Eastern Mt. in the 30s/camping, hiking

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by pjlyons

I set up a path and let my characters pick their way through it.

That's probably a good description of what I do... tho mine have a tendency to wander off the moment my back is turned I'd fire them and hire new ones, but no one else is crazy enough to want to be in my stories

Once I came into a scene and found my main character drunk (and I mean thoroughly soaked, not just a little damp). I didn't know he drank!! Explained some anomalous behaviour 4 books previous, tho... made me write a whole bunch more backstory!!

[pjlyons]

I am writing a story set in eastern Mt. in 1936. I would like to have the characters making wishes whenever a airplane flies over. Is that feasible? Does anyone know how prevalent airplane use was at that time? What would they have been doing?

Thanks in advance!

pj lyons

[Reziac]

These sites may be useful:

Air Transportation: Commercial Flight in the 1930s
U. S. Centennial of Flight - History of Flight
U. S. Centennial of Flight - History of Flight Timeline Search

History of the Billings MT airport:
Billings Logan International Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Commercial service started in 1933.
Here's the official site -- no history info that I see offhand, tho.
City of Billings, MT - Official Website - Airport

Wiki has little info on Gallatin Field -- no dates!
Gallatin Field Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
But here's the official site: Gallatin Field Airport (BZN) serving Bozeman, Big Sky, Yellowstone National Park, Southwest Montana.
Maybe someone there can dig up records.. if you go to "About the Airport" and select "History" there are some details. Here's a snippet:

1920's and 30's
Belgrade's first airport, Seifert Airport, named in recognition of Gallatin County aviation pioneer Wayne Seifert, was built in 1928 near Belgrade, but subsequently relocated because of high-tension wires. Siefert, together with E.R. Kahla, secured land for a second airport through a lease agreement with the State of Montana and the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce. Located one-half mile north of Belgrade near the current site of Gallatin Field, the airport opened in 1929 with six runways 100 feet wide and 1,200 to 1,300 feet long.

So commercial air service between Bozeman and Billings probably existed, but... the only time I ever flew was in 1969, and at the time the Great Falls to Denver flight was NOT a daily; it was twice a week. So I'd guess that commercial flights in the 1930s might have happened once a week. Reed Point is close enough to a direct line between to see 'em overhead.

Puddlejumper airstrips have been around MT since at least 1912 -- any mowed strip of grass qualified back then. Apparently Park City had one (per the Billings airport Wiki article) and I'd guess Big Timber and Livingston did too. Air mail (still expensive!) and other couriers might have been an occasional, but not regular sight.

Barnstorming groups did tour the farming midwest, tho by 1936 they'd largely petered out. There were still a few in the 1960s but nothing like the travelling-flying-circus they were in the early days. See also the links at the bottom of the Wiki page.

All in all, probably still rare enough to be kind of like "wishing on a falling star" and new enough that the kids of the day would find it exciting. I've never heard of anyone doing it myself (and I'm of 1955 vintage, when airports were still novel enough that a common weekend pursuit was parking at the end of the runway and hoping to see a few planes!) but I think it's a real nice touch.

Also remember -- all prop-driven aircraft. No jets in that era!

=======

I used to live right next to the Belgrade Airport... the fire departments used the area of the old runways for training exercises, mainly for grassfires. They'd set a little fire and send the new kids out to work on it. But they forgot that asphalt BURNS... one time they somehow managed to set the old runway on fire! It burned for 3 days before they finally got it out. Not much of a fire, but lots of smoke. More of a training exercise than the recruits had in mind.

[Reziac]

Hey! I found your website. Love the "abducted by aliens" thing... sounds like something *I* would say ... (oh dear!)

One of my favourite authors is John Bellairs. He wrote nostalgic juvenile novels that are pure pleasure to read. One of the very few that I enjoy outside of SF/F. (I've become highly, uh, eclectic in my old age

A couple of E-rors on your pages...

"intriques" is an interesting new word... found on your Shortstories page I like this word enough to keep it! Somewhere between Intrigue and Critique.

Articles page has a bogus link -- part of the Setting A Stage link (the "The When and Where of a Story" part) points at
file:///Macintosh%20HD/Users/pj/Desktop/setting%20the%20stage.htm
which obviously won't work for anyone but yourself.

Anyway, enjoyed your site -- light and fun.

[pjlyons]

Thanks, Reziac, for the great suggestions on airplanes and the kind words. I'll have to check on those links... obviously I did the site myself. It's so hard to get good help these days

pj

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by pjlyons

Thanks, Reziac, for the great suggestions on airplanes and the kind words. I'll have to check on those links... obviously I did the site myself. It's so hard to get good help these days

pj

Heh heh... I looked into the mirror... and fired me

My own websites are all mighty plain and functional. Yours is prettier, but still functional

I don't know what linkcheckers are available for a Mac, but on Windows I use Xenu, which is free. For an editor I use ancient (1997), primitive AOLpress (also free, download links are still good) ... I have all the high-end tools, but when I want to get real work done, it's back to AOLpress!

So what are your kids going to wish for?

[pjlyons]

Hmmm, maybe they could wish for an agent, because their wishes come true... Got rejected yet again yesterday.

Otherwise--I'll have to see what they're in the mood for. Probably some candy, a new book to read, some camping gear... But at one point the MC will wish her little sister would leave her alone--which is why she feels like it's her fault when the sister dies.

The last book I wrote (and first non-picture book) was set in NJ in the 60s--I used my childhood as a setting. It was so much easier being my own primary source.

I used a link checker--but it let me down. As for being pretty--thanks. It wouldn't be much of an "advertisement" as an illustrator/artist if it didn't look the part. Don't know if you checked out the art, but I sense you might like my Gizmo Gang:

Assemblage

They're kind of like writing--you got some ideas, some parts, and you cobble them together to make a whole.

pj