Friday, June 11, 2010

Thirsty for a Trip Down Memory Lane

Lee Bottom Flying Field finally got a new Coke machine and now we need your help deciding what to put in it.  This new machine has eight possible selections and we only have four filled.  So far we have Coke, Diet Coke, Diet Coke Caffeine Free, and Pepsi.  What would you put in the other four?  We have been getting many suggestions but we'd like to hear yours too.
Those of you close enough to get something from the new machine should take note of the oddly modified blue barrels near the trash cans.  These are made for recycling you empty cans.  And now for some reminiscing...
Our old Coke machine was donated to Fritz by a friend of the airport back in 1996 or 1997, which of these for sure I cannot remember.  Fritz always said that every airport should sell RC and when a machine was offered that would let him do so, he told me and our mutual friend George Pascal about it.  We then volunteered to go get it and haul it to Lee Bottom. 

I'm not sure why something like a soda machine can generate such strong memories but maybe it was because it was so important to Fritz.  Whatever the case, George and I went to Bowman Field to pick it up in George's old Ford truck and then deliver it to its new home.  It's funny, today I drive to Louisville several times a week and it seems like ten minutes, but back then I remember George and I both kept wondering when the drive would end.
I remember that drive like it was yesterday, including every little landmark Fritz told us to look for on his hand drawn map; among them was a munitions plant, a water tower, and a rocket.   But there was one more.  Drawn as a cross on the map and labeled "Marble Orchard", it turned out to be a cemetery.  This was typical of Fritz' humor and we were still laughing when we pulled up at the airport.

Having never driven to Lee Bottom, yet having visited by air at least a hundred times, this trip was somewhat like learning the code to the back door.  It is also something I'll never forget.  Frtiz was excited, were were glad to help, and in the end we each got a free RC and a Moon Pie.  I really miss that guy.

4 comments:

Monte Jestes said...

Mountain Dew, gotta have Mountain Dew - for the caffeine if nothing else. Keeps the volunteers going.
Monte in OKla

N5740C said...

Diet Pepsi, please, oh, please make one Diet Pepsi!!!

Chris Thompson said...

In Texas I think there is a law that every vending machine stock Dr. Pepper. I think I'm the only one here that can't stand the stuff. But it's the first to run out in our machine.

Sam Swift said...

I agree with KT, since so many of your transients are "Southern", it's only appropriate to have Dr Pepper. I'll probably come more often if I know there's a Dr Pepper in the machine!