i'm writing a book - right here!

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Originally Posted by crankcase

My goodness, I hope you didn't contemplate any wing-walking during your journey! I recall with a shudder that terrible scene in "The Great Waldo Pepper".
CC

ha! oh dear...no, crankcase, i have never contemplated falling off of a perfectly good aeroplane.

[AAC Cadet Leader]

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Lea Abbott, the very interesting and charming octagenarian aviator I hed met at Bartlesville Antique Biplane Fly-in in early June, loaded his Curtiss Pusher onto a trailer and pulled it all the way up to Oshkosh from his home in Texas and he flew it daily in the afternoon airshow during the big week. At Bartlesville, he was quite a skeptic about taking the Air Adventurers Club pledge and I finally talked him into joining the ranks when I met up with him again at Oshkosh.



At Oshkosh, I met Jessie Woods, who worked as a brave Wingwalker in 1929 through 1939. She traveled with her husband, the lead aviator and a troupe of barnstormers, known as "The Flying Aces" throughout the Midwest and lived a hard, but most exciting lifestyle. A few months later, toward the end of my jouney, I visited Jessie at her apartment on Florida and she showed me her scrapbooks and photo albums. She was a sweet and expressive lady with an exciting past.

The flying aces poster above doesn't have a year printed on it, but Jessie told me they performed together from 1929 to 1939. On the poster it becons passengers to ride for just a penny a pound. And a whole carload of people was paid $2 admission to the grounds.

[AAC Cadet Leader]

[AAC Cadet Leader]

(saving this post, too, for additional Oshkosh photos)

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Mom's Log
Day 70
Friday, August 5
Portage, Wisconsin.
Last day of Oshkosh EAA Convention. Michael La France from San Diego flew Martha to Portage, Wisconsin in William Wright’s 1948 Luscombe Silvaire Sedan.

[insert pic here of Michael LaFrance crawling on the runway after a making a terrible landing – poor guy.]

She is going to rent a motel room and wash her clothes and rest and sort out her notes, etc. having collected over 500 names and addresses on file cards at Oshkosh. She is physically and mentally exhausted.

Day 71
Saturday, August 6
Wisconsin
No report this day. [see chapter on the Kari-Keen Man, the Cab Lady, the Ex-con and the Incessant Talker]

Day 72
Sunday, August 7
Wisconsin
She’s still at the Portage Airport. A man recognized Martha and the woman who drives the taxi and co-owner of the airport was very surprised to see that she was a “celebrity.” Had a lot of fun with this.

[frankie_bondo]

...are you sure you didn't pause on the fifth of August just to honor my birthday?...book is looking better and better from my viewpoint here in Tennessee, Cadet Leader...Miss you

[AAC Cadet Leader]

well, happy birthday, frankie! we miss you, too, here on the river. there are two more art openings this week you'll be missing.

[AAC Cadet Leader]

I saw this gorgeous aeroplane at Oshkosh '88. Don't know what it is though. If you know, please PM me so I can caption it and re-post. Thanks!

[AAC Cadet Leader]

The Kari-Keen Man, the Cab Lady, the Ex-Con and the Incessant Talker
Day 72 August 7, 1988, 10 p.m. Written on the beach and in the airport office in Portage, Wisconsin.

A few days ago when Oshkosh week was winding down, I thought I’d better get busy and line up my next ride out. I’d singled out one of the prettiest antique birds there, a maroon and cream 1948 Luscombe Silvaire Sedan and on Wednesday asked its owner, Bill Wright for a lift after the show. He agreed to drop me off on his way back to California in either Minnesota or North Dakota, two states west of the Mississippi in which I’d yet to plant my feet.

“Either state,” he said, “whatever your preference – no problem.”

“Super! Then after I hit Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and Washington, then I can hit turn around and head back east and add all those states to my map,” I said.

“Okay, it’s a plan! Meet Michael and me here at the plane at noon and we’ll pack up and head out.”

When Friday noon came, we met at his plane with all our bags. Bill’s plane was one of the very few left in the antique and classic area as most of the planes had left earlier in the week.

“Martha,” Bill said, “we’ve had a change of plans. Michael and I are going to head east to Michigan before going back home to California.”

Just lovely! I said to myself, sarcastically.

Immediately I revisited the experience I had in June back at the Bartlesville Antique Biplane Fly-in where I was stuck without a ride out among a steady stream of aeroplanes. They were all taxiing out to go in different directions back to their home bases. With no ride lined up, I resorted to standing on the edge of the taxiway with my bags and my thumb out for five hours before getting a ride out. From that experience I learned that it can be harder to get a ride at a crowded airfield then at an abandoned one. I was now worried that scenario was about to repeat itself.