My grandparents were Eastern European Jews, and I am the grandchild of immigrants. They came here with nothing. The civilization from which they came was destroyed by the Nazis, so, growing up in the 1950s, there were virtually no physical artifacts of my family’s long European existence.
Unpeeling the Layers of Aviation History
Key Takeaways:
- The author, a grandchild of Eastern European Jewish immigrants whose family history and physical artifacts were largely lost, developed a deep passion for collecting memorabilia, particularly aviation-related items, as a way to connect with the past.
- This passion is intertwined with surprising familial and personal connections to aviation history, including a grandfather who was a WWI seaplane mechanic, a close friend who was a celebrated combat pilot in WWII and Israel's War of Independence, and a distant cousin who was an early 20th-century barnstorming aviator.
- The article culminates with the author's own plane standing on its nose in a crosswind, creating a personal piece of memorabilia that humorously links their aviation mishap to similar "abrupt landings" frequently experienced by their aviator cousin, suggesting a "family trait."
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