Flying Without Wings

Do you ever think about flying? I don’t mean in an airplane. I mean by yourself like a bird, or superman!

I used to fly when I was little. One time I tied a square dish cloth around my shoulders and climbed up in a tree to pretend to be superman. I took a big jump out of the tree and flew to the ground! I was so disappointed. I had only gone about two feet and not up in the air like superman.

That is not exactly the time I was thinking about when I started to tell you this story. I will try to get my mind on the one big time that I remember flying with the help of a dog and a mule. I hooked this big ole mule to a cart and my dog and I loaded into the cart and this mule went so fast it seemed like flying ... that last statement is not true. What I am about to tell you is true!

I lived on a farm in Missouri. We milked cows by hand. One afternoon around 4:30 or 5 my brother and I started to get the cows and drive them to the barn. We decided to ride the mules. We were going across the fields at a nice pace when my dog, about the size of a collie, got hold of my mule’s tail. That mule took off like a rocket. Her feet were hardly touching the ground. We were really flying! A few moments later she went one way and I went the other way. I flew off the mule and soon hit the ground with such an impact that I think I made a hole in the ground. I’m not sure what happened to the dog. He may be still standing with a shocked expression on his face from seeing me fly! My brother stopped and came over to see how I was. I was hurting and crying. I could not raise one of my arms.

Guess what? I had a dislocated shoulder! Sometimes it still hurts today. I don’t want to tell you what happened after my fall. Maybe I can tell you that in another story.

I know you want to know if I ever tried to fly again. I did! I even tried to teach boys and girls to fly when I was teacher!