Page 5 - Come Fly with me-In progress

Flabob airport was located on a little airstrip adjoining the village of
Rubidoux, close to the city of Riverside. My Noni took care of the books, and

I spent every moment I could at her side. She knew me better than anyone

and so any chance I had to get close to her, I jumped at it. I was the apple
of Grandpa's eye, the only girl among three brothers. Grandpa could do

anything, and I'm not just saying so because I adored him, but he was a

Jack-of-all-trades with a colorful history behind him. He was a pilot and a
machinist, and if you asked him to build anything he would say sure, and

off he would go to build it. Grandpa used his talents in many different

ways. He even on occasion worked for the movie studios, and one of his
notable creations was constructing the vines that Tarzan swung from in the

movie. He was also a bit of a scavenger and managed to obtain a circus
tent from one of the studios. He pitched it under a tree, and for a while, it

became the family home.

Grandpa bought a surplus trainer after the war and on one of his flights he

spotted a group of men surrounding wood crates. He landed his plane and
approached the men to inquire about the crates. He found out that

General Patton had trained his tank corps in the area. Grandpa learned
that these crates had housed Patton's tanks. He looked them over and

realized it was just what he needed to build hangars for his airport. Since

Grandpa had spent all of his money on the plane, the plane was his only
remaining form of currency that he had to offer to the men in order to

obtain the crates to build his hangars. The men had no use for the plane,

since none of them knew how to fly, so being the resourceful guy that he
was, Grandpa offered them flying lessons as part of the deal. They agreed,

and the men ended up flying the wooden crates back to Flabob for

Grandpa.