Mom & Sue,
Remember this?
Does Ann read this? She might also remember it. She and Bob were at the game, too.
In 1970, Dad was a Saints season ticket holder. Since New Orleans was the host city of the Super Bowl that year, he was given an option to buy a $15 Super Bowl ticket. When game day arrived, it was overcast and drizzly and a bit cold. Dad scrounged up another ticket so Mom could go. Then, not much later, Grandma or Grandpa scrounged up two more. Sue and I also got to go with Mom and Dad. The seats were not together. Sue was 12 and I was 13 (No need to do the math). We were in that North End Zone while Mom and Dad were in the South End Zone. Imagine that in this day and age; two kids at a football game pretty much on their own in a cavernous stadium? We thought nothing of it then but what parent would allow that now? The highlight for us (Not Sue so much) was the pre-game ceremony. Two hot air balloons were supposed to take off out of the stadium carrying a Viking and a Chief in some kind of race. The Viking balloon got about 4 feet off of the ground and went laterally straight into the North End Zone. It missed us by about 10 feet. Sue was screaming but I was laughing. No one was seriously hurt but there were some cuts and scrapes. When highlights from that game are shown, they usually show this. We’re just to the left of the balloon from this camera angle but you really can't see it in this small of an image. Mom probably still has the Clarion Herald newspaper that has this picture in it. This was our 15 minutes, Sue.
I don't think I do have the Clarion. Maybe in that box, but I'm not sure. All I remember about it is that Daddy would not let me look through the binoculars, in case you were going to be incinerated, and he kept bellowing and gesturing with his arm for you to move move MOVE! All you did was lean away from the basket. But what fun to talk about ever after.
I have a vague memory of that event. I do remember being freezing cold! Also, I do remember a man somewhere close in front of us had a heart attack brought on by the scare of that errant hot air balloon.