Women still want me

We broke up the concrete walkway this week and there is now a nice dirt path to the front door. Next week we will get things ready to pour a new concrete pad. Then it will be laying bricks and the bluestone pavers.
And it will start, the young moms and dads will comment on the progress, as they walk their kids to and from school. It’s nice to hear compliments on your work.
The last time we were working on a front yard project, a young mom from two doors down stopped by chat. She said she had to see what we were doing and how far we had progressed.
“Looks very nice.” She said. “When you are done, you can come over to my house and work on my backyard!”
I turned and looked at her cheerful smile and cute figure. I smiled back. “Oh, not for all the tea in China.” I said in my most cheerful voice. She laughed.
Two days later, a young, good-looking blonde stopped to look and then said. “Oh, when you are done here, you can come work on my front yard!”
I looked at her and her two little daughters. “Oh, I don’t think so.” I said with a nice smile on my face.
Yeah, the blonde was a cutie; but cute just doesn’t cut the mustard. I now know what it’s like working on your knees for hours. Not for lust or money!
Love and the satisfaction of doing a good job yourself, yes.

American. Air Cadets Official Construction Kits

American. Air Cadets Official Construction Kits
Featherweight flying model. Rubber band powered.
Made by the A.A.C. Supply Company, Iowa City, Iowa.

Since there is a dearth of information on this subject, I thought I would write up what I know.

In my late father’s collection of toys, I have seven primitive balsa kits from the 30’s. I have done a lot of searching and there is almost no information on them on the world wide web.

What is also interesting about them is how primitive they are, compared to airplane kits made in the forties and beyond. Each box has sheets, blocks and strips of balsa wood. If you were to attempt to build one, you are expected to take the quarter scale plans and redraw them to full size. You have to carve the propeller from a block of balsa. All in all, a rather complex construction project for an amateur.
The kit does come complete with glue and what might be a vial of banana oil. The banana oil, when thinned with acetone, is supposed to make a good dope. The other option is to use ‘dope’ the “Jap tissue paper” (what we now call silk-span) with a flour and water paste.

I know of eight different models that they made-
Eaglerock Bullet
Curtiss Robin
Red Bird
Fokker
Spirit of St. Louis
Travel Air
R.O.G. Racer
Endurance Tractor

I did find tiny bits of info on www.rcuniverse.com and www.rcgroups.com. (I edited them slightly)

“The American Air Cadets was an organization formed in the late 1930's to encourage young people to become involved in aeronautics.
All such organizations try to get prominent personalities associated with there operation. Strangely enough the Cadets got the noted conductor Leopold Stowkowski (Fantasia and other films involving classical music) to endorse them!!
The Cadets commissioned a series of models of increasing complexity to be built as one advanced through their program.
The Air Cadets made little or no impact on the direction of aero modeling.
All this is from memory and I am unaware of any printed sources.”
Richard Smith
--
“This was one of the groups to form (and fail) in the Mid-west of the USA. They often began with some simple rubber powered plan to which you ordered from some location, got a membership card, and a few other things, and were ordered to complete the model and take to... for some contest.
If enough juniors showed up, the club went on, if not they went to some other location tried there or went out of business.
The Jimmy Allen group was only one to survive for a while.

Wm.
--
The Rotarian - Nov 1930 – (Google Books Result)
64 pages - Magazine
Sponsor Air Cadets Peekskill, NY — Directors of the Peekskill Rotary Club have voted to sponsor the American Air Cadets, an organization fostering boys' interests in aviation.

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So, perhaps they are just one little footnote in model making history and I have seven small pieces.

GW

Wise Uncle Warty might give bogus advice

I have found myself in an odd position recently. Several of my female friends, (I don’t like ‘lady friends or ‘girl friends’ simply because there can be misunderstandings.) have had mangled breakups with their boyfriends and written about it online. So I, being nicely married for decades, have offered sage advice and support. Mostly I remind them that they are smart, personable young pretties, but also to let them know that the right guy is out there. I try to help them look forward to what might be and not to keep looking back at the heartless bastards that they pine for.
It amuses me somewhat and I have to check what I say. For my history is one of not even looking for the right woman and finding her. Sure, it took some time for Wonder-Girl to realize that I was an okay fellow; but I think that is one of the things that made everything work. With neither of us trying, we became friends first.

These young women are my friends and I would so like to see them find a good man and be happy. So I have to be careful when consoling them. Remind them to keep their eyes open and that there are good guys out there who will appreciate them for who they are.
After all, I like them, so others must also.

And there is a nagging feeling that I might have been able to help Pip.

Finding Pip

I hadn’t looked for Pip in a while.(I wrote about my online sleuthing several times) I kinda gave up looking for her since she obviously didn’t want to be found. But I kept thinking about her as another typhoon slammed into the Philippines. Most of my Pi friends are on the island of Cebu and I did not have to worry about them. But Pip lived near Manila and I was concerned. So I tried a few searches and found a note about her. She was still around Manila. So on a lark, I looked on Facebook. Right away her picture popped up! It sure made me smile to see her face again. I clicked the ‘friend’ button and waited. I got her response in a few hours and she sent me a hello message.
It’s so nice to find a lost friend again.
She explained that someone she trusted betrayed her, so she went hermit and wiped out her online persona (mostly). She was sorry and promised never to vanish again, at least not without saying bye.
And now I will patiently wait to catch her on IM and chat again. We have always had fun conversations. She is a smart young lady and always fun to chat with, either online or in person.

And I find it amusing how I have these good friends in faraway places. Newport RI, Darwin, Cebu City, Manila. We are always happy to get letters from each other, keeping in touch. The hard part is knowing that I will probably never see them again. The odds of me getting back to the Philippine, much less Australia, are pretty slim.
Still, it’s nice to have these friendships.

A Gentleman, mostly.

One of my friends(a sweet young thing) made a comment online about what other people might do when taking a bath. Being a gentleman, I only made a silly comment. Then some guy we know made a comment about her lathering herself up and singing ‘Loving you’, as her hands traveled down under. I was shocked he said that, for I never would.
And I really didn’t need that image, nor go down that slippery soap.
But there it is in my mind, her tawny, nubile body; and her slim fingers tracing circles through the white soapsuds…

A thoroughly delightful image. But of course, one that I would never share with her. Why ruin her image of me as a gentleman? She does not need to know about the ‘mostly’.