Low Slung Fun

At the same Montebello car show, we also saw this stunning beauty. Can anyone identify a modern car that is this stylish and beautiful? Sure the owner has modified this car extensively but if a single person can realize this vision why can't the big car companies? Probably because most people these days are only interested in boring, boxy SUV's. The world is a less interesting place because of this.

A Face Full of Grill

Kathy and I decided on a whim to attend a car show in Montebello being held at a park. There were lots of cars in the adjacent parking lot and several more lined up curbside across the street. This is where we found this black 1938 Buick. I was immediately drawn to it due to its beautiful paint job and extensive amount of chrome gleaming in the sun. It was a hot day and Kathy was already feeling the effects of it. Not long after we photographed the cars adjacent to this one, we called it a day and walked across the street, bought a couple of water bottles and headed back to my car for the ride home in the cold air conditioning it can produce. 

Floating Between Two Worlds

 I only know it’s morning and not evening because my apple watch says it is. Outside the sky remains as dark and impenetrable as India ink splattered on bright white handmade paper. I gather my things and proceed outside, walking quietly along a familiar darkened path past the houses of still sleeping neighbors. Occasionally there is a lighted window. Insomniac or someone getting ready for work? The ground is wet, proof of an unexpected storm having passed stealthily over our little piece of paradise during the night. Anyone peeking at me through their shades must be wondering “What the hell is that guy doing walking around in the dark wearing a bathrobe?” and they would be right to wonder, but nothing nefarious is afoot. As I have each day since my retirement two days ago, I’m heading to our community pool/spa area. As I turn a corner in the path, beckoning me forward is the illuminated superheated column of steam rising from the Jacuzzi into the cold morning air.

Arriving at the gated and fenced in pool/spa area, I use the little FOB on my keyring to open the locked gate and enter, closing it softly behind me. Only the quiet metallic click of the lock reengaging announces my arrival. As I set my things down on a handy poolside chair and remove the bathrobe, I’m quickly reminded that it’s in the mid 40’s this early California morning and hurriedly walk over to the water jet timer, rotating it to the maximum duration and then walk down the steps of the Jacuzzi, submerging myself neck deep into the very hot water. The water jets roar to life and I float around on my back, letting my eyes adjust to the light. Stars begin to imprint themselves on my retinas and I notice the occasional solitary jet aircraft bisecting the sky far above. 

My mind begins to wander back across the 45 year span of my working life, now all behind me. I feel a little like an Apollo astronaut heading for the moon and looking out the window at the earth getting smaller every minute. Watching much of what I have known, much of what is familiar recede and move away from me while at the same time my destination, the unknown future, looms ahead growing ever larger. I have prepared well for this journey but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t the least bit unsettled. 

The steam from the heated water threatens to obscure my vision and the stars vanish for a minute, but I carry on floating between two worlds, one familiar and one largely unknown. 

The mercury sodium lights that surround the nearby cold water pool now appear to have luminescent halos around them which are momentarily backlit by the headlights of a passing car that suddenly sweeps across the pool area and fades from view. Someone returning home after an all-nighter or a worker coming home having completed a graveyard shift, ready to draw the blackout shades and sleep all day? Unknown. A few more window lights in the neighboring houses begin to flare to life. The early risers are up and moving now. Probably getting ready for work. I silently wish them all a good day and think “I’ll guard the Jacuzzi while you’re gone.”

An inappropriate smile appears unbidden on my face. The timer ends and the water jets stop, all is silent again except for the sudden glug, glug, glug of the final water bubbles breaching the surface like those exhaled from the tortured lungs of a drowning person having giving up the fight and sinking into the murky depths.

Instead of sinking, I emerge from the water and dry off, pulling the bathrobe back on and walk along that familiar path home under that cold obsidian star filled sky, a new day is starting and I have an extensive list of things accomplish. Retirement? I recommend it.

My name is Greg Jones and I approve this message.

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Rest

The Rookery

One of the sights Kathy and I wanted to see in Chicago during our 2023 visit was the Rookery building which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Construction was completed in 1888. In 1905 Frank Lloyd Wright was contracted to redesign the stunning two story lobby. The public can access only the street level floor but we found that the Frank Lloyd Right Trust (who has an office in the building) offers tours. We quickly decided to get two tickets which would allow us to see more of the building. It also helped that the hotel we were staying in was next door, which make for a short walk.

Gumby

I saw this clean, slammed, two toned chevy truck at the 2023 Riverside show & go car show tucked away on a side street. We had walked around all morning taking loads of photos and we were nearly ready to return to the hotel to check out and head home. Glad I got few shots of this beforehand.

Earn Your Wings

Just a few posts ago, I was talking about style when it comes to cars. I really do feel that today's cars are sorely lacking in style probably because every design today is the result of a focus group and not the realization of a group of visionaries. I may be wrong but check out this 1959 impala! If this is considered bad design, well sign me up! I'm ready to earn my wings. 

Italian Cemetery

I Got a Right to Sing the Blues

The first time I saw the US Navy's flight demonstration team, the Blue Angels, I was 5 years old. At the time the team was flying the powerful McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter aircraft which were aptly nicknamed the Rhino. These huge twin-engine jets were unbelievably loud especially when all 6 of them fired up their engines simultaneously. The ground actually started shaking. All of this visual and aural stimulation was way too intense for a 5-year-old so after very little thought, I decided screaming and crying my eyes out would be an appropriate response. On the day this photo was taken at the Yanks air museum in Chino, California I was quite surprised to find this FA-18 aircraft wearing the Blue Angel livery. Unbidden, my mind flashed back to my first encounter with the blues. However, this time I was able to maintain my composure and just framed up my shot. I'm glad my response was a calm one. My wife would never have been able to scoop me up and walk me outside. It had probably been a decade since I had visited this museum and many things have changed including the fact that their aircraft collection has grown significantly.

More than Zero

The photo below is of the world’s only authentic flying A6M5 Zero fighter.

Designed and built by Mitsubishi in Japan during World War II, it dominated the skies anywhere it flew. It dispatched most American built fighters it encountered in battle brutally and quickly. So much so, that the United States began a deliberate effort to develop aircraft and tactics that could blunt this highly effective weapon. At the start of the war, the American P-39 was one of the best aircraft it had to deal with the threat, and it was no match. Japanese Zero pilots quickly learned that the P-39 could not climb with them and used their aircraft’s superior high-altitude performance to their advantage in defeating the P-39 on many occasions.

The secret of the Zero's stellar performance was due in part to its well trained and battle proven pilots as well as it’s lightweight construction. Unlike other fighters of the period, it completely lacked armor protection for the pilot and the fuel tanks. a fact that US fighter pilots found out when they fired incendiary bullets at the zero causing it to quicky catch fire and blow up in midair. 

Many years ago, as a volunteer docent at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California, I had the great honor of showing a group of former Japanese Zero pilots this very aircraft. I would guess most of them were in their 80’s at the time and had traveled to the museum specifically to see the aircraft. It was my understanding that for most of them, this was their first opportunity to see a Zero since the end of the war. Upon entering the hanger which housed the aircraft, without exception they all began to cry and tried to hide their emotional response from one another by wandering off between the other aircraft in the hanger until they could compose themselves. It was a very emotional day. I always find it heartbreaking to see an old person cry. I admit I had to compose myself as well. After a few minutes they all gathered around the aircraft once more and suddenly began shouting a salute to the aircraft in unison. When they were informed that the aircraft would be flown for them that day there were more tears and many more during the Zero's triumphant return to the skies overhead.

I would imagine with so many years now having gone by since that emotional day, most if not all these men have passed away and most probably there are no longer any living memories of flying the Zero during World War II.

This specific aircraft was captured by the US Marines on June 18, 1944. It was returned to San Diego where it was evaluated, and test flown by many pilots including Charles A Lindberg. Eventually it was declared surplus after the war and was scheduled to be destroyed but the Museum acquired it in 1950 and restored it to flight status in 1978.

It has made several good will tours of Japan where it was displayed and flew for huge crowds all over the country, becoming the first Zero to do so since the end of the war.