I was born in Arlington, TX and spent most of my childhood in and around the Fort Worth area. When I was in high school, my family moved to Chattanooga, TN. I then went on to UTK for my undergraduate degree. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life and ended […]
via I’m Kristen Karman-Shoemake and This Is How I Mesh — Another Fine Mesh
Kristen and I went to graduate school together along with her husband Lawton.
David “The Eight-Bit Guy” Murray (who is one of my favourites on YouTube) did a fascinating talk on phone phreaking at the Portland Retro-Gaming Expo:
I knew a guy at my prep school who got into this. He graduated in 1971 (the same year that Tico Vogt, to whom I responded earlier this year, did.) One of his favourite places to do it were the call boxes on Florida’s Turnpike. Evidently someone was paying attention, and while he pursued his hobby on the side of the road, the police showed up. The rest, as they say, was history.
When Murry put the “ILLEGAL” warning on his talk, he wasn’t just kidding.
One thing that surprised me was how easy it was to do.
The central place for Chet’s aviation career was the College Park airport, where events such as Langley Day (which Chet moved from Washington Hoover in 1933) and other events took place. Although College Park Airport remains an active airport–the oldest continuing airport in the United States–it is also the home of the College Park Aviation Museum, and on a recent visit we took a look at what it had to offer. This is just a sampling of what’s there.
The entrance to the College Park Aviation Museum.
An historical sign which outlines the history of the College Park Airport.
A Monocoupe 110. In some ways the Monocoupe was the single most successful plane for Chet’s Langley Day competitions, as a perusal of the winners will show.
The Washington Air Derby trophy, which was actually first prepared for the first competition at Washington Hoover in 1932. Note that George Brinkerhoff, whose flying service at College Park was famous, moved his operation from Washington Hoover, as Chet would do with the Washington Air Derby in 1933.
A plan for College Park’s hangars. These were built during World War I and were pretty much all of the buildings the airport had during Chet’s day. They were useful for the Langley Day competitions and, er, the Quiet Birdmen parties.
The west end of College Park airport. At one time there was a runway which more or less paralleled the B&O railroad, but it is gone. That railroad is still active but now also includes Washington’s Metro.
Although the airport made a very nice wide angle poster of this, they did not know that it comes from the 1939 Langley Day competition: we have other photos of the Goodyear blimp there.
The eastern part of the airport, now the main part and the location of both the Museum and the terminal. The rise behind the runway appears often in Chet’s photos and films of College Park, the scene of so many of his triumphs.
Nostalgia is a powerful thing. As people get older, they became teary-eyed for the “good old days,” especially if they think that life was better–and more moral–in the past than it is now. While there’s no doubt our civilization isn’t what it used to be, growing up in South Florida was a lesson in just how immoral life in these United States could be. It was (and is) a region fully equipped with the vices of the day — including all kinds of gambling such as jai-alai, harness racing and of course the dog track. The only people who seemed to suffer for running gambling operations were the poor Cubans who tried to run a bolita (lottery) operation; after spending years jailing immigrants trying to make a living, the state of Florida (along with most states) does well with its own.
Across the lake from where I grew up was the Palm Beach Kennel Club. Our family never went but when we watched the news every night we’d see Buck Kinnaird’s sports broadcast on Channel 5. (Click here for WPTV’s 50th Anniversary Commemoration in 2004, which gives more information on the early years of the station.) Dog races don’t take too long, so the film clip of that night’s race went by pretty fast. (In truth, I think they always used the same film clip every night.) The track operated a steel rabbit named Rusty. When the race began Rusty was started just ahead of the dogs. The dogs would race while chasing Rusty, and it was the objective of the track to keep Rusty just ahead of the dogs. They usually succeeded in doing so; their occasional failure resulted in the inglorious end of the race.
Florida finally put an end to dog racing, but only for the dogs. For the rest of us too much of life has turned into a dog race where whomever we feel is in control of our situation is “running Rusty” in front of us. From youth onward we’re motivated — pushed and shoved in some cases — to achieve goals which we may have had nothing to do with formulating and which, deep down, we really feel we neither want nor are able to accomplish. If and when we reach these goals it seems that success is more elusive than ever because the “track owner” is moving Rusty faster than we can keep up by either making new demands or enticing us with new things to go harder for. This is called “being challenged” and of course has its upside but in many cases it’s manipulation, pure and simple.
One of the promises of technology was to enable us to have more leisure time and more control over our lives. Sad to say the real result is to turn our lives in to a 24/7 “on demand” race where there’s no escape from anything. The more productive we become with our technological tools the faster “Rusty” is run and the more fatigued we get.
Fortunately the real “track owner” of this world never intended to run people in a perpetual dog race. Jesus told us “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly-minded, and ‘you shall find rest for your souls’; For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30) His race is rather simple:
Jesus Christ sets before us a simple race to run, a clear objective and a straightforward way to get there. And that’s a lot more than people and institutions can claim these days.
All New Testament quotations taken from the Positive Infinity New Testament.
Today warships are rarely converted for commercial use but up until 1900 many naval vessels were not much different in design from their civilian counterparts. One ship with a naval beginning was a regular sight in Charlottetown harbour for more than twenty years – and may still be resting beneath the harbour’s sand and mud. […]
