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February 28, 2005
Little bit o' nostalgia...
My mom sent me a link to a story about my grandfather. Papa was a civil engineer who worked for the State of California's aviation bureau. He was a pilot, and part owner of a Cessna 140.
The story I link above is written by a man who apparently became a friend of my mom's family. He seems to think that Papa almost killed them both, trying to get out of the Lake Tahoe airport in a heavily laden airplane on a hot day. I'm inclined to think that, since the fellow lived to tell the story, Papa did a pretty good job.
I'm pretty sure that the airplane described in this story is the same one that he took me for rides in when I was a little boy. I remember once, we flew out to the Nut Tree in Vacaville, CA. The Nut Tree was one of my favorite places to visit, and getting the chance to FLY there (instead of driving) was quite a treat. The Nut Tree was (in retrospect) a strange sort of place. There was a big toy store, across the miniature train tracks from a large souvenir shop. The train looped out to the airfield, through the nut orchards, and then dropped you off in front of the toy store and souvenir shop. (Smart marketing.) In front of the souvenir shop, there was a line of dozens of large rocking horses. I remember as a teenager, my father's father gave my sister a 3/4 scale reproduction of one of these Nut Tree rocking horses. I don't know if Liz was as attached to those rocking horses as I was, but I sure thought it was cool. So, you add rocking horses+toy store+airport+Tiki huts+a big mural of animals with little doors in the back of the faces so you could put your face in an animal face=a pretty cool place for a little kid to hang out. Too bad that the children of the founders didn't love the place as much as I do. Apparently, they've torn everything down.
Anyhow, I thought it was neat to read about this guy who flew with my Papa. I know I'll never forget that experience, although for different reasons.
Posted by Lee at 11:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack