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My father, Keith, loved airplanes and became an airplane mechanic. I named this blog after him and his love of airplanes. I have written about his career on this blog as well.
Many of us have gone through the sad experience of emptying out the ancestral home. Well, that happened at the end of 2022 after the passing of my brother Robert.
For years, I saw and knew of these model airplanes of my father’s. First they hung from the rafters in the attic of our house. It was a treat to go up into the attic with my parents to retrieve and store items. My dad had a paint can with sand and a pulley system to use to hold up the door of the attic entrance. You can imagine what a mystical place the attic was for a little girl with a big imagination.
My brother apparently rescued these airplanes and hung them up in the basement of the house and repurposed the attic for his stereo boxes. I assume that it got rather warm up there in the summer. It is amazing they lasted as long as they did.
Sadly I did not realize that the nose of the blue model airplane was missing. I have this feeling that it was some funny piece in a box on the shelf. You can see that they were pretty dusty. I was not in charge of cleaning out the house. Of course, I would still be cleaning it out for there were so many treasures there and memories. HA!
I think this looks like this plane above or close?
You can see that my Dad’s shop was not as tidy as it used to be. He kept it in order.
I have removed the old dirty string, dusted them gently. The gray one will need a little repair but it is in fairly good shape. I am not sure what to do with the nose of the blue/yellow one. I think it looks like the picture above. Do you hear the engines revving? Enjoy!
Recently, I rescued this toy of my brother’s and determined that it was a kit of a Slo-mo-shun IV Hydroplane sold in the 1950’s (1952 to 1956). I think it was purchased by Keith, my father, and given to my brother. My dad was a BIG Hydroplane fan. He loved the big ones and the little ones. I have shared several posts on this blog about this very subject and my visit to the Hydroplane Museum in south Seattle. I am feeling a little nostalgic.
Unfortunately, I cannot ask my brother, he passed last year. It is surprisingly lightweight.
Sadly, it is not in the best of shape, worn paint, broken tail fin, missing cockpit, engine and who knows what else. Yet, here it is 70 years later. The funny thing is I have no memory of my brother playing with this, but then I was very young then.
Some of these kit models are just for display and some can go into the water.
If you do some Googling you will find all kinds of interesting websites selling these models or displaying them. This link shows you how to build the model.
https://www.modelboats.co.uk/news/article/slo-mo-shun-iv/530
Enjoy…
Lately, I have inherited items from my parent’s home and one of them is my dad’s overalls.
I found this wonderful advertisement for workwear online.
Apparently, Keith, used these overalls and you can see him dressed in them for his work as an airplane mechanic. Later, he wore them when he worked in his workshop in the basement of our house. He would work on his projects, work on fixing the cars, tinker with his outboard motor engines and various other chores. I ponder how my mother cleaned them.
This particular overall looks like it is in good shape. It has been siting in the basement for a good 65 years. If I had known they had belts, I would have looked for one. It washed up really good. It has a place for your hammer.
Just put Big Mac into Google and you will find ads for these overalls or rather workwear.
Just so you know, he was not the only one that dressed for the occasion.