Gentle Sky Giants

The sun was barely up over the horizon as a team of dedicated balloonists moved massive amounts of fabric out over a parched Kyle field early Friday.

The multicolored textiles, many with company logos, were, at first, scattered like two-dimensional confetti on the ground: airless, lifeless. Then, one by one, with hot air generated by burning propane and manipulated by expert hands, these gentle giants of the sky rose off the ground, taking shape, at last appearing to the eye, as hot air balloons.

Gentle giants, not quite silent, because the burst of flame generates heat and a sound all its own. But this is the term used by aficionados of the art of combining material and hot air to thumb one’s nose at gravity.