Thank you friend John for noting this for me - I should have caught it myself, but I guess the pills, and age have taken over my more acute memory and I didn't catch myself. You are so right in that the P-51 was defininately a single engine fighter, while the P-47 was the twin fuselage plane I had meant to refer to. Thanks for catching that. Your friend must have loved that P-47 double fuselage plane to fly. Those pre-jet aged planes were something to see. If the P-51 was a two seater, I think that was the one my friend flew in sitting back of the pilot as a radio man operating a telegraph key strapped to his knee. I can't imagine using telegraphy in those times for communications as it is so slow, even when abbreviated cryptography type messages were exchanged, but that's the way they did it in addition to the voice communications. I recall when fighter planes used to practice power diving over Snohomish over the farm-like fields of South Snohomish not far from where our Harvey Airfield is located today. I was confined at the time, so it had to be circa 1942 when this took place. I would hear the fighte planes practicing power dives, which meant they would zoom up to high altitude for those times and then dive full bore toward earth and come out of the dive, all of which had the same screaming peculiar sounds of the screaming engine as it went into the extreme dive, then come out of the dive. This was done repeatedly and I got used to the pattern of those sounds. One time I heard the usual scream of the engine as it dove toward earth and then it suddenly snuffed out, which is impossible w/o a crash. I couldn't hear the crash but I did hear the sudden dead silence and I knew what had happened to that pilot. Since I was confined to bed with illness at that time, I could not go to see the results, but a friend of out did and he brought back a piece of metal from the site and it was no larger than my hand. I recall that that plane dove some 20 feet into the ground and was soon accordioned off from spectators as the military came in. That incident must have been a very tragic event for other pilots doing their practice power dives to see. Another larger military plane landed out in the farm fields just South of Snohomish and tho a lot of civilians went out to see it, the plane was accordioned off from view closer up as it was wartime and considerably later than the power dive incident. John Chapman down there in Austin, Texas checks in with me ever so often and always has great comments to make. I greatly appreciate him and his comments. John, you should have visited our Seattle and environs - however the traffic up this way is horrendous! to say the least. I have never been to Texas or even near there but your traffic down that way couldn't be worse than ours. When it snows people up here drive as tho' it wasn't there - so they end up upside-down with their 4 wheelers, and wonder why. They defy momentum, centrifical force, and the amount of safety metal they have around them, along with a poor apprecation of seatbelts, then accompany that with running stop signs, lighte or not, constructions areas, or poor WX conditions and disintigrate like the power dive victim. I live near Snohomish High and I have seen Mothers driving their young girls to school, running stop signs near the school as examples for their kids learning driver training. Am I "getting" crochety or what - I nearly forgot the shrub I took out from our old driveway when I was teaching myself how to drive when I was 15, the folks were gone and I took the 1926 Studebaker, 2 dr. out of the garage - kept killing the motor until I found out which gears were which for shifting. No sooner did I get down the street when I saw our Snohomish Chief of Police stopped at the corner which I turned at - we both waved at each other. I took a turn down around the ball park, called Averill Field (named for Earl Averill, baseball Hall of Famer). When I decided to take that car back home before I got into to real trouble, I went to turn in our driveway, thought I was going slow enough, one shrub of the ones on either side of the driveway disappeared beneath the Studey and I was heading for the corner of our house. I slammed on the BRAKE full force soz not to hit the corner of the house. I had not even engaged the CLUTCH, just the BRAKE. I got the Studey stopped just inches from the house. I sat for 15 minutes, until I got enough strength at age 15 to get that car back into the garage where I didn't take it out again for many months, and not alone. The next time, I took it out, one of my Aunts came to stay with me, and I wanted to show her how I could drive. Again the folks were gone, on a hunting trip probably to Ellenslburg. I drove Aunt Ethel out across the Marsh Road toward Larimer's Corner, bottom of Seattle Hill. Turned around and started back across the rocky, pot-holed Marsh Road, when the engine faultered, and we came to a stop half way across. I always assumed that there was plenty of gas in the tank but apparently I was wrong. A long walk to get gas near the site of the Old Bicycle Tree site, I was able to get a gallon of gas in a can by leaving my wallet at the station for "security" that I would return to pay. Back at the Studey, Aunt Ethel had gotten some help from a couple of fellows who'd stopped by to help. I saw them light a match to try to see if there was gas in the tank, when I yelled for them to Stop that as they could blow the Studey to smitherines doing that. I was able to get it started, pay for the gas and get my wallet back and get that car home to the garage, where I learned another lesson about driving. Aunt Ethel and I laffed many times after that recalling that incident, and it was Aunt Ethel who lived to be 101 yrs. - her daughter, my Cousin B' of Ballard whom I just talked to is not 88 yrs young. She used to baby-sit me. She was/is my Favorite First Cousin and we share a lot of great Stories when we get together about those early times in Snohomish. Sorry, I got carried away with m e m o r i e s ! of earlier times in older Snohomish. Carroll in Snohomish * * * 30 * * * ----- Original Message ----- From: "john s. chapman" <thechaps@EV1.net> To: "Carroll Clark" <w7iml@gte.net> Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2003 3:33 PM Subject: Re: [PSRoots] Memorial Day 2003 : > Hi Carroll, > I believe you were thinking of the P-47. The P-51 was a single engined, one > fuselage fighter plane. One of my friends flew one in WWII. > > Hope all is well. I sure do enjoy your comments and historical background > sketches, even if I have never been to Seattle. > > John Chapman > Austin, Texas