Dan Nowell is a high-powered Corte Madera businessman these days, but on one morning 45 years ago, he was a high-flying boy defying death in the skies above Southern Marin.
As the media frenzy surrounding the "balloon boy" hoax in Colorado remains in overdrive, longtime Marin County residents recalled a day in 1964 when a balloon boy - 11-year-old Danny Nowell -Êactually did leave Earth.
On Tuesday, the 56-year-old Nowell recalled the spring day when he became internationally famous, at least for a few weeks, by taking a two-mile unintentional hot-air balloon flight while hanging from a rope.
"I remember hearing, 'Hey, you kids, grab a line,'" Nowell said. "I guess they were short of people, so I grabbed it and wrapped it around my hand to get a good grip because it was a nylon cord."
It took about 30 minutes before the balloon pilot, William Berry of Concord, yelled for everybody to release the lines for takeoff, but Nowell didn't hear him because of the loud burners that heated the air as it was blown inside the balloon. It was too late to unwrap the rope from his hand.
"It was an unorchestrated takeoff, let's just say that," he said. "The line cinched up on my fingers and I just started getting dragged along. It was one of those freak things."
A friend's father grabbed onto Nowell for a few seconds but didn't hang on.
Ron Beigel had been standing next to Nowell. He had looked out his kitchen window minutes earlier and seen all the commotion. He had no
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