A
surprise visitor to my Pacific Beach History class at Mission Bay High
on the night of my 40th Birthday -- October 4, 1983. "How many
Californians does it take to screw in a light bulb," she asked.
Answer? "You big silly. Californians don't screw in light
bulbs. They screw in hot tubs." I think Anna Cawthon perpetrated this ruse.
A Howard Rozelle self-portrait
1981 Miss Pacific Beach Anna Cawthon. She was tickled
to see this postcard in the rack at Anthony's Restaurant on Harbor
Drive. It was gone the next time we visited. "Mama" Ghio
didn't want it there -- and Mama ran the joint.
Howard
Rozelle took this photo of me and Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan at his
home in Orange County on April 3, 1985. Corrigan. In July
1938 he flew his Curtiss Robin from Long Beach to Floyd Bennett Field in
New York, hoping to replicate Lindbergh's flight. He couldn't get
permission to fly across the Atlantic, and filed a flight plan to return
to Long Beach. He ended up in Ireland, saying he got confused and
flew the "Wrong Way"
I'm
holding the original nose cone from the Spirit of Saint Louis, which
contains the names of those who helped build the plane. They
include Doug Corrigan and Fred Rohr, who went on to build Rohr Aircraft
in Chula Vista. In 1927 the hadn't been adopted by the Nazis and
was still an ancient Sanskrit symbol for good luck. This may have
been taken in May of 1987, the 60th Anniversary of Lindbergh's
flight. I think this nose cone stayed behind.
Ken Ptack and I at the San Diego Aerospace Museum annex at Gillespie Field around 1988
My living room on May 20, 1989
On the steps of the Naval Imaging Center, NAS Anacostia • Dining alfresco at Ptacks • May 22, 1989
