Christine's High-Flying Memory

Christine's High Flying Memory
Christine was raised in a small town in northern Wisconsin where her father was the president of the town bank. She was an adventurous girl, a self-confessed tomboy and always interested in active sports. In 1935, the summer she was fifteen years old, her parents sent her to a two-week summer camp. Memories of these weeks include water sports and canoeing, hiking and nightly campfires. There was even an outdoor showing of a silent film projected onto the sideof a big, white barn.

One steamy July day, the girls at the camp were taken to a summer festival in the nearest town. There were bands playing, balloons, games and plenty of good food, but what intrigued Christine, the adventuress, was a barnstorming pilot in a fragile-looking plane who was offering airplane rides for 50 cents.

The other girls drew back in fright, having been warned by their parents that flying was a dangerous game and that their life insurance policies would not pay the claim if the insured was such a fool as to go up in an airplane. The 50 cent price was a major portion of Christine's budget for the week. She did have the money, however, and didn't hesitate very long before handing it over to the barnstormer.

Up they went in his little plane, flying over farms and fields, revealing a patchwork of squares like her grandmother's quilts. The panoramic view quite took Christine's breath away. She fell in love with flying that day.

She waited and hoped for a chance to get her own pilot's license, but World War II broke out a few years later and private planes for pleasure did not exist anymore. All aircraft, spare parts and rubber tires were commandeered for the war effort. After the war, she never had an opportunity to fulfill her piloting dream.

Christine loved to fly all during her long life and found it to be her favorite way to travel. There is still a tiny kernel of regret for not pursuing her airborne dreams. She loved revisiting the memory of her first High Flying Day.