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on Star Island and was built around a pretty wild plot. In spite of this, it did have some good local color. I was very busy with my GE work in 1936 and these literary efforts must have taken some time, which probably accounts for the fact I allowed my diary to languish.

It was sometime during the summer of 1936 that I had my first airplane flight. I've been hankering to try it for some time. On this occasion, I was in Chicago on business, maybe the Illinois Central locomotives. Things worked out so that I had an opportunity to fly back to Erie late one afternoon instead of returning on the sleeper, which didn't leave until 11 p.m. or thereabouts. It may have been a Friday with all the boys going home to dinner and I was looking ahead to a lonely evening. At any rate, I made arrangements to fly home, taking United to Cleveland and either Allegheny or American from there to Erie. So I took a cab out to whatever airport it was then, maybe Midway, and in due course was aboard the ship. My strong recollection is that it was a 14-passenger Boeing with a pilot, co-pilot and one stewardess who, at that time, had to be a RN. If I'm correct about the capacity (which seems very low), they had a row of seven single seats down each side of the central aisle. It was a sweltering afternoon but clear; in fact, I don't think there was a cloud in the sky. This reassured me because I was a bit nervous about what I'd done and hoped it had been the right thing. I don't think I advised Willie, planning to surprise her. We took off, a thrilling experience the first time, and soon were headed east, I suppose at around 150 mph. I think it was between 5 and 6 p.m. We flew without incident for maybe an hour when suddenly directly ahead appeared the blackest sky I have ever seen--and it stretched clear across the horizon from north to south. However, the ship flew onward, apparently planning to plunge right into the teeth of this thing. At the last minute though, we swung around due south and flew along in front of this sky. On and on we flew until I figured we must be somewhere in the vicinity of Indianapolis. I was having many second thoughts about the wisdom of returning home by air and kept telling myself that, after all, I didn't HAVE to do it. Why the hell was I up here in this thing anyhow? I must have been just plain nuts! The captain announced that serving dinner would be postponed by the weather ahead but just as soon as we were out in the clear again, we'd be fed. He then swung due north east and headed directly into the storm. I have never since then seen it so rough. I was absolutely petrified. The little ship went through about every motion going to physics short of looping-the-loop. It turned so dark it was almost like night, the rain pelted against us, the vivid lightning split the dark sky all around us. I swore that if I ever came out of this alive, I've never fly again as long as I lived. I prayed. I hoped. I was utterly miserable. And then, almost suddenly, we flew out of the storm into the early evening sunshine, everything smoothed out, and we