Clara Adams, 1884-1971, was a wealthy pre-war widow who is known as the world’s original frequent flyer. She logged more than 150,000 maiden-voyage miles. Aviation historian Tom Friedman refers to her as "the Forrest Gump of aviation history; she was everywhere."
Her collection of aviation memorabilia is held in the McDermott Library in the University of Texas-Dallas.
Clara.Adams: The Maiden of Maiden Voyages is a slideshow of her flying adventures
Thanks for the great story, Bruce!
Clara.Adams: The Maiden of Maiden Voyages is a slideshow of her flying adventures
Thanks for the great story, Bruce!
I've always rather liked the idea of the great flying boat era.
ReplyDeleteI have a letter posted by my father in wartime Singapore, that he told his mother to keep, as it was being posted on the first Pan Am airmail clipper service across the Pacific.
My question, though, is about those bathrooms. Are you sure? Because, as a Brit, one of the vital criteria for the status 'Bathroom', is the presence of a bath.
I like the idea of Clara being able to relax in a fragrant froth, far above the ocean.
Being British you would probably call it a "toilet" which conjures up an unpleasant image of waste elimination or a "loo" which is definitely rude because it rhymes with poo. "Bathroom" is the term I use and it is more euphemistic if inaccurate. My mother would have called it a "powder room". My cat, if she could talk would refer to it as a "litter box". I won't tell you what my son calls it.
ReplyDeleteGood point, but there's a big problem with our squeamishness and euphemisms. Loo, in english comes from the french cry of 'Gardez l'eau' anglicized to "Gardy loo!", a cry given just befor throwing the contents of the chamber-pot out of the window.
ReplyDeleteAnother, more english cry was "Watch under!", which was also yelled at sea, when seasick passengers were emptying theirselves over the rails. Australia keeps "Watch Under" alive in a mutated form, as a slang term for the verb to vomit, is "chunder".
I recall 'powder room', ladies, back in the day, had no excretory functions whatsoever, but had a little room they could go to to dab powder on their noses, the worst sin a woman could commit in public being to have a shiny nose.
The aussies call it the dunny, and I rather like the term. I also like 'the thunderbox'...
No matter what you call it, the truth is that when we see you go through that door, we're not under the illusion that it's a shiny nose moment.
Why, in our culture are we so mortified? Why is eating and drinking, the start of the digestive process, a communal activity, whereas the other end, figuratively and literally, is something we try to deny?
Not all cultures are like that. In some countries, ladies fart.