glc@akgua.UUCP (glc) (01/12/86)
I am really enjoying the autobiographies appearing in this newsgroup. They bear out the original premise: the folks who participate here are interesting people! Rather than bore you folks with my background, I thought I might take a slightly different approach and provide a little nostalgia: I had the good fortune to live right across the road from a grass-strip airport in Richmond, Virginia (complete with rotating beacon). Since the year was 1946, the Link trainer was merely a bit *used*, rather than a museum piece like today. As a result, I got a good appreciation of "under the hood" right off, albeit with darn few instruments! On the walls were four aircraft silhouette identification charts, which I can still see in my mind's eye. As a result, I have no trouble identifying the various kinds of Messerschmitts that appear in old movies! (What is the main differentiating feature of an Me-109?) In the cluttered office was a Coca-Cola machine that dispensed the small bottles for a nickel!!! It was the type that had a rotating top disk. You put in your nickel, turned a crank, and the top moved a few degrees. By opening the hinged slot cover, you revealed a bottle in position for removal. Also present was a peanut dispensing machine (a handful for a penny). You may ask what these two items have to do with flying? Well it seems that back then, World War II pilots had a habit/custom of pouring a handful of peanuts into their Cokes. It made you sip it slower which made it last longer, and the salty taste of *old* Coke was interesting. Then too, it tasted better than plain old salt tablets (as any North Africa or South Pacific flyer will tell you.) While slowly sipping this concoction, they would recount *lots* of flying tales and tell anecdotes about other pilots and crewmembers. It seems that most of these stories would end, "He was a hell of a guy. He bought it over [insert location here]." So while we tell our "hanger tales", let us raise a Coke to those who have gone before. -- "Here's to absent frieds!" Cheers, Lindsay Lindsay Cleveland (akgua!glc) (404) 447-3909 Cornet 583-3909 AT&T Technologies/Bell Laboratories ... Atlanta, Ga