Part 8, You should have seen this coming.

In the summer of 1955, Daddy took me and Leland to work with him. He was building houses on Anderson Island which, at that time, was in the boon docks. There was an old hanger there that was the home base of a crop dusting outfit and I clearly remember the smells of the fertilizer, aviation fuel and the dope they used to cover the fabric on the bi planes that they used to do the spray work.

He took us to the corner of East Washington and Bolch Street where the construction was underway and we had to walk 3 or 4 houses northward to get to his job site. As a coincidence, this was only a couple of blocks away from Doles Street where Robert and Ginnell moved to when they left our garage apartment.

There was a bayou there and it had to have a culvert installed to finish the street, and that required a bulldozer for clearing work. Leland and I found a German Shepard momma there with a new litter of pups that had nested under a fallen tree. Daddy wouldn't let us have them as he said they were too young to take away from their momma.

He took us from there to look at a new bridge that was under construction. It would cross the Red River to Bossier City and go right into the West Gate at Barksdale AFB. The approaches to the bridge were already finished and had 1955 put into the form to show which year it was built. From there, we could see the red brick of the hanger that held the crop dusters as it was not yet demolished to make room for the new subdivision.

We sat at the western approaches to the bridge and watched huge Cat scrappers and bulldozers clearing the land for North Louisiana's first and only shopping mall. Daddy told us that he wanted us to see it because it would mark a change in Shreveport like no other change before it. He said that the clothing industry was more or less monopoliized in the down town area and that the "shopping mall" would change all that. He said that people from California were coming to work in a big plant somewhere and he said that would change things too.

Not long after that, Daddy took us to the airport again for another visit with Joe Messina. I'm not sure if Leland was there but someone was because I sat in the back seat of his Pipler Tri Pacer which was completely different than the Piper Cub that Linda and I flew our first flight in. The Tri Pacer had a radio in it and a speaker in the ceiling that was loud enough for all to hear.

During the flight, some garbled radio call came in and Joe made mention of the "idiot" who made it. He said that is "Herman Hesllinger", a German immigrant that Joe clearly did not like. When the tower asked him to repeat his message, in an extremely heavy German accent he said : "This is Hairrrman Hezzlinger, Cross Lake for landing Downtown".

Joe banked the Tri Pacer and headed toward Cross Lake to see if he could find Haiiiirman. Shortly after that we landed and my second introduction to flight was completed. I began, at that time, to see and accept that there was a common dislike of immigrants that was held by most of the combat veterans of World War II. To some, even the thought of buying anything foreign was totally out of the question.

In any event, I now had two flights under my belt and I was hooked forever. As a suggestion, you may google Piper Tri Pacer and take a look at the beautiful control yolks and the instrument panel. In it's day, it was fabulous. You can also google earth and go to the corner of East Washington and Bolch Street and probably see the old bayou that made Anderson Island an island.

That will do it for today as I'm really tired and full of meds that make you want to lay that head down and fall asleep on the couch. The point of all this, up to this post, is to demonstrate to be true, how those of us who arrived as baby boomers, GREW UP with a certain degree of hero worship of World War II veterans and a certain amount of SUSPICION when it came to aliens or immigrants.

We had nothing to base those suspicions on except for the fact that those men that fought the War, felt it, showed it and had already proven themselves to us as men of impeccable character and wisdom. It was only logical for us to be like them as they were the pillars of society as well as the greatly admired foundation of my own family.

"You should have seen this coming" is turning out to be a pretty good title, don't you think!