Cane Hill Musings

By Jack Roy

As I look back over my 84 years, there are a number of things I find quite interesting, even ironic. One of those was brought to my attention last week when I watched the highway department mowing the right of way with their 100 horsepower four-wheel drive, air-conditioned, stereo-equipped, John Deere tractors which were pulling 15-foot brush hogs.

I can remember when men got together with their brush hooks and double-bitted axes to clear the right of ways to pay their road taxes. They did a good job. They weren’t fast, but they got the job done. They didn’t let them grow up until they needed a cross-cut saw to take care of them. Later, the job of clearing the right of way fell to the Cub tractors and five-foot sickle mowers. The tractor operators were professionals. They carried a couple of extra sickles with them and when they knocked out a section, they stopped, pulled out the damaged sickle and put in a new one. Also, they didn’t stay at least three-feet away from a hog-wire fence. Some of them were good enough, it was said, they could mow the grass and weeds in the spaces between the wires.

 As I look back, I am amazed at what they were able to do with what they had to work with. Back then, we made do with what we had. Often, we tried to do a little better job than the other guy.  I’m afraid those days are long gone.

As a part of my job, I used to fly a lot. I always loved to fly and loved airplanes, so I looked forward to flying. There was a TransMo airline which flew from Jefferson City to St. Louis and Kansas City. The pilots were friends of mine, so I always looked forward to flying with them. When I was the only passenger, they usually allowed me to take the controls.

I had a number of meetings which were held in the hotel in the middle of the Chicago O’Hare airport. I would catch the early TransMo flight to St. Louis where I would get a flight to O’Hare, get there around 10 a.m. for the meeting, finish up by 2:30 p.m., back to St. Louis in time to catch TransMo back to Jefferson City and be home before night. Everything worked fine and the service was great. There were no long lines waiting to get through in order to get your boarding pass. The planes were on time and the seats were comfortable. You didn’t have to worry about leaning your seat back. The stewardesses were helpful and accommodating. The flights were enjoyable. You could relax and just enjoy the scenery. They were something I looked forward to.

I haven’t flown for a number of years. From what I read and hear from those who have, apparently it is a lot different today. I guess it is another one of those things where progress has not proven to be better for a lot of those involved. Where it used to take 30 minutes to get through the airport and on the plane for a two-hour flight, it now takes two hours to get through the airport and on a plane for a 30-minute flight. That’s progress with a capital P.

However, it wasn’t always the best in the old days. My first flight on a commercial airline was on Ozark airlines from Springfield to St. Louis. The plane was an old army surplus DC-7 which didn’t have many passenger amenities. When I climbed on board, I noticed the stewardess was sitting in one of the front seats with her head in her hands. I thought, “This is not a good sign.” The two passengers also had their heads down.

We hadn’t been in the air long before I knew it was going to be a rough ride. I don’t think we ever got above 500 feet in the air. Those old planes didn’t just bounce up and down, they also did a slip and slide at the same time. We landed at Ft. Leonard Wood and the two passengers got off. No one got on, so it was just me and the stewardess who still hadn’t raised her head. 

I made it until we started circling to land in St. Louis. That was the only time I have ever felt airsick. I have been on some rough flights, but nothing like that one.

So some things have improved.  

-Source:  http://cedarrepublican.com/opinion