Somehow, one day I ended up the only staff member on the playground at a school for kids with disabilities, including learning ones. A boy and a girl squared off to fight. The girl was from a family of hardcore gang members, and her stance indicated a clear knowlege of fighting. The boy was a fool with a mouth, and had his arms flailing about. I broke the Cardinal Rule and went between them. Quickly and several times. Each time, I pushed the boy back and kept my eyes on the girl. And, I kept saying over and over, "Darlene, don't hit him! Darlene, don't hurt him!" The crowd naturally wanted blood. To make matters worse, there were kids on each side inching toward each other to join the fray. Fortunately, the boy was never stupid enough to swing, and Darlene backed off just a bit. I grabbed the boy and went into complete command structure. It is amazing how a group of kids like that will respond to short, quick, booming commands. Naturally, when everything was finished, the troops showed up.
Darlene took herself to the office. Another staff member took the boy. I went and found a place where I could shake for a while.

 

meeting time

 

Hey, Doc, Herb, and Mark who is now gone to a meeting! I was busy writing my mini-novel!

 

Oh, and by the way, those were not Grade School kids. They ranged from 14-20. Darlene was 18, the boy was 17. I got hit in the head with a brick by a kid later in the school year, but that is another story!

 

*******!

 

Outta here!

 

The Boeing 314 Clippers had 1600 horsepower Wright 2600 14-cylinder Radial Engines. Don't know why it was considered so special; just a few years later B-29s were flying with 2200hp Wright 3350's; similar design features, maybe? Neat factoid about those B29 engines; they were having reliability issues (all big engines were back then), and Chrysler, the car company, re-engineered them and made them better. The car companies greatly improved mass production of aircraft during the war; prior to their production techniques, planes were so handmade, you often couldn't swap things like tails; just wouldn't line up from one plane to another, and the "custom" planes would pile up in the boneyard; GM fighters could be used for spare parts, keeping more planes flying without replacements. After the war, kinda went back to the old way; I've seen attempted door swaps on airliners not work because they were just a little different.

 

More rotten weather but with the exception of the the two beautiful flowers I'll be babysitting, my granddaughters, life is still good! Looks like no break in the weather for two more weeks.

 

Hello o o o o o.......Is there anybody out there???......

 

everyones 20yrs younger than me!!!lol