Three weeks ago, 88-year-old Barney Spott crossed another item off his "bucket list" when he, his two sons and three grandchildren went skydiving with the Sky Knights at Skydive Milwaukee in East Troy.
Prior to the jump, Barney’s son, Michael, checked in with Spott’s doctors to make sure it was safe for him to fall 13,500 feet with atrial fibrillation and a pacemaker.
"I have a sneaky son. He contacted my cardiologist, rheumatologist and primary physician without me knowing," says Barney.
All three doctors gave Spott the go-ahead, and so, he and his family – along with a couple of friends – went on a three-generation skydive.
The cost for a tandem jump – which means jumping while attached to a professional jumper – is $150. "When tandem jumping, you literally become a 200-pound front pack," says Michael.
Skydiving was the fourth item on Barney’s list of post-retirement adventures. After retiring at the age of 62, he started to think about what he wanted to do with his time. Barney, and his wife, Pat, started the exciting undertakings with a whitewater rafting trip on the Colorado River.
"Prior to retiring, our primary responsibility was raising and educating six children," says Barney.
Barney went on to skyglide and ride as a passenger in a World War II trainer plane. He hopes to someday soon take a ride in a hot air balloon.
According to one of the Sky Knights divers, Barney, who walks with a walker, was the company's oldest jumper to date.
"When I saw my dad before the jump, wearing his jumpsuit and strutting around, I was like, ‘Is that my dad?’" says Michael. "He was by far the most relaxed out of all of us during the jump. We had stiff form, but dad’s form was flawless. He was the only guy giving the thumbs up on the way down."
According to the Spotts, the professional jumper said there were three rules to jumping: they couldn’t leave the airplane without him (haha), they needed to arch their back and extend their arms when falling and they couldn't grab or touch his hands because he was in charge of the parachute.
Barney says the jump – which included a 10,000-foot free fall – was very exhilarating, but that he probably won’t do it again. The only aspect of the experience that really phased him was how much colder it was in the air than it was on the ground.
"The jump was very exciting. My adrenaline was really pumping," says Barney. "If I were younger, I would probably do it again."
During the Depression, Barney lived on the North Side of Milwaukee; his Polish family later moved to Milwaukee’s South Side where he still resides today. Sixty-three years ago he met his wife while they attended Marquette University. Barney worked for Schuster’s, and later Gimbel’s, when it acquired the department stores in 1962.
"After I retired, I wanted to do some things with a little bit of risk – nothing too foolish – a controlled risk with people who were qualified," says Barney. "So far I've enjoyed the whitewater rafting and the skydiving the most, but it’s all been a lot of fun."
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
