Leaflets From The Sky

Not Pennys From Heaven--Leaflets From Heaven

I had just exited Russel Vaught's bus at our house and I saw three leaflets floating gently to the ground. I caught one, one landed in a fence row about 100 feet from the bus and the last one disappeared in  the woods directly south of our house.


Upon opening the leaflet I discovered the US Information Agency was conducting a test on the best way to drop ant-Soviet information into Eastern European countries that were under the firm grasp of the Kremlin. The balloon had been launched in MN. Finders were asked to complete a short questionnaire on the form and return it as soon as possible.


Because I could listen to English language broadcasts from Radio Moscow, Havana Cuba, and many of the Warsaw Pact countries on my homemade shortwave receivers, I was a staunch anti-communist and wanted to return the leaflet. In addition, my patriotism was enhanced by the print and electronic media, that was when the media believed in the American way of life


Enter my mother: Some of you know she could be very demanding and since my father worked at nights, she was the law, judge, and executioner. She said I could not return it. And that was that. (After her death on Sept 12, 1998 I was told by a close relative that my mother was "different" even as a child.)  For years, I kept the leaflet. Even took it to high school where no one seemed half as excited as I was.