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Introducing Billy
FLYING
By Delbert Blickenstaff
Did you ever fly? I don’t mean fly like a bird. I mean fly
in a plane. Our family took its first plane ride a few weeks ago
when we went on a vacation to Hawaii. Of course Dad and Mom had
been on a plane before but us kids hadn’t.
Before I tell you about that I want to tell you about a new word that
Grandpa taught me. It’s rumble seat. I was showing him some
of the drawings of cars that I had made and he asked me if any of them
had a rumble seat in them. I didn’t know what he was talking
about so we looked it up in the dictionary. It said “a folding
seat in the back of a coupe or a roadster not covered by the
top.” Grandpa said that his Uncle Abe had a car with a rumble
seat and he and his brother got to ride in it one day. There was
no door to get in it but instead you had to climb up on some steps on
the side. That sounds like fun except when it was raining or
snowing.
Now about the plane ride. First we drove in our van to Columbus
and left it there at the airport. Then we checked in our big
suitcases and waited in line to get on the plane. Henry got a
window seat and I sat next to him When the plane took off I felt
a hollow feeling in my stomach but that soon cleared up and we had fun
watching the fields and roads on the ground below.
We had to change planes in Chicago and that is the biggest building I
have ever been in. I looked at the booklet in the pocket right in
front of me and it said that the plane was a 747. I don’t know
what that means except BIG. This time my stomach felt OK when the
plane took off. We had a long flight to Hawaii and we got to eat
several times and see an old movie. I think it was “Black
Beauty.”
We finally got to Hawaii and it certainly looked different than
Ohio. When we finally got to our hotel we saw that it was right
on the beach and Henry and I couldn’t wait to get in the water.
Dad took us out and we had a good swim in the warm water. We saw
some fellows surfing and asked Dad if we could try it. He
promised us that he would get us a surf board on the next day.
That’s all we talked about that evening.
The next morning we bugged Dad until he rented a surfboard for Henry
and me. We put lots of sunscreen on and got in the water.
Henry tried it first. He laid down on the surfboard and paddled
out a little way and then tried to stand up. He fell off a few
times but he kept on trying until he could ride the wave in. Of
course it wasn’t a very big wave. Then it was my turn. It
looks so easy but I fell off even more than Henry did. But it was
still fun trying, and we didn’t get hurt. Then Dad said that he
wanted to try it. We had a good laugh when he fell off too.
On the next day we took a bus ride around the city and out into the
countryside where we saw pineapple fields and lots of colorful
flowers. Then we went to a park where there was a high
waterfall. Several Hawaiian men would climb up on the rocks
beside the waterfall and dive into the pool below. They were
doing the swan dive which is really beautiful. I wouldn’t want to
try it no better than I can dive.
We got to try the surfing a few more times before it was time to go
home. I think that I slept most of the time on the way home,
except during mealtime. I didn’t mind the take offs and landing
at all, and it was surely good to get home and see Nelly. I told
her all about the surfing and she seemed to understand. Aloha.
Billy
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