There is nothing more beautiful than a colorful hot air balloon floating serenely over the Bucks County landscape. Not that I would want to go up in one. Far from it. I like aircraft you can steer. When I was the editor of the lifestyles section of this newspaper, I was invited to go on a hot air balloon race from Philadelphia to the Jersey Shore. I couldn’t make it, so I turned to staff writer Wynne Wert who was eager to go. Wynne loved the aviation lifestyle as a former United Airlines flight attendant.
The race didn’t go so well. Heavy wind forced the pilot of Wynne’s balloon to thump down on a golf course outside the city, spilling the duo onto the turf. No injuries and quite the adventure for Wynne.
I thought of this when I came across the story of an ascension in Doylestown in 1855. The occasion was a 4-day agricultural fair in August at newly built Beck’s Exhibition Center, something to behold. The main building housing the “Mammoth Industrial and Agricultural Fair” covered 20,000 square feet with a central dome towering 100 feet and overlooking 30 acres owned by William Beck, a Doylestown lawyer. The grounds included a half-mile-long racetrack and staging areas for livestock. Horace Greely, famed editor of the New York Tribune, gave the opening day address.