
We need to land?
We need to go...
We're going too slow
and there's nothing
but woods over there.
One thing about being
a balloon pilot,
you have to make
correct decisions,
and you have to
make 'em instantly.
You have to
just know which direction
is the balloon flying,
how fast is it going.
One thing I've learned,
if I don't hurt the balloon,
I won't hurt
any of the passengers.
And my number one responsibility
is the safety of my passengers.
We're not all the way
down yet. Hold on.
Fly, until we reach the sky
Until we reach the sky
Until we reach the sky
Until we reach the sky
At Buffalo, I was
the strongest lineman
and I was the fastest.
We had to run a 100-yard dash
and I ran as fast as I could,
and I beat all the linemen
by about 10 yards.
And the coach came up to me,
he said, "That was great.
"Never be second."
While I was
walking off the field,
a bunch of linemen
came up to me and said,
"What you trying
to do, rookie?"
So from there on,
I had to run fast enough
to beat everybody
and never be second.
He used to put me up against
the offensive lineman
every single day,
and finally, all of the rookie defensive linemen got cut.
And I was the only
defensive lineman left.
One practice, uh, he says,
"Okay, I'm gonna see
how tough you are."
There were 12 offensive
linemen over there.
He put me one on one
up against every single
one of them.
I had to hit and then release.
I literally beat all 12 of 'em.
And I never will forget.
When we were going
to the locker room,
the coach came up to me,
he said,
"You keep that up,
I'll make you all pro."
Buffalo was was a lot of fun.
I met O. J. Simpson,
met Marlin Briscoe
and all the other pros.
Each week the team had to
get rid of somebody,
so each week,
about 10 guys would get cut.
So we were playing
the New York Jets
in our first pre-season game
in Birmingham, Alabama.
It was battle time,
and we kicked off
to the New York Jets,
and I ran down the field
and made
the first opening tackle.
We were losing 20 to nothing
and it was late
in the fourth quarter,
and I was going in
to block a punt,
and my roommate actually
had to block the punt
and I picked up the punt
and ran for a touchdown.
There was 22 yards,
and I was just so happy.
I was like, "Wow!
I made a touchdown."
I mean, my whole
football career in college,
I never even
touched a football.
And here I was,
I'd made a touchdown
in my very first
professional football game
and I mean, I was
just on cloud nine
and I went
running off the field,
I was just so happy
and I was getting
high fives from
all my football buddies
and everything,
and then I was standing there, watching them kick,
getting ready to kick
the extra point,
and the referee threw the flag,
and I looked over there,
and there were only
10 men on the field,
and the coach came
over to me, he said,
"Aren't you supposed to be
out on the field?"
All the way back
from Birmingham
to Buffalo that night,
they were calling me
"$50 Touchdown Kid"
because the coach fined me $50
for not being
on the extra point team,
but I didn't care, 'cause I had
made a touchdown.
I had the only touchdown.
I was the leading score.
The next week,
O. J. Simpson caught a pass
and scored a touchdown.
An article came out
into the paper,
O. J. Simpson caught a pass,
which tied him
for the scoring lead
with Bill Costen.
Both have six points.
That was a total high
for me at that time,
because in
the Buffalo Bills program,
it showed
O. J. Simpson one touchdown,
Bill Costen one touchdown.
Got back to Buffalo,
and the coach called a practice the very next morning.
And the very next morning,
right before practice,
they called me
into the office.
Any time you had to
go see Harvey,
that wasn't good news,
because Harvey
was the general manager
and he was the guy
that cut people.
I said, "Why are they
calling me to the office?"
And I went to the office
and Harvey says, uh...
"I'm sorry to inform you,
but we're cutting you.
I said, "Cutting me? What for?"
And he never told me what for,
he says, uh...
'It's just one of those things."
I decided to go
to the farm team of Buffalo,
which was the Hartford Knights in Hartford, Connecticut.
And I had never even
heard of Hartford, Connecticut.
I said, "What's a Hartford?"
you know.
And during that time,
all of the Hartford
Knights players,
we practiced every night.
All the players
had daytime jobs,
And then we played our games
on the weekends,
on Saturday night, usually.
So, I had to get a job,
because of the salary
that the Knights were
paying was small.
So I got a job with
Travelers Data Center,
and so I was working
every day in the data center
and then each night
we used to practice,
and then we played
the games on the weekends.
Here I was in a brand new city,
and I was still planning
to go back to Atlanta
after the football season
was over.
But like I said, I got
the job with the Travelers,
and I started meeting women,
and I started meeting
a lot of women,
and I started going
to different clubs up here,
and I said, "Wow, this is
a fun, fun little town."
So I made a decision
to stay in Hartford,
and during that time, you know, I met a bunch of guys.
We got together
and we formed a chess club.
And in the chess club,
we started having parties
and giving back
to the community
through the club
and everything.
So it was a real fun time
in Hartford after football.
I was going to a party.
And it was at the Holiday Inn
in Hartford,
And I walked into the party
and I saw this big Afro.
I said, "Whoa! Who is this?"
I guess I need to meet her.
I was sitting down talking
to some friends of mine,
and Bill happened to
walk into the room,
and as, um,
he was walking in,
I happened to look
towards the door
and our eyes caught each other,
and he kind of smiled
with that innocent
young boy look.
And after I
talked to my friends
for about a half hour,
he came walking over
and introduced himself
as Bill Costen.
I wasn't all that. I was...
Actually, I was shy.
I had to get a few nips in me
before I opened up to talk.
He started up,
um, a social club
in which a group of us
would get together
and give events and invite
all the professionals
from within the region
and people would come
from all over the state,
Western Mass,
and they were
really large events.
And that's where
our socializing began.
I was totally in love.
I always respected Lynda
because of her mind.
I mean, she had a sharp mind.
She'd do everything.
She was a bookworm.
And she retained
everything she knew.
But she would always know
the answer to everything.
And we became best friends.
I just always knew that... The two of us working together,
we could just
conquer the world.
Very good.
He kept telling me
never in 1000 years
would I guess who it would be.
And about two minutes later,
I said, "Joe, Bill."
Now, I have a question.
Yesterday, I went shopping.
I don't shop very often.
Do these pants
make my butt look big?
This is Alexandra.
This is my daughter.
-How are you today?
-Hi.
-Nice to meet you.
-Nice to see you.
She was
a little tiny thing.
Some of the sponsors are here.
Go out, put your basket out.
You know, get it ready
for rigging if you can,
you know,
keep the cover on,
uh, if it's going to
start raining.
Um, we would like to see
few people in flight
this morning.
I know it's difficult, uh,
because of the mist,
so let's wait and see
what happens.
We'll come back at 7:00
and we'll talk about it, okay?
My parents are afraid.
They're on their way over.
Morning like this, we got here.
Every...
Fog is starting to lift.
Airport is all clear,
all the way around.
People are popping up,
they're leaving.
We're hemming and hawing.
"Uh, should we go?
Should we not go?"
We finally make the decision.
"Okay. We're gonna go."
Crew gets in,
I get in, we lift off,
we probably went
about 300 yards
outside the airport.
And it was fog for
about the next 45 miles
as far as you could see,
we're hitting the burner
and the car horns,
so we could tell
who was who and where they were.
They couldn't see us.
We couldn't see them.
We had no idea
where the ground was.
Flying dead into a fog bank.
And we had to come down,
we were running out of fuel.
And it was...
We had no idea
what was below us.
Power lines, trees, water, cars.
We had no idea.
Once we got above the fog
and above the clouds,
it was like just
a rolling bed of clouds,
like, as far as
you can see,
it's just white
and it's the most...
I was probably
seven at the time,
and it was
the most beautiful thing
I've ever seen.
And we're just drifting
toward the sun slowly.
It was like a piece of heaven. It was like I was there.
I'm looking up at my dad
and, you know,
he seems calm, as always.
He'll never show
any expression on
his face, you know,
he's just calm, collected,
but then I realized,
we were up there for a while.
I tried to maneuver
to get back over
to where it was less fog,
but we never made it.
We just kept drifting more
and more toward the mountains
and I knew there was a river.
I've flown that valley
many times.
I knew there was
a river coming up,
and, uh, I knew
we had to land,
at some point,
you're gonna run out of gas.
So we were up about 600 feet
and I also knew there was
a big line of power lines
across the whole valley.
So, that was my concern,
coming down in that fog,
which you couldn't
see anything,
and wondering where
those power lines were,
but I had no choice,
I had to come down,
so we eased the balloon
right down little by little
and all of a sudden,
I saw the power lines
and I panicked,
and I just went up,
maybe to a 1000 feet.
I...
I heard a message
from the Lord, I feel.
There was a butterfly
that was pretty
high up in the fog,
just flying around
the basket,
fluttering around,
going away,
came back, fluttered
in front of my face,
went away.
And something
just told me, um,
you know,
follow the butterfly
and, you know,
I whispered it to my dad.
Fortunately, you know,
he got out of his zone
and he heard me.
And you know,
when the butterfly
dipped down,
he stopped burning,
and the basket
would dip down.
The butterfly came back up,
he would burn again,
and he basically
just followed
the butterfly pattern.
And we found our way
to a little clearing,
and we were able
to land there,
and we were so grateful, uh,
just because the farm
was so dense, so thick.
And actually, one of our
crew members was in
the basket at the time
when he... when he
jumped out, when we
were actually in the swamp.
So we had to actually
push the balloon
over a little swamp
into the clearing.
My manager went
on vacation.
And then when
he came back from vacation,
all he could talk about
was this balloon experience
that he had.
This was back in '75
and nobody
was talking ballooning.
And so he said, "Well, uh,
I'm gonna put a club
together, maybe,
or get a bunch of guys
together," and we didn't
know what "together" meant.
But it sounded like fun.
One day, on a Sunday
afternoon, my cousin came by
with his boss,
knocked on the door,
I went to the door
and they were all excited.
And they showed me this
brochure. They said,
"Let's start a balloon club."
I said, "What's a balloon?"
And I had never
seen a balloon,
so they showed me
pictures of
the Budweiser balloon.
I said, "Oh, nice balloon."
I was drinking many
Budweisers at the time.
I said, "Well, what does
the balloon do?"
And they said,
"Well, you ride in
this little basket
underneath the balloon."
I knew his
answer was gonna be "No."
I knew it.
But he surprised me,
he says, "Yeah,
let's check it out."
My first flight was
at Wesleyan University
in Middletown, Connecticut,
and my instructor and I
took off in the balloon.
He said, "I want you to know
I'm not gonna do anything.
I'll tell you what to do,
but you're gonna fly
the whole flight."
And he explained
the instruments that were
in the balloon.
He said, "I want you to
fly this flight without
the instrument."
I was always confident that I could just do anything,
so the flight
was very beautiful
and that's the
main thing I saw.
I said,
"Wow, this is so pretty."
Just seeing the countryside
and everything. And he said,
"You're a natural flyer,"
because, you know, I blew
the whole flight, landed,
and I was just so right there.
We hooked up
with three other people,
met at a bank,
signed a joint loan,
bought a balloon
for $4,800
and started
Sky Unlimited Balloon Club.
I immediately saw
the commercial part
of ballooning.
I came up with the concept
of putting the state seal
of Connecticut
on the side of a balloon
and coming up
with the state of Connecticut
bicentennial balloon.
So, my ballooning start
came with designing
that balloon, proposing it
to the manufacturer,
the manufacturer
was excited about it,
and they had me meet
Bob Waligunda,
who was the distributor
for the whole East Coast.
I actually first
started ballooning...
I saw a balloon in college,
and, uh, I got excited
about it.
In fact, I saw it one day,
the next morning
I was taking lessons,
and then I flew out to see
if all in the Med Yost out
in Sioux Falls, South Dakota,
and he's the father of modern
hot-air ballooning.
He's the one who designed
and built the original hot
air balloon.
And they were looking
for some inexpensive way to
train dirigible pilots.
They were using helium
balloons,
which were very expensive,
so he came up with the hot
air concept.
I hitchhiked to New
Rochelle, New York, because
Bob Waligunda was gonna be
at a balloon festival
in New Rochelle.
He told me all these
dreams that he was
doing with ballooning.
He was coming up with
a balloon racing circuit
that would go all over
the country and fly in
different festivals.
And he said, you know,
if I bought my first balloon
that he would
make me a dealer.
So, one of the guys in the club, I talked him into,
uh, putting up the money
for another balloon
and I would put up
the dealership.
So that's how Sky Endeavors
got formed.
I got in early, and when
I saw the balloon,
it... it's not
the typical aviation story
where you see the birds soar
and the eagles fly, I said,
"Oh my gosh, I could
put somebody's name on that
and make a fortune."
So that was that was
the whole thing,
it was a commercial, uh,
business enterprise for me,
and I said this is
absolutely wonderful.
We met great people.
Joe Kittinger, for example.
Joe made history when
he jumped out of a
gas balloon at 102,000 ft.
Ben Abruzzo, who was
one of the first to fly
across the ocean.
Ed Yost. People that
were truly
pioneers in the business.
Old-timers, people that
have been into ballooning
since its inception.
Uh, Ed Yost's original
groundcrew and we all
became very,
very good friends.
I met Bill with Bob Waligunda
in 1979.
Uh, Bob came down for
a promotion for the Bay Hills
Golf tournament
and a balloon race, and he
asked me to join his team.
Uh, there were three
balloons and Bill was one
of the balloonist.
I remembered seeing Bill
as a football player for
the Buffalo Bills.
And he was a great athlete,
and I was very good
and successful, uh, balloonist.
The common bond
was ballooning and
the love of the sport,
the love of the business,
and the fun we all had.
And as ballooning grew,
we grew with it.
Ever wonder what it's like
to fly like a bird,
high up in the sky?
Just think of it.
No more car fumes,
no more stoplights
no state cops.
Nah, just you
and that old-fashioned
wind power.
We were both
working full time
while we were
doing ballooning
and some of the sales
distribution.
But over the years,
more and more people wanted
to go up in the balloon.
So I was pretty much doing
a full time business just on
the weekends
and working as an underwriter
during the week.
So we almost had
no time because we're
flying in the morning,
going to work, then getting
out just early enough,
so we could fly at night
during the summertime,
and being young and youthful,
you know,
you don't really feel it for
the first year or two.
I'm standing next to Lynda,
uh, Lynda Costen,
and she's gonna tell us
about ballooning...
One day, I woke up and my wife didn't go to work,
and I went to work and
she didn't go to work
the next day
and I went to work
and she didn't go to work
for the next two
or three weeks.
That's what was
going on, she said,
"I quit my job."
I said, "You quit
your job? What are you talking
about, you quit your job?"
During that time, she
didn't know that our
companies were merging
and that the other company
who bought our company
was weeding out under-riders
and workers from my job.
And I was so mad that
she quit her job
and I had a feeling that
I was going to get fired.
I went into the office
and gave my
two week resignation
and I quit my job.
So there we were,
she didn't have a job,
I didn't have a job,
and the very next week,
she told me
that she was pregnant
with my first son.
I said, "What?"
And she says,
"I'm pregnant."
That's when ballooning
became full time.
Ballooning is
very much of a fantasy.
And it's very much
of a romance.
People really have fantasies
about wanting to go up
in a balloon,
and I would say to
all of them, "Once in your
life, go ahead and do it
because it's better than you
can ever imagine
that it can be."
And for all the people that
have any fears about it,
It's nothing like standing
on a building.
It's nothing like flying in
a small plane.
There is actually no real
sensation of movement.
You close your eyes,
you can't tell you left
the ground,
and it's very safe
and very calm sport.
I like the advertising
portion of it,
and I like being able
to approach organizations
that needed to realize
how this visual concept could
accent their public relations
in their advertising
at a cost that was probably
a lot less expensive than
some of the air time that
they were buying.
And the visibility
and the thousands of people
that actually will see their
brand and their name.
If you're flying for
a sponsor, you're their
representative.
So it's not that you're just
flying with their name
on the balloon or their
product name, but, you know,
you may have to represent them
in a press conference.
You may have to
speak to their products.
And Bill was articulate.
He was very bright.
And, uh, I knew that I
could always rely on him
to put his best foot forward
for the sponsor.
And everything we did
was for the sponsors.
I mean, it was something
that they were paying
the bill,
so we wanted to give them
he most for their money.
Bill took a real
liking to it
and took it beyond,
you know, even our
wildest dreams.
Those initial stages,
we weren't sure where
it was going,
but it look like Bill
had made the decision
to take it very, very far.
Most of our business
got started advertising.
We would take the balloon to companies that were having, uh, corporate parties, or
they were introducing
a new product and we
would put banners
on the side of the balloon.
We do weddings,
outdoor events for companies
where they wanna have
tether rides or special promotions, and we do regular fantasy champagne flights.
We have executive limo flight, both about an hour to an
hour fifteen minutes.
Um, we do just about anything you can do with balloons
and outdoor advertising,
rooftop balloons or anything
dealing with outdoor
advertising.
When you talk
about a black balloonist,
it was an opportunity.
And in today's world,
people make a big deal
about black and white.
Well, the reality was that
this was a business,
and and it was
an opportunity that
we could both take
advantage of.
I liked Bill the minute
I saw him, it didn't matter
with what color he was.
Uh, it was in his eyes.
It was, in his manners,
it's his enthusiasm
for what we were doing.
And he had a great sense
of humor and we'd laugh.
We'd just have fun. And if
you could do something
in life where you can laugh
and have fun and and still
make a lot of money,
then you're in
the right place.
In ballooning,
we're really in
the entertainment business.
Uh, we're entertaining people.
They come out
to enjoy this ride.
If they just get on the bus
or get on a plane, it's not
quite the same thing.
So we're really host
when people come
out for a balloon ride.
And I always thought that
Bill would be a very,
you know, fun host to be with because he would be enjoying
it just as much as
the people experiencing
it for the first time,
-Bye! Bye, Mommy.
-Bye!
When I first started ballooning, I was part of this balloon racing circuit,
so I was constantly, um,
competing against
the other pilots.
And I was, you know, we
had prize money, so I was
competing to win.
But I was up against some
of the most experienced
pilots in the world,
and, um, that made me better.
Winds and light and calm.
Looks like we're gonna
have a perfect flight.
The Hare and Hound race.
The hare would
take off first,
it would land.
The Hounds, which were
the rest of the balloons
would take off after
the Hare balloon.
At the end of the hour,
the Hounds would land
closest to the Hare balloon.
Whoever landed the closest
would win the race.
There's the X right there.
We never saw it.
-Where' the beam bag...
-Where's the beam bag?
Did we throw it?
Oh, my goodness.
Look at that.
Over the years
I became more conservative.
If I'm flying in a familiar
territory, I look at
the end result,
Where do I wanna be?
And my concentrations are
based on, uh, you know,
what wind I need to utilize
to get me to that point,
because at every altitude,
winds are blowing in
different directions.
So I'm able to maneuver
to different places.
So I take a lot of pride
now until picking out
a spot, and literally,
sometimes I tell the crew,
go to that spot.
As long as
you've got two winds,
you can control.
If you got a left wind
and a right wind,
you just have to find out
what level of the atmosphere
is going in a particular
direction that you're going in.
When I transferred
from University of Nebraska
to Morris Brown College,
my uncle said,
"You wanna go to lunch?"
I said, "Yeah."
Took me to lunch
and introduced me
to Martin Luther King.
And I didn't know who
Martin Luther King was.
And this was in 1966.
Having no black experience
at all, I vowed then
that I was going to learn
black history,
that wasn't even
taught in the black school
that I went to.
He was pretty much
a collector
and very much organized.
We belonged
to a postcard club and got
to know a lot of dealers.
And we follow these shows
around the Northeast
just about every weekend
that he could do it.
There were even occasions
when, uh, we came away
with nothing or one or two
fabulous additions to his
collection.
This is about 30 years
of collecting...
The cost and cultural
exhibit is a black traveling
exhibit that I take
around two different
schools and companies,
and I've come up with
a magnificent
African American
history exhibit.
And it's amazing
how many black kids
have no idea...
Uh, have no idea
of their heritage.
The exhibit that I've
come up with
covers everything from
Africa to current day
Black lives matter.
Being the editor
of the Northend Agents,
he used to come in
and sit down,
and we used to just talk
and talk about events.
And Bill is very good
with a camera.
He liked to take a lot of
pictures.
He's been showcasing
the lives of people
and putting their
best facets on display.
He's always been good at
pinpointing those strengths
in people and bringing
them to the surface.
I was doing
a Women's History Month
exhibit and this little girl,
about eight or nine years old,
she came up to me,
she said, "I didn't know,
uh, women could fly airplanes."
Well, last year I was
at the library and
a lady came up to me
and she says, "I was
that little girl to ask you
that question
about Bessie Coleman.
And now I'm a
student pilot."
So you never know what
just one picture
in a young child's mind
can... what it can turn into.
Here's a toast to all of us
being here as a family.
I think, one of the
biggest things that I've
learned in ballooning is
is failure is not an option.
Failure is usually
one step from success,
And I've learned that
you have to work hard.
You have to be dedicated.
You have to find people
who are loyal to you.
You treat them right,
work as a team,
and you can really achieve
whatever you want.
Ballooning families always
socialize with other
ballooning families.
From the time you're born.
Okay, as long as you know
that there was a festival,
you could go there
by yourself and
you'll see a family
that you know and
you spend that weekend
with them.
Um, it's very special
that you have relationships
with people,
um, that people know each
other multi-generational.
The second milestone
in Bill's life that I thought
would be fun
we got to interview Bill,
and some of the people
who played important roles
in his life.
And because I couldn't
interview him,
without spoiling the surprise,
I decided to improvise.
So Bill, this is your life
according to me.
I chose to do ballooning
full time.
That locked me out of a lot
of people who were afraid
of heights.
So I chose a very difficult
business to partake in.
So it's been very
difficult just surviving
hot-air ballooning
and then going into every...
everywhere I went,
when people found out
what I did,
"You do what? You crazy,"
and I would hear everything.
If you look around at
the other balloons
in the cruise,
you don't see people of color.
- Oh, no.
- And it
raises the question,
so what about someone
who replaces you when
you retire?
And as the person that
writes about it,
does PR and promotion,
it's like, you know, there's
gotta be some way to start.
Everybody sort of has
their passion.
And so it's... How do you
start some kind of foundation,
something, who trains?
How do we get kids to follow
you, so that once you're gone,
the legacy doesn't end there?
For some reason, people
of color
haven't shared experiences
like the white balloon flyers.
They're telling their friends
and their relatives
that it's the best thing
since sliced bread.
So they're saying,
"Okay, let's go up."
And it's just that we don't
have a history of,
let's say, taking chances
when it comes to something
in a sport, you know,
hang gliding, jumping out
of planes, with parachutes.
You don't see a lot of
people of color doing that.
So it's changing.
And I think, what Bill's, uh,
contribution to 40 years
of ballooning, he made
a big difference
in those experiences,
and that's gonna propel
the the business
and the experience
of ballooning for years
to come.
My name is Mick Murphy,
real honor and privilege
to be here
not only on behalf of the
Balloon Federation of America,
but as a good friend to
Bill Costen.
Today, I'm here to present
the Yost master pilot award,
which has been given out
to only a handful of pilots
at this time.
Represent over 40 years
of safe flying.
So it's quite an honor
to receive the highest
recognition of the federation
for an individual pilots
skills, but by someone
he knew and respected
without further ado, Bill,
please join me on the stage
To receive an
award based on the man
who started
hot-air ballooning,
I'm totally thrilled.
Back in early days when I used to sit, you know,
in a restaurant or a bar,
listening to the stories
of how he came up
with the idea of a burner
to, you know, propel
the balloon up in the air
to have flown with him
and against him
in different balloon races,
you know, I just can't
even imagine
getting an award for all
the fun that I've had
over the years.
First of all, I wanna thank
my crew, my whole crew
stand up, please.
This is for all of us.
Those people over there
used to get up at
4:00 in the morning,
come out to Farmington,
helped me set up the balloon,
jump in a car,
chase the balloon wherever
I land. I never knew where
I was gonna land.
They would run through
the fields. Come.
They have actually
saved my life many times.
And I just thank you.
This goes to all of us.
I mean, I couldn't have done
none of this without you.
Well, thank you very much.
I want people to know that I spent my life entertaining.
I spent my life trying to be
safe and helping them
to enjoy, experience that they never would have experienced,
had they not chosen to
go up in a balloon.
Cheers to the best
hot-air balloon pilot
I've ever had in my life.
I would like people to know
that that I love people.
And I love...
seeing people have fun.
It was Tuesday,
February 26 2019,
and I received a call
from my dad.
He said that he was
having difficulty walking
and wasn't sure
what was going on.
I told him to go to
the hospital.
I remember he had to stay
the night there that night,
and I was driving home
when I got the call.
He said the doctor said that
he had a stroke and I
immediately pulled over.
I couldn't see.
I couldn't breathe.
I was crying hysterically.
And he just stayed on
the phone with me.
I don't even know
how long the time
went by so fast,
but he was there.
When I think of my dad,
that's who I think of,
just a genuine, selfless,
godly man who would do
anything for anyone.
The next morning,
I remember waking up
at my brother's house
and received a call from
a family friend.
She had just found out
about Dad having a stroke.
She began to ask what
she could do.
She wanted to get some
community members together
and figure out
how they can help.
And suddenly she
started to weep.
And in that moment,
I realized that my dad
is not only my hero,
but I share him with
so many others.
Following the stroke,
Dad was determined
to get back out
there and live his life
with his new normal.
Within a month, he had
gained his confidence back
and was walking unassisted.
He was back at
different events,
doing photography
and displaying his exhibit.
And I'm just so proud of
his level of determination
and perseverance,
and I'm convinced
nothing will stop him.
It's really difficult to
describe the type of
human being my father is.
But I'm certain that the
world needs more people
like him.
My entire life, he taught me
that I could do all things
through Christ who
strengthens me.
There's no mountain that
God cannot move
and there's nothing that
you can't overcome.
To see my dad through
a different lens and
to tell his story,
as best as possible has been
such a challenge.
But his voice, his voice
remains in my head
and I'm just grateful
to be able to experience
him as my father.
And I'm thankful for all
of the moments that
we continue to share.
It's hard, but I'm
learning that this is
the circle of life.
And when he passes me
his baton and I continue
to walk in my light,
I know that he'll
always be there,
encouraging me
and cheering me on.
Thank you for allowing me
to share my father's story
with you,
And I want to leave you
with one thing that
my dad always told me
and I say it in the most
cliche way there is,
The sky's the limit.
Literally, the sky is
the absolute limit.
All right, go ahead.
Oh, yeah.
Go, Dad, Go!
All right. Come back
this way.
Look at him go!
That's amazing.
This life is but a dream
We can make come true
But it is upto you and me
It's what
I've learned from you
Our reality
Is something we can hold
Something we can mold
Into anything
We want it to be
You can fly so high above
You can laugh
And you can love
And I love you always be
You'll be right here with me
You can soar right through
The wind
You can lose or you can win
But you won't know till
You try
That's the way you live
Your life
I remember what you said
To live my life
With no regrets
Because we only get
One chance
To make it count
And make it last
Even when you go away
The things you taught me
Always stays
On my mind and in my heart
So we'll never be apart
Apart
I just want you to know
That your love
Helped me grow
I don't have to be afraid
It'll all be okay
You can soar
Right through the wind
You can lose or you can win
I don't need to say it loud
But I hope I made you proud
I remember what you said
To live my life
With no regret
Because we only get
One chance
To make it count
And make it last
Even when you're far away.
The things you taught me
Always stay
On my mind and in my heart
So we will never be apart