Weather like this, I’m always reminded of the summer of 1953, the best summer of my life. But in January of 53, two days before my 5th birthday, my Dad took me on a secret mission, one that Mon could not know about. We lived in Union NJ and drove over to the Newark rail fright yards. After WWII the Military, Government had Government surplus sales. Two of my Fathers buddies, Uncle Al, no relation, and uncle Bill had each chipped in and were biding blind on the contents of a Government surplus boxcar sitting on a rail siding in Newark. When all was said and done, my Dad had won the bid and now owned what ever was in the boxcar. When it was opened and they realized the boxcar contained 4 packaged 1945 J3 cubs. Well, they were all pilots in the war. They moved them to linden Airport, sold three and keep the one to share. It wasn’t ready to fly until mid June and I finally got a ride in July, I couldn’t see out the front, but my Dad left the side door down and window up, I could see the entire world. In those days, Newark had light traffic and only one east west runway 11 / 29 so getting in and out of Linden Airport was easy. He took me out to the Statue of Liberty up the Hudson to 34th street and flew me around the area of the empire State Building, South to Sandy Hook, low over the beaches of the Jersey Shore, I was hooked and knew at that moment that I wanted to fly to be a pilot like my Dad. After many years we ended up with sole owner ship of the J3 and had relocated it to Colts Neck Airport NJ, a little grass strip behind the Apple Orchard on Rt34. My Dad taught me to fly but he was not a CFI so I’d fly with a CFI friend of my Dad’s for an hour, Solo , fly more with my Dad, then fly with the CFI to meet the next requirement and keep it legal, Had my private at 17, commercial at 18 Instrument and CFI before I went into the service. Spent a life time in commercial aviation. But my most vivid flying memory is as a 5 year old in the front seat of that J3 cub. I sold that cub after my wife passed in 2013, last I knew it was being used as a basic trainer at a flight school in Maryland.
