Leisure: The Ultimate Toy

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Publication year: 2022

Leisure: The Ultimate Toy

Context: Charles McCowan is a lawyer in Baton Rouge against whom I have had many, many cases. Charles is a very tough advocate. I had a choice early in my career to either be miserable dealing with McCowan or make him my friend. Happily I chose the latter, and we have been very close for many, many years, although he is still a very tough lawyer to deal with. He is at the Kean Miller law firm in Baton Rouge.

It was very difficult in writing this piece to avoid the natural attractiveness of making jokes about the propriety of hot air ballooning as a hobby for Charles McCowan, but it is—appropriate, that is. On Sunday, May 1st, I took my first flight in a hot air balloon.

Several weeks ago, Charles asked me "Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?" (with apologies to the Fifth Dimension). Not being one to allow Charles McCowan to "one-up" me in any arena I briskly stated "Absolutely," just as you would do in high school when someone dares you to go 100 miles an hour in your mother's car. But I accepted and was stuck with my decision.

I arrived at Charles' house around four o'clock. Charles pulls up in his car dragging a trailer with all the necessary accoutrements of his hobby. I went over and surveyed the contents of the trailer. I was unimpressed with the aerodynamic characteristics of the gondola and had the immediate sensation that this thing would drop out of the sky like a rock. I nonchalantly asked Charles how many hours he's clocked in this type of aircraft and he replied, "enough," in the same way he answers interrogatories—very vague and without much information. I didn't want to press him any further for fear of what the true answer to the interrogatory would be.

I knew we were in trouble when I saw the third member of the flying team, Cheney Joseph, arrive. He was represented to me to be an experienced balloon passenger having risked his life in Charles' little basket on three prior occasions. I also assumed that Cheney would come in handy if something went wrong with the burner and we needed an additional burst of hot air (I couldn't resist it).

We needed a fourth person to help us get the balloon aloft, so Charles started calling around to see if we could find someone to help us. All the good choices were busy or turned us down, so we ended up calling my partner, Chick Moore, who reluctantly volunteered. We all assembled by the State Police buildings near Independence Park and proceeded to inflate the...