There can only be one FIRST time although it can be repeated endlessly but never initially. Important and many unimportant first events in life can be recalled vividly even years from their occurrences. There is the memorable first day of school, graduation, your first date, job, child and countless other firsts. I remember one rather inconsequential event that somehow has stuck in my mind since the late 1930s.
I grew up in the Hamer Mill community, a wonderful place to be a boy since the Mill Village provided me an infinite variety of experiences and as many friends. I spent more time there than anywhere else especially during the good old days (and months) where there was no school bell to answer. Too, I had relatives living there whose table always welcomed a hungry boy especially when anything sweet was available.
Keep in mind this was about 75 years hence this “first” was significant because of its then rarity. And what was that?
It was during the summer and someone brought the news to the Mill Village (Mims’ Store) that an airplane has “crashed” in a nearby field. Actually the word “crash” was not correct since the airplane had instead made an emergency landing but for those who had never had a personal encounter with one, it was an exciting event.
The landing spot was on present day Vicksburg Road in a field that is presently the site of the former Dixiana Mills and earlier the post WWII airport. Today I-95 cuts through the landing site. It was a short distance from the Hamer Mill and was actually within easy walking distance, but a car was available and as many as possible (meaning everyone) piled in and on the vehicle to get a firsthand glimpse of this then oddity at least one on the ground that you could actually touch.
The country road leading to the site was of course seldom maintained, it was a dirt road, bumpy, twisting and partly in a wooded area. Anxious to get there as quickly as possible, the driver exceeded his driving skills and made an unexpected turn which caused the car to come to a sudden stop, for one resulting in a painful consequence.
Back then there was little thought to designing cars with the intention of protecting body parts of a boy riding on the running board. The door handle protruded from the automobile body whose design was more for aesthetics than functionality. The handle had a sharp pointed end and during the car’s encounter with the ditch, the sharp end of the door handle made an unfortunate entry into the leg of one of the riders but nothing serous because it did not stop us from reaching our destination. First things first.
There it was, a bright (‘cub/chrome’) yellow thought to be a 40 hp J-3 Piper Cub airplane, a lonely sight amidst the plowed field but as far as we could see, without any damage perhaps out of gas we thought. No one was around so we took the opportunity to get a close up view of the fascinating flying machine, a first time, memorable encounter of a parked airplane for nearly all the uninformed onlookers. Incidentally, in 1938, a new J-3 could be bought for about $1000; a modern, upgraded version with all the bells and whistles could cost the buyer up to $150,000.
I still remember the startling color, the ‘fat’ tires, and the frail looking canvas covered body supported by its tubular structure. The plane had tandem seating (two seats, one for the pilot and the other for a passenger immediately behind). The instrumentation while foreign to our eyes was actually rather basic by today’s comparison of similar aircraft. The ‘stick’ was prominent as well as the pedals used to operate the flight surfaces. To naïve boys, it might as well have been an F-16.
We examined the machine carefully, awed that we had actually been allowed to touch such a modern marvel of flight, an unforgettable first.
The story ends when the plane took off safely, alas without our later presence.
But the soaring, wild blue yonder memory lives on.
Bill Lee, PO Box 128, Hamer, SC 29547
