Sunday, March 18, 2012

* Nostalgic Sundays *

Time for another Nostalgic Sunday
In my last *Nostalgic Sunday* post, on March 4th, I mentioned buying something on Ebay that pertained to Parks College. (My dad was a student and then a professor at Parks in the late 1940s to the early 1960s.) I also said I couldn't get the pictures from Ebay to copy well onto my blog and that you'd just have to wait until I received it to see pictures.....Well....Ta Dahhhh......
It's a hardcover journal, approximately 8" x 11", made by a young man who was interested in going to Parks College......around 1931!


 When I look through this book, I know I'm touching something special. Something that meant a great deal to a young man who was trying to decide what he wanted to do with his life.


I'm fairly certain this was a class assignment, most likely for a high school senior. He wrote about the advantages and disadvantages of choosing aviation as his "life's work." There is a total of 39 pages, the last sentence in his Preface is this: The success of this book is due to Miss ______ who is our teacher and guide.

I'm keeping both the student's and teacher's names anonymous. I feel as if I need to guard their identity, as if they were part of my own family.


 He glued newspaper clippings in it.


There's a booklet of tuition prices which includes "Parks Flying School" and "Airplane and Engine Mechanics' Course."
There are quite a few pages of hand printed information about the history of aviation, including the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh.

(you can click on the photos to enlarge them)

I'll definitely ask a friend who works in the Parks' archives department if he can find out anything about this man. I truly hope he was able to fulfill his dream!



*And welcome to my newest follower, Belleu80, I hope you'll stop by often and always enjoy what you read and see. Thank you!*


"The engine is the heart of an aeroplane, but the pilot is its soul." -- Unknown

24 comments:

  1. What a great post! and It's wonderful to think that this guy's journal is NOW BIG NEWS to us all! I LOVE things like this. I have a hand typed book on Seth Thomas Clocks that I have YET to research. I have a little piece of me that sees it as MAYBE a great manuscript of the founder of the company(I do live local to Seth Thomas)... And by the way, I grew up with Andy,Barney,Aunt Bea and their gang...I'm Opie's age,hehe...Thank you for this Nostalgic Fun Post!
    Hugs,
    Donna

    ReplyDelete
  2. I LOVE this kind of thing! It sets my imagination in motion as well.

    Thanks for stopping by this morning!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a wonderful throwback to the past. A time with no fonts but very big dreams.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a wonderful piece of the past and of someone's life. I hope you can find out more about him.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I too love these glimpses into the past...family or not. Wouldn't you love to step back there for just a few minutes, to breathe and feel what it was really like?

    Thank you VERY much for the comments you left on my blog this morning. Money is nice, but the real payoff in words is leaving someone moved!

    Have a good week ahead...c

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a find that Journal was, especially with the connection to your dad, although he was there a little later on. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could actually find out something about the young man who wrote in that journal. Keep us posted!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Terrific post and sweet of you to blog about it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a treasure, and I like that you are protective of his identity. I also hope he made his dream come true!

    =)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey, Becky, this is so cool! What a part of your Dad's history, the college's history and this young man's history. You might be able to find out more by Googling his name or going to Ancestry.com

    Somebody sold this on Ebay? I wonder how they came across it?

    This is so neat, and I am happy for you.

    Kathy M.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Becky,

    Testing my account.

    Marcia

    ReplyDelete
  11. That was a great find Becky - I hope you had a great weekend. sandie

    ReplyDelete
  12. How lovely. It would be really nice if this youg man or his descendants read your blog. And quite possible.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh Becky, that was a great thing to find on eBay! Wowsers. That must mean a lot to you. Hope the person who made it did, indeed,make his dreams come true.

    Thanks for all your visits and comments to my blog. Always love having you stop by! Susan

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a wonderful treasure!! I just love finding personal items that can be traced to specific times and places. I enjoy your blog. I don't always leave comments, but I'm reading :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. What a special book to have. I love memoirs and biographies, but this is so much more, in his own hand. It's amzing what you can find out there in cyberland.

    ReplyDelete
  16. That's breathtaking. I love collecting things from long ago, with history. Imagine going through the life a person who lived back then. Great find. Great post.

    ReplyDelete
  17. It's wonderful to read how someone took such thought and care in thinking about his future. So many of us don't!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi, Becky!

    I've tagged you for the Lucky 7 meme, if you would like to participate.

    http://karenwojcikberner.blogspot.com/2012/03/lucky-7-challenge.html

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hi Becky! Oh, what a sweet journal. I had found a homework assignment/scrapbook journal from the 40's with the student's name and school in it. I actually tried to track down the original owner (through facebook with friends' help as I'm not into social networking). A dead end was met at almost every step along the way so I then put it in my ETSY shop. The woman who wanted to purchase it also helped me try to track down either him or any possible children he might have had to give it one last try to get it back to that family, but again, we had no luck so she purchased the journal.

    Regarding the weather, it has been CRAZY!!! It's still in the 70's and 80's this week, but we're due to drop back to the 40's by tomorrow I believe! Back to reality! haha... Donna

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow, what an interesting find! A real treasure.

    ReplyDelete
  21. This is so touching - to look at another's long ago dreams of a life-to-be. Wonderful.

    ReplyDelete

I'm still getting quite a few spam comments that are Anonymous, so I'm trying "User with Google Accounts." If anyone tries to comment that I know, and it won't let you, send me an email, okay? Thanks so much.