Monday, May 12, 2008

Big Airplane

Dev, Randy, Candy and I went to the Evergreen Aviation Museum yesterday. Lots of airplanes and replicas. And I had really mixed feelings.

On the one hand, the fighter planes from World War II and all the historic planes and replicas of planes in the museum are undisputedly cool. They just appeal to some part of the male psyche I guess. And most of the WW II planes are actual decommissioned aircraft from that war. The docent who hangs out near the B17 Flying Fortress flew 30 missions in WW II. Then he got called back up for service in Korea. He's pretty close to the last of those pilots. Entered the service when he was 17. Gave some of his best years to fight a huge threat to the world; an admirable life path.

On the flip side, the museum is pretty much a shrine of adoration to the hyper-masculine "Warrior Male" ideal. It celebrates the service of a soldier as the highest ideal of citizenship. I can appreciate this to some extent. The world needs warriors to protect the weak from the brigand; I'm certainly not naive enough to believe otherwise. The wise sage and the selfless aid worker are equally laudable and admirable ideals, like The Peace Corp. Or Doctors Without Borders. The closest thing to civilian service mentioned by the museum was the revolution in US Mail delivery by air. I'd just like a little less complete Rah Rah with my history, I guess.

That said, Evergreen does have a great deal of history in a very small space. It's a worthwhile afternoon of wandering, wondering and drooling.

Oh, and the Spruce Goose is friggin' huge. I expected big, but this thing is gargantuan!

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