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| Garrett Cashman aloft with his cluster balloons - Life Magazine, September 20, 1954 |
It began on September 9th. As described by Lawrence Gooley, a purveyor of upstate New York Popular history, "The people of Albany, NY, looked skyward on September 9, 1954, not believing what their eyes were seeing. High above, 26-year old Garrett Cashman was fulfilling his childhood dream of soaring among the clouds. A grape-like cluster of 60 gas-filled balloons carried him slowly, silently, majestically across the sky. With only a light wind, Cashman stayed aloft for hours, enjoying the sunshine, the spectacular view, and the exhilaration of achieving his life’s desire.
He rose into the clouds, and then broke free of them at 3,000 feet. When he reached 6,200 feet, the heat of the sun began expanding the balloons, causing some of them to burst.
Not a problem for Cashman, who cut several balloons free, dropping in a controlled descent, and landing near Valatie, 21 miles from his launch point.
… Cashman was immediately arrested by police.
Receiving dozens of reports, they had followed his progress down both sides of the Hudson River. He was charged with being an unlicensed pilot and operating an uncertified and unregistered aircraft. For lack of $100 bail, Cashman was taken to Albany county jail.
Hundreds had watched his flight as word spread, and both cops and onlookers now marveled at the seemingly fragile contraption that had carried Cashman so far. He weighed 140 pounds; the machine weighed 40 pounds; and he carried 30 pounds of sand.
Cashman had been seated on “a piece of plywood, 15 inches square, mounted on a spoke-less bicycle wheel swinging beneath two bunches of war surplus rubber balloons. Each was six feet across and contained 113 cubic feet of gas.
“An opened parachute was slung between the two clusters, just in case.” What seemed like insanity to everyone else was pure heaven to Cashman."
I remember vividly reading about Garrett Cashman in the Schenectady Gazette and the Schenectady Union-Star, our local newspapers. I romanticized about how exciting it would be to try the same thing. At age 14, my dreams didn't always coincide with my parents' goals. I didn't get to go ballooning for many years, and then it was in a hot-air balloon in Mississippi.
In 1957, my friend Roland Racko ran for Vice President of our high school class. Inspired by Garrett Cashman's ballooning adventures, we decided to float some giant weather balloons over the high school with banners promoting Roland's candidacy. They did draw attention as we had anticipated and Roland won the election.
In later years, I read of Mr. Cashman's continuing ballooning adventures. He tried repeatedly to get a balloonist's license and finally succeeded in November of 1954. He appeared at Daytona's Speed Week in 1955. He would ascend on a tether to promote business openings. He would sometimes launch from the site of a carnival or race track and simply fly with the wind. He reached altitudes of over 19,000 feet hanging beneath his helium or hydrogen filled balloons. He descended by popping them with a slingshot, knife, or gun. At one point, he was involved in promoting Ringling Brothers' Circus. And while all this was happening, he invented things ranging from parachute brakes for downhill skiers to an indoor hickory barbeque broiler.
They don’t make them like Garrett Cashman any more…which is a shame."
1 comment:
Garrett was a hoot.. he grew up on my street in Albany.. 2 houses a way, with my mother and uncles. His nephew and neice who lived with their mother (Garrett's sister, Janet, and Garrett's Gram were my first playmates. Garrett once bought a surplus sherman tank and plunked it down in his mother's backyard. It became our playground.
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