"Two of my foolish friends got me started in ballooning," explains August Balloonmeister David Eastland of Nashville, Tennessee. It was 1970 when Bill Monday and Joe Carney bought what they claimed to be the first hot air balloon east of the Mississippi. They and Eastland had worked together earlier at AT&T in Memphis and even though Eastland was then in New York, the three kept in close touch. It was through this friendship that Eastland attended his first balloon event.
In 1973, Eastland had moved to Nashville and soon received a phone call from Monday, who was now living in Greenwood, Mississippi. "Guess where we're going next week?" Monday asked. "We're going to Albuquerque to fly for the State of Mississippi and make a Pennzoil commercial," he added.
This was Eastland's first experience at a balloon rally and it was there that he took his first flight. Returning home, he decided he might like to have a balloon. Not certain how he would pay for the balloon, Eastland did like many others - he sought out an ad agency and announced his intentions. "The guy there almost blew a whistle saying, 'All you ad guys get in here, we're going to have a hot air balloon in Nashville!'" says Eastland. Based on this enthusiastic reception Eastland ordered his first balloon. When it arrived he returned to the agency expecting numerous demands for his services. "Instead my reception was more like 'Who is this guy?'"
Prior to the balloon's arrival Eastland had been learning to fly under Monday's tutelage in Greenwood, MS. Now stuck with a balloon and needing to pay for it Eastland was quickly launched into the commercial balloon business.
"Like everybody my intention was to get a balloon and have somebody else pay for it," admits Eastland, "so everytime it came time to make a payment I would be out hustling some kind of promotion." His first real contract was flying for Beach Ben Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky - an early forerunner of today's modern amusement parks.
Eastland was also an Aerostar dealer at the time but somehow balloon sales never took off for him. "I remember that at about the same time I brought the first balloon to Nashville in 1974, Mike Ehrler had his first balloon in Louisville (KY). It has always amazed me how the number of balloons in Louisville skyrocketed and I thought I was really going to make some serious money. Instead the number of balloons in Nashville has never been more than a few."
In the late 70's Eastland would organize a few balloon events but spent much of his time flying on the Kool Pro Tour until 1981. "I remember when the Pro Tour broke up, Bill [Bussey], Butch Stamps, myself and Leslie Davies sat around and said, 'Let's all go home and organize a balloon event and we'll invite all the same people and keep the tour going.'"
Today Eastland is involved in the organization of three events, the EAR Foundation Balloon Festival in Nashville, plus an event in Bowling Green, KY. and a small rally in Paris, TN. The Nashville event grew out of that conversation when the Pro Tour broke up. Bowling Green began with a Wendy's promotion.
"I went to Bowling Green and did a promotion for a guy named Dan Davis at his first Wendy's restaurant," recalls Eastland. "One week later Davis and his partner came to me and suggested we get a Wendy's balloon and fly it around the country. We got corporate approval for a logo balloon and a territory that covered everything east of the Mississippi plus Texas and Oklahoma." Davis and Eastland would wear out two Wendy's balloons during this time.
This success led Eastland and Davis to involve balloons in an annual event called "the rat killing" and the balloons were so well received they would become the focal point of the weekend.
But event organization is just a small part of his busy commercial business that offers rides, sales, and promotions while managing three corporate contract balloons. Plus he remains an avid competitive pilot. Eastland admits it gets difficult at times to juggle all the commitments, but he says ballooning has its own special reward...
"I guess I've been involved in lots of sports and activities, but I don't think there's anything that takes you the places that this (ballooning) does, or that let's you meet the people that you meet and always with a smile on their face," says Eastland.
Looking back on his 25 years in the sport Eastland says it is hard to realize that so much time has passed. "I remember my first time at Albuquerque," he says, "but it seems like only 7 or 8 years ago. The same is true of my last flight on the Pro Tour - it was in Phoenix in 1981, but it doesn't seem like 16 years ago. Like so many others that entered the sport in the 70's, I think I just grew up with ballooning."
CAREER DATES:
1970 - introduced to ballooning
1973 - first balloon flight at Albuquerque
1974 - ordered first balloon
1976 - organized first balloon festival for Beach Ben Park
1985 - founded EAR Foundation event in Nashville
