Not to be competitive or anything, but my Great Uncle Robert Sanford Olmsted was an aviator and a balloonist with several aeronautical patents to his name. In the middle of the Gordon Bennett Cup, flying over the Netherlands in 1923, his balloon was struck by lightning and along with his co-pilot, he plummeted to his death. I have always wanted to write a literary novel about him, imagining how he would have been the toast of Paris during the war, so full of young widows. And now it occurs to me that he could have well staying in Europe because he fell in love with a black aviatrix. Why not?
(This is one of the reasons I so love the post-war timeline in The Great Believers.)
I have lived in Austin almost my entire life, and I did not realize that there were chili parlors other than the Texas Chili Parlor in downtown Austin!
I can’t get over that she did all that before she DIED AT 34.
Not to be competitive or anything, but my Great Uncle Robert Sanford Olmsted was an aviator and a balloonist with several aeronautical patents to his name. In the middle of the Gordon Bennett Cup, flying over the Netherlands in 1923, his balloon was struck by lightning and along with his co-pilot, he plummeted to his death. I have always wanted to write a literary novel about him, imagining how he would have been the toast of Paris during the war, so full of young widows. And now it occurs to me that he could have well staying in Europe because he fell in love with a black aviatrix. Why not?
(This is one of the reasons I so love the post-war timeline in The Great Believers.)
What a fun post! And, native Texan here, and I've never heard the term "chili parlor" until today.
I have lived in Austin almost my entire life, and I did not realize that there were chili parlors other than the Texas Chili Parlor in downtown Austin!
Those folks needed seatbelts!