Many years ago, in a state far, far away, my dad was at the airport; he spent a lot of time there! The Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport maintenance crew was replacing the big tattered wind sock on the city hanger, and Dad thought I might want it. I did! I made us orange wind socks for our car antennas; they took a beating at city traffic speeds. My sock was stolen. I don’t remember how many I made. I think there’s one hanging on a stick in far away Danbury, Connecticut, and now there’s one way up north on a dog house in Polson, Montana 🙂
I don’t know if this is a second one I made for myself or if it’s Dad’s. It’s been laying on the work bench for what seems like years, and it was time to put it up – took a while to figure out how. It’s not as good a job as Dad would have done but it’s finally out there being my wind gauge and memory jogger. I doubt it ever expected to have snow on its head! I still have a chunk of the plasticky fabric stashed in a box, and I’m thinking I need to make a big sock for the top of the house. Regardless of size, the orange souvenir brings back lots of fun memories of all the time I spent at Sky Harbor, off to fly myself, waiting for a helicopter ride, and the hours I spent there with Dad and friends – that big sock was always up there waving! A similar sock gives wind direction at every airport, and I never see one without some fond memory popping up or maybe spilling a tear or two for those happy, long gone days.