Windsock, Missoula, Montana

Windsocks, for me, are forever associated with tag-along trips with older brothers or my dad to the county airport, often just to watch the planes arriving and departing. I’ve been told (since this pre-dates my memory, or possibly my existence) that an early landing strip for St. Paul, Alberta, was one of the level pastures on our farm. (Not to be confused with the town's alien landing pad.) I indistinctly recall Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame‘s Vera Dowling landing there in her little yellow plane, and then coming into our house to visit. And I remember walking with my older sister, following tyre tracks across the pasture grass, to watch the remote-controlled maneuvers of the local model plane club, imagining Stuart Little piloting one of their planes.

This windsock pictured above, however, graces Missoula’s Osprey Stadium. I suppose wind direction is good to know when you’re throwing the ball fast enough to get a speeding ticket on the Interstate.