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69

"Oh, well, guess I'll have to design something for the luggage myself."

Loud, derisisve and raucous laughter followed and as he left the gathering one sent him to the showers with "Christ, you couldn't even design a kite.".   The talk then skipped from the design and capacities of the planes to the type of individual who would be able to qualify as pilots for these dream ships.  I listened and got madder and madder...my fuse was notoriously short, "Hey, you guys, wait a minute.  Where do the gals come in on this deal. What the Hell do you think I and several other flying females are going to do?  Sit around on the ground and get barnacles on our duffs, playing bridge and doing useless fancy work like tatting? Those dam needles frighten me and I never learned.  Carburetors, Yes I could tinker with one of those but not one of those fancy needles or [[strikethrough]] hoookes [[/strikethrough]] hooks or whatevers.  You guys may think you own the air but there are a few of us gals who can jockey a plane around too."

This burst sort of settled them down  Then one of the boys spoke up with this little bit that has stayed with me even to this day. "Blanche, you could be the best dam pilot who ever held a wheel or a stick, if you were taking people aloft for money on a commercial basis there are some fuddy-duddy males who would refuse to fly with you and who whould look self righteous, roll their eyes heavenward and solemnly declare, "Woman's place is in the home.  Blanche, when you go into your mad act it is great.  We know you can fly. The ground crews know you can fly. We have unlimited confidence that you'd not only take the plane aloft but would bring it and the people back down in one piece but the public doesn't know this and they'd be dam resistant to learning it.

Transcription Notes:
Reviewed - removed [[sic]] & other formatting comments - these are not needed