Mike Marcon has written of a time in the 1960's when sport parachuting, or "skydiving," as it is called today, was just starting to come into its own as a sport. In the U.S., Europe and across the world, even in the Soviet Union, small groups of jumpers would gather at local airports and grass airstrips on the week-ends. The equipment they used was usually military surplus -- their aircraft, a mixed bag of smaller airplanes. Mike's early days as a jumper took place mainly in the south, starting first in Mississippi and later, in Louisiana. Mike reveled in the sport as a young guy with nothing...