Except this took place Monday…
LawDog and I headed out for breakfast before getting some stuff done. Went to a restaurant that has been in Itchy Paw for 75 years in the same location (not a chain restaurant, obviously). And the last upgrade was in the 70s…
And that included the waitresses…
Walking through the front door was like stepping back in time. Wood paneling, four old guys at the front table, kibitzing, and greeting the ‘regulars’ as they came and went.
Sat at a table where we could see the front door, exits, etc. Waitress was attentive, got the coffee to us quickly, and in big, mismatched cups! Looked around, and they still had the old built in benches!!! And the same green naugahyde covered seat cushions… LOL I haven’t seen those things in 40 years! AND, they still had the booth mounted music selectors!
Yes, they’d been updated to the CD version, but dammit, they STILL had them!
And pictures on the wall of cowboys all dressed up in their sunday go to meetin’ clothes and hats, and ladies in group pictures.
Breakfast itself was good and a lot of it! These folks breakfasts are for the working people! As we were eating, somebody put on an Elvis record and we just looked at each other and laughed. It was the perfect nostalgia trip!
And this one brings back memories of being a young sailor working on these birds. The Connie used ‘short stack’ P&W 3350s for power, and flames out the exhaust were normal. This vid gives you a great visual of how bright they were, and you wanted to see the red color, that meant the fuel/air mix was right.
This isn’t nostalgia, but one to think about… Don’t know who this gent is, but he lays it out pretty succinctly…
Memories indeed. My first Navy squadron was VR-7 Det A at Tachikawa. We flew the last 4 C-121s in the AF inventory for MATS. I spent many hours hauling pax and wounded out of Viet Nam back to Clark AFB and back to Tachi. The Connie was a beautiful bird.
Is it possible to provide, here in comments or on your main page, a link for ‘Just?’ I would like to pass it on to a whole bunch of people.
/ and flames out the exhaust were normal./
Just scary as hell for the uninitiate. Flew one of these, backwards, from Alameda to Agana via Wake, in Feb 60. More than a few pax were grabbing crewmen’s sleeves and asking “are they supposed to do that?”
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I grew near this place. My parents and their friends would go for cocktails and dinner at Flannery’s. The plane was a landmark for years.
https://cardboardamerica.org/2016/11/17/jim-flannerys-constellation-lounge-restaurant-penndel-pennsylvania/
Off topic, but relevant to our host: sir, any comment on the report that just dropped about the fire that wrecked the Bonhomme Richard?
Flugel- Yes it was!
Univ- I got it embedded in an email. Feel free to steal it off the blog and resend it.
Stencil- LOL, yeah, the students at Glynco usually had that reaction on their first flight.
Gerry- I’d heard of that, but didn’t know where it was. One heck of a story!!! 🙂
Toast- Tomorrow’s blog.
I’m surprised ‘Just’ lasted more than 10 seconds on Tic-Tok. A very good synopsis. A very scary synopsis. Crazy how we went from ‘Freedom (light)’ to ‘Full Stasi’ in one year and we’re continuing the slide into ‘Cultural Revolution’ and ‘Great Leap Forward.’ Though “Let’s go, Brandon” does give me hope.
Love the sound of radial engines, and seeing them blat out flames of all colors. Miss living near an active airfield, the civilian one in my neck of the woods just doesn’t get the volume of traffic that even Patrick AFB (now SFB) got when it was slow in the early 80’s.
I would like to note that the ALCS baseball game the other night was graced with chants of ‘F*** Joe Biden’.
This was in Boston. Boston, for God’s sake.
I think we are all underestimating how much people have started to dislike Sleepy Joe.
Beans- Yes it is…
Toast- Dayum… That’s… bad for him.
My dad worked on those radials on EC-121 flying out of Pt Mugu.
Many years ago, 1956, I was just on 6 1/2 years old, and an Uncle took me to the QANTAS Airbase maintenance facility at Kingsford-Smith (Sydney airport. I don’t know how he did it, or who he knew, he showed me through a Lockheed Constellation, from walking up the port rear stairs, through to the cockpit, I was more that fascinated, I was transformed, my life was forever changed. That day, Aeroplanes became, and still are, my life’s fascination, enjoyment, complete interest and passion. That day set in train circumstances that would take me, and my future family, all over the world as I served in the R.A.A.F. as a result of that day. I have experienced things not dreamed of by many, many people. I’m now 71 1/2, and I remember that day like it was yesterday. She certainly was, and still is, the Queen of the skies.
Thanks, OldNFO, got the ‘Just’ file on email.
SPQR- He was an ADR. Good folks, a butt ton of knowledge to keep those suckers running!
Stuart- That is great! And yes, a Queen of the skys, even if we kinda dirtied her up with antennas.
Love the Connie and outstanding Just! I may have to steal that…
LSP- Feel free!
Back in the mid eighties, I was working in Eastern Pennsylvania. After a particularly stressful day, and working well into the night, I stoped at a local diner on the way back to my apartment. At that time, diners, real diners from the forties, were still a thing in that area. On this particular night, when I went in there were a couple of guys at the counter, maybe another couple of guys occupying a booth and me. The radio was tuned to a Big Band station in Philadelphia. With almost no imagination I was transported back to 1944 feeling like the mid-shift at a local factory was gathering for breakfast before going to work. A little time warp bubble seemed to surround the diner.
A friend who was Crew Chief on EC-121s would tell of losing one after take-off. They expected to lose at least one so they carried on. Like on flights from Clark to Guam. That’s a lot of over water miles on three. Then, as you would imagine, several times they did lose a 2nd or see power fluctuations when adjusting power settings. Yes, they did land on 2 once or having to shut down engines (plural) on final due to fire.