The WWII warbirds are an interesting group.  They do have a concern that the
country will soon forget what they did for us back then.  I suspect the
History Channel will help to keep some of their stories alive, at least the
more compelling ones (or those that make good TV).

There was a group of them out at Geneseo Airp[ort for a while.  They had
some dissention within their ranks and some left for Palmyra, I believe, and
the bulk of them went down to Elmira (it seems like the whole group left to
go somewhere and then they split up).  I think the guy that ran the field at
Geneseo got them chewing on each other, or at least I seem to recall there
was some problem with that field.  They invest a lot of time and money
restoring their planes...

The Glenn Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport is supposed to be a good one to
check out for olde aviation/motorcycle stuff...

Have you had anymore thoughts about taking to the skies yourself?  You might
consider a "glider school vacation" at Harris Hill, Elmira.  I imagine it's
pretty tough for you to get away for several days during the summer, what
with that being the peak construction season...

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Follett [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2000 2:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Investigation of original paint colors on wooden windows


In a message dated 5/24/00 10:01:21 AM Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> I have long postulated that what we need to do as preservationists is get
the aesthetics out of preservation.

Dan,

I think it also has to do with removing the stigma of class heirarchy from
historic preservation so that a larger number of people feel that their
heritage is acceptable.

Last weekend I was down at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, NY's first
municipal airport, (home base for Wrong Way Corrigan as well as several
other
air flight records) and met with the octagenarian WWII guys fixing up the
old
planes. Hearing them talk about wanting the 1940's hanger fixed up was an
inspiration in confusion and miscommunication... but you could also sense
that they felt like they were begging for recognition in a world that no
longer accepts them as relevant. The roar of airliners overhead, taking off
from nearby Kennedy, added to the ambience.

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