Steve B wrote:

My dad had a fascination with planes. He went to the Oshkosh Air Show in
1936, the year he graduated from high school, and paid for a ride in an old
WWI vintage biplane. He said he immediately knew what he wanted to do in
life. He was in the US Air Corps as a sergeant, a flight engineer. He had
previously been a mechanic at oilfield businesses in Pennsylvania, starting
out in Grandpa's garage making bootleg equipment. (My Polish Grandpa was
quite famous for his "shine". Dad wanted to go on to commercial aviation,
but had contracted malaria in the South Pacific, and they would not take
him. Wish there were more cheap flights available. But with today's
market, and insurance and parts and all, they are quite spendy.

One's whole life can change with something as simple as one mosquito bite.

Steve



Uhm, minor technical detail...

_THE_ Oshkosh air show didn't happen until 1970.

Maybe _AN_ Oshkosh air show in 1936?





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Richard Lamb
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~cavelamb
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~sv_temptress