This, of course, has caused a shortage of first hand material for Sky Writing and my two 15 minute broadcasts, "Flights of Fancy," each week.

From time to time, however, I receive an interesting letter or yarn from friends around the county which saves my bacon.  Such a week is this.  I am surprised and pleased every time one of these missles come my way, for they are always interesting.  I'm of the opinion that much fine writing never sees the light of day, just because the writer doesn't pass it on.  For example, today I have two letters--one which was written directly to me by Jackson Dobbins, of 715 West Center street, and describes a passenger ride he took at dusk over Warsaw. The other was written by James Snodgrass, of 718 South Union, from Gilbraltar to his wife at home, just after the last war.  I want you to enjoy both of these fine letters, so you will know that all good descriptive writing is not done by so called "writers."

WARSAW AT DUSK

"Dear Bill --I have listened to your broadcasts over the radio and have read your column in The Times and Union and get quite a kick out of the way you describe things.  Now I can see why all the beauty of the countryside can't be exactly described as beautiful as it really is.  Yes, you must see it to fully appreciate it.

"Last Sunday evening I happened onto Warsaw Municipal Airport and Fred Strauss and Joe Carlin offered to take me up over Warsaw, 'at the pretty time of evening.'

"Warsaw certainly presents a marvelous sight at eventide, with all its lights on--the different colors and combinations.  The pattern of the city with its orderly rows of blocks and streets.  At first upon leaving the ground, you pick up landmarks such as the radio tower at the waterworks, then the radio tower of WRSW.

"Upon arriving over Warsaw you see the courthouse and all the neon signs blend in to make this a worthwhile sight to anyone. Looking to the west and east you can see Road 30 with its traffic.  The cars with their headlights put you in mind of a long boulevard in some large city with its twinkling bright spots.  You see Road 15 to the north and south the same way.  It is really beautiful and at the present time with the lowlands north of town under water, Warsaw almost looks like an island.

"More people should see their city from the air.  They would appreciate air travel more.  I am indebted to Mr. Strauss and Mr. Carlin for the ride, and I hope to take many more of them.
JACKSON DOBBINS"

Now there!  Can't you just see Warsaw in the lowering dusk, with its pin points of lights blinking friendly greetings to the airman as he wings his way through the gathering purple of the evening?

Now to the letter Jim wrote home on his last voyage to Europe--

"Dear Mary -- The ship put into Gibraltar for repairs, so we arranged various trips for the men to pass the time. The town consists of about two grocery stores, twenty bars, and 200 souvenir shops.  The latter feature jewelry of inlaid silver and gold made in Toledo, Spain.  The workmanship is beautiful, but the quality is questionable.

"We met the British officer in charge of the military and saw the Moorish castle in which he lives.  It was built in 710 A.D. It is huge and covers perhaps three or four city blocks.  It is complete with turrets, dungeon, execution chamber and part of it has been made into a civil prison. It is built on the face of the rock and the highest sentry lookout is about 1300 feet above the sea.

"We also met some pilots from an American Bomber Group, and were invited to make one of their bi-weekly flights to England.  We reported to the air strip one bright morning and after being equipped with Mae Wests and parachutes, boarded a converted B-17.  I was permitted to ride the nose of the ship, affording me an unusual view of all we passed over.  The distance we were to travel is about 1,000 miles, and was to take about six hours.

"Spain, except for the vineyards at the southern extremity, is a very rugged and barren country, and from the air looks like Nevada or Arizona.  There were only two rivers containing water.  The others were dry.  Sunbaked hills and mountains predominate, scarred by great gullies and gorges caused by erosion. We passed directly over Madrid and I was disappointed in it as a city.  It has over one million inhabitants, but does not cover nearly as much territory as the city of Indianapolis.  Except for the central plaza, there were no trees, and I am convinced that Spain narrowly escaped being a part of the Sahara desert.  After crossing the Pyrenees mountains we left Spain and passed over the Bay of Biscay.  The water in the bay differs from the other  water only in that it appears deeper and wetter when you are flying over it with no land in sight.

"From the south coast of France to England we encountered fog, which caused us to fly above 10,000 feet across the channel.  When we came back down over the English coast, we dropped to 500 feet to get under the overcast and zipped across the English countryside at 250 m.p.h. and low enough to observe everything of interest.

"Rural England is one of the most beautiful sights that can be seen.  There are a few small tracts of woodland to be seen, but for the most part the land is divided into small, clean, well kept cultivated fields.  The fences are hedge rows and they are also well kept.  The livestock appears to be of the best blood.  This is especially true of the horses, huge draft animals, with shaggy manes and fetlocks and short tails.  They all appeared to be either Percherons, Belgians or Clydesdales, and there were no medium horses as prevail in the States.  The buildings were comparatively small, built of brick or stone, and with slate or thatch roofs.  Occasionally we would pass a manor house and they were wonders to behold.  Each house had dozens of rooms and had all the chimneys, turrets, leaded windows, etc., usually depicted by the movies.  Each manor house was set in a beautiful lawn with many well trimmed trees scattered about.  I believe that each lawn or park of this type would cover 15 or 20 acres.  The grass was all mowed.

"The rivers and streams are also very beautiful; due to the levelness of the land, they meander all over the countryside.  There is very little current and consequently, there are no steep banks from the fields down to the water; in fact, grass grows to the waterline.  I have often heard of the beauty of the English countryside and I am convinced now that I have never seen any sight that was more beautiful.

Jim"

(There was more about London and the return flight to Gibraltar.  Perhaps we can again borrow the letter from Mrs. Snodgrass and for a future column pick up the balance of the fine descriptions.)

Warsaw Daily Times Wednesday February 23, 1949