The Ft Collins balloon boy hoax was national news, but it was not until [our friend] called yesterday. Her son-in-law Rick Snyder was the balloon boy in 1969 as described in Soucheray's article on the 11 year old Ricky Snyder in Dec 14, 1969. Amazing story which should have been covered by the press.
Joe Soucheray: Soar back to the past with tale of Minnesota's own balloon boy
Posted: 10/21/2009 1:27 AM
By Joe Soucheray Pioneer Press (twincities.com)
Those of us now at an age thought to be considered seasoned remember our own balloon-boy adventure, measured for drama, as are all balloon stories, against 'The Wizard of Oz.'' Dorothy had to go off after Toto in the crowd and missed her ride as the Wizard ascends, the tethers slipped. The tether must slip in order to get that sinking feeling.
On Dec. 14, 1969, an 11-year-old named Ricky Snyder and his mom climbed into the family's red-and-white-striped hot-air balloon gondola at halftime of a Vikings-San Francisco game. They were to float only the length of the field at Metropolitan Stadium, to promote the upcoming St. Paul Winter Carnival balloon race. Five men were holding a 200-foot mooring line, but when the balloon didn't rise, Mrs. Snyder hopped out to lighten its load and the balloon jerked upward mightily, the mooring line now dangling free. And there went the kid, Ricky, just missing the left-field light towers, on his journey across southeast Bloomington. It turned out that Ricky had flown a few times but never without a tether. The fans in the stadium could not see what was happening. And a crew frantically ran out to the parking lot to assemble a chase crew.
Ricky was cool and collected. He guided the balloon to a splashdown in the Minnesota River, about three miles away. The basket tipped on its side when it hit the water and Ricky swam 25 yards to shore, where an unidentified motorist picked him up and took him back to the stadium, where one of the Vikings doctors checked him out and said, "He's OK."
Our adventures were less choreographed back then. Reality TV did not exist, so there were not aspirants with alleged schemes and dramas and desperate 911 calls. I'm surprised this Richard Heene character didn't think of somehow involving the NFL in his flight of the homemade flying saucer.
The attention given to an escaped child with perhaps a loosely clad Dallas Cowboys cheerleader along for effect at halftime of one of today's NFL games would be unimaginable. We should have known, huh? Kid named Falcon. A 911 call in which the operator is told the child left in the flying saucer. A couple of appearances for the parents on "Wife Swap.'' Yup, we should have known. We've become quite a bit more unhinged than we used to be.
Meanwhile, those 40 years ago, before cell phones and Twitter and texts and 24-hour cable news, Ricky Snyder's parents and Winter Carnival officials were still chasing the balloon, unaware that Ricky had been rescued. Missing the first splashdown, the Snyders gave chase as the balloon rose off the river and settled down again in the mud flats adjacent to the Black Dog Power Plant of what was then Northern States Power Co. His parents slogged through the mud and snow, but when they reached the balloon, it was empty. No Ricky.
That day was hard on his mother, said Snyder, now a Minneapolis trial lawyer.
As he watched the TV image of the balloon supposedly carrying Falcon, Snyder said, he wondered how they were going to get him down.
"If he was in there," Snyder said Tuesday, "I could only imagine what his parents were going through." Back in 1969, they must have had some sort of primitive communications — maybe walkie-talkies — because signals got straightened out between the stadium and the chase crew.
"I didn't get too scared,'' Ricky said that afternoon, "until I saw the river. Before that, I kept my cool. I was pretty high. I'd say 1,000 feet. I was in the clouds part of the time. I was working the propane burner, too.'' "He flew the balloon so beautifully,'' his mom said that day. "He did all the right things.'' That was then. Today, Snyder has no interest in ballooning whatsoever.
Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5474. Soucheray is heard from 2 to 5:30 p.m. weekdays on KSTP-AM 1500.
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