Sharing Some WWII Memories

Little Guy on the Bush's Beans truck

Nearly every visit to my grandparent's house, we visit the Tennessee Museum of Aviation, which is relatively new.  This year our trip was really very different than it ever has been.  First, we stopped at the Bush's Beans Factory to see how Bush's Beans came to be.  It's a pretty cool FREE self guided tour.  Little Guy thought it was pretty neat as long as I didn't linger too long reading the "grown up stuff".  They did have a fancy hands on demonstration on how a Bush's Bean goes from field to can.  We had to do that one a few times and Little Guy only went on to the next thing because he could get his picture taken with Duke (not the actual dog, but it's a photo booth and they insert Duke once the picture has been taken), and it's FREE to keep the photo!

dumping the dry beans into the soak tank

After our tour we walked over to the Bush's Family Cafe' and had some yummy ice cream!  We did a lot of consuming of ice cream on this trip, that's for sure!

sitting outside the cafe'

Once our tummies were full on ice cream, we headed down the road to the Warbirds Museum.  They have all kinds of planes and replicas in a warehouse, along with a museum which houses memorabilia from all the conflicts and wars this country has seen- from uniforms to helmets to partial engines, they've got everything.  They had just gotten in a piece from the USS. Arizona days before our arrival!  It's really actually kind of cool.  My grandfather flew the P-47 "Thunderbolt" during WWII.  This museum happens to have two ACTUAL Thunderbolts!  The man who owns the Hun Hunter (I only know him as Neal) was there that day so we finally got to meet him (Papa talks about him all the time).  He showed us around and took us to the back of the warehouse where he had just brought in the plane form that was on the sets of The A Team and Fantasy Island ("Look boss, da plane!").  He then let Little Guy climb into a replica of a fighter jet (I don't know what it's called, sorry!)

Little Guy in the cockpit of a fighter jet

pretending to fly!

THEN I was in for a surprise!  While I was supervising Little Guy up in the jet plane, Papa had asked Neal if I could sit up in the Hun Hunter!!  It was really neat, and also intimidating.  To think that the men who flew these planes during wartime, did so on their own, in that little tiny cockpit.  Neal showed me where the throttle was and talked me through take-off and landing procedure.  When piloting the Thunderbolt, you basically take off and land blind because the nose points skyward while on the ground.  The pilot also has to sit on his parachute and if there were a need to use it, hope his canopy opened.

Neal opening the barrier so we can get a closer look at the Hun Hunter

That's me in the cockpit!!!

Little Guy pretending he's riding the prop around :)

so cool!!

this is the control panel in the tiny cockpit

In the above picture you can see my grandma in the top left corner.  That will give you an idea as to how high up off the ground you are while in the cockpit.  When we got back to my grandparent's, Papa and I watched the movie Thunderbolt (1946).  Now if you know me, you know I'm not really that into watching old war movies, but this one was different.  It featured real WWII footage, which included the Hun Hunter, the very plane I was sitting in hours prior!  The fun didn't end there!  Little Guy got a chance to sit in the cockpit of the Hun Hunter as well!  Neal helped him climb up on the wing and then hoisted him up into my arms.  He thought that was the coolest thing ever!

Little Guy and I in the Hun Hunter

Since one can't go to The Warbird Museum without making a trip into Pigeon Forge and eating at The Old Mill Restaurant, that's exactly what we did.  Yummy!  Little Guy and I dropped Grandma and Papa off at the door and started the search for a decent parking place.  Well, by decent, that meant the equivalent of at least 5 football fields (it was really far away)!  We technically parked in the parking lot for Patriot Park, which was fine with Little Guy because we could look at the rocket on our way to the restaurant.  At least we got to work off some of our dinner on the walk back to the car, right?

Little Guy actually wanted to pose for this one!

Playing with his new Army trucks while waiting for dinner

Looking back, that was a pretty awesome day!  One that I will remember forever.  I mean how many people can say they sat in a plane just like the one their grandfather flew in WWII?  I really hope Little Guy can remember this trip as well, but I don't know.  I don't think I remember anything from when I was five.  This confirms why Papa always drove a car with two feet.  If you scroll back up to the picture of the cockpit, you can see the flap peddles just above each of my knees.  I remember when I was learning how to drive, he kept wanting me to drive with both feet.  No way!  It just feels so unnatural, but now I understand why, to him, it was second nature.  When you spend more time in the air than in a car, it's only natural you would use both feet, right?