I could not have been more than eight or nine years old when I saw my first airplane. I can visualize that thing just as well today as I could ten minutes after I saw it. It was a single engine biplane, naturally, because that was all that there was, at that time. Undoubtedly a Jenney, powered with an OX5 engine. It was flying west, just a little bit south of me and probably 600 or 700 feet above the ground. Right where I could get a real good look at it. Boy! was that something?
Several years passed before I had a chance to ride in an airplane, but you had better believe that when the opportunity did present itself, I was right there and grabbed it. I can remember that also, it was at the St. Joe County Grange Fair in Centreville, Michigan. It was in an open cockpit Jenney and it cost me $2.00 for a 15 minute ride.