McDonald Maury's B-24 story

Maury's WW-2 B24 Story

Maury is one of my Florida McDonalds Coffee Mates. We sit with
a few other youngsters and usually just laugh and tell stories.

We often talk about small experimental airplanes. Like the kind
you put a motor on your back and use a parachute as a wing.

One day Maury appeared with a small display.

This weekend Feb 2-3, there is a Military plane fly-intoVenice airport, Fl Many older/retired WW11 pilots will be there. Maury made up a small display to take and show others at the show

Here are some photos from Maury Price' B24 flying days in World War 2





The display includes a group of photos of what damage his plane suffered during a flight.

The wing was missing 10 feet from scrapnel.





Maury flew and landed the plane for 700 miles after being hit.

Then climbed the wing and inspected the damage.
Of course being a good looking ham, had his photo taken.




Another pilot wrote about the flight in his journal.
Here is a photo of that page. Click on it to make it larger.

He flew many missions over China & Japan. He was given these two flags to give to Chinese citizens with hopes of helping him. Also $10,000 US Dollars to finance his rescue if needed.


The pin is the 7th Air Corps and the patch is a well known patch for Chinese--Burma..

It Gets more and more difficult to Start

The trip to Florida

When are you leaving for Florida?

A question asked a hundred times during the last few weeks at Panera. The truth was: I just didn't know.

It was supposed to be as soon as it was empty of renters. (5 Jan 08)

But I developed the Great Cold. A slight delay. Or a small reason. Then the car broke down, our 3rd card. $1460 later it is up and running. Now its time to leave.

Oh it gets more difficult to start.

I hope to get out by noon tomorrow. I wanted to leave at 5am to beat
the traffic.

But Oh it gets more difficult to start.

The car is almost packed. The camera fully charged but not Jim. Maybe if I get a good sleep I'll be ready to start....but its so difficult.

In a couple days, we'll find out if I left Thursday. I sure hope so.
If I don't.
Its because: Its so difficult to start.

Update on yours truly.

I just have not been feeling good. I wrote about it in the previous post.

I took all the medicines like the instructions say. Every time I was to take or breath in the medicine I took it.

But it made me tired I guess. As I took several naps a day and slept all night.

I also, got Hungry. I was getting out of bed early to fix a breakfast.

And as soon as I ate, looked for more food. I ate all day.

I ate 2 plates of lunch. 2 big plates.

At dinner I would say that I can't be hungry so don't fix me anything.

Well, a few minutes later I would sit down and eat another 2 plates of whatever was put in front of me.

A few minutes later be looking for dessert and then a hot chocolate with Whipped Cream.

I finished my last pill of a group and realized that its a Steroid.

My appetite has slowed down a bit.

But the Cold -- Sinus' acted infected with lots of mucus. If mucus was oil I would have struck it rich.

So, Dr. W E R N E R got a call and suggested the anti-biotic Avelox.

Wow, 2 doses of 10 and I feel better.

Now, do you think I'll be able to drive to Fla this week. I hope so.

The weather is changing. From Global freezing to Global Warming the "0" degree weather we had last week has turned into the high

30's today and 50-60's the next few days.

The snow is almost gone and will be gone tomorrow.

Now we just have puddles of water next to dirty snow.

New Medicine

REG: my new medicines.

I have had a cough/cold since my last trip to Fla Oct 15.

Finally my dr sent me to a lung dr after a chest xray showed problems.

My name is Werner, that is W E R N E R....in that GERMAN accent...so cool and scary. He looks like that German Tank Commander in the movie The Longest Day.

He told me to spend my winters in warmer climates like Arizona.

Hey, How about Fla I screamed. Yeah Sure, with accent.

He said and told me so muchi'm not sure of all the things wrong with me.

I think he meant I have a tenacy toward Alergic Ashma and inflamed lungs and collapsed FLAT diaphragm and puffed-up lungs and scar tissue low.

Nothing that will kill me today.I just got done taking my NEW lung medicine.

So I took 2 different inhalers, One twice a day,

and one once a day some pills that I'm supposed to take 6 today, 5 tomorrow then4 then 3 then 2 then 1

Then another pill once a day.

$95 thank you.

I want to be healthy in fla so badly, I actually READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.

I hope to be better in a few days so I will be able to make mytrip around the 8th --- 10th.

Until the end of the month...yahoo..

Oh, on the way home we decided to stop for a wonderful prepared meal at McDonalds.

2 double cheeseburgers, $1 salad

2 senior drinks. $4+, not bad

So c'ya all I hope AND YOU ALL HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR....jim

Its Just Not Right

Last night I was waiting in line at the grocery store.

I noticed the bagger was in his 40’s and looked exhausted mentally and physically.

I joked that its tough for the manager as he has to bag besides his other responsibilities.

Alex, said no he was just starting out.

I asked his story.

Alex came from a small town in southern Illinois not close to anything. The town had 300 residents and sports was the only activity left. Even Dairy Queen left the dying community.

Alex was a baseball nut. He could hit the ball a mile and run like lightening.

He dreamed of making the majors and supporting his family and maybe return something to the community.

Instead of college he entered baseball camp as another hopeful.

All the boys were like him, good athletes and fine young men.

He was a little better than all of them. He hit the ball further.

The coaches had the boys for 4 weeks. They were all told to put on weight and get stronger by lifting weights.

Alex played ball during the day and lifted weights until his body screamed. He worked harder than the other players.

But no matter how hard he worked, he noticed a couple boys gained weight and developed muscles he could only dream about.

The final trials began. Alex was able to hit the ball a mile. But those other boys were so much bigger. They hit the ball 2 miles and ran faster than the first day at camp.

Alex would hit long flies that came short of being a home run.
The other boys hit long flies far into the stands.

They were kept and he was let go unless he joined a low minor league team.

Each year he thought about college but was so close to making the majors. He tried until it was too late.

Now he’s a bag boy. And yesterday discovered that the others cheated.

Those other boys not only cheated on breaking records but also cheated him out of his future.

This is how I feel about steroids in sports. Its cheating.

How about Alex and the others that were cheated out of a chance to play ball because they played by the rules?

Cheaters shouldn’t be forgiven by saying:
Oh, steroids were not against the rules then.
Oh, everyone was doing it.

It meant money for the owners, its their fault too. Maybe more so.

Bullshit…cheaters hurt other people. My hero’s Ernie Banks, Ted Williams, Roberto Clemente, The Mick, Roger and
Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox.

How about Maury Wills the base stealer. Now his records are beat every year.

I'm upset with baseball again.

The McGuires, Sosa, Bonds and Clemens.

Lied and cheated us too.

Screw them.

How about all the home runs they hit off pitchers that didn't cheat.
How about all the strikeouts of batters that didn't cheat.

Throw out their records with no asterisk....remove their names and photos from baseball history.

No, ok put their faces on a wall behind bars like at the post office.

c'ya
I’m sorry, its just not right. Throw them out of baseball.

Changes keep a Changing

Tonight we went to Kmart. It was 50% off many items and some 75% plus
an additional 20% today.

Today was the first time I’ve been to Kmart since they purchased Sears.

The last time I visited Kmart, few of the employees could speak English.
They all looked at me as if I were from Immigration. They were short little Hispanic looking folks.

Today, they were all white, which seemed odd to me and working really hard.

They were constantly and quickly folding clothes, picking up merchandise off of the floor. Wow, where did they get such good hard working American workers.

Also, the music consisted of Christmas tunes. I heard English being loudly spoken. Kmart has given the country back to the English speaking Americans.

I was listening to someone speaking English and realized it was over the loud speakers, this was suddenly interrupted by some foreign tongue.

I passed some more employees and asked where the sweatshirts were. None of them could answer me. They looked at me as if I were a foreigner and no English—poposki…

WHAT!! Yes, they were not Americans. Just because they were Caucasian I took it for granted they were citizens.

At the cash registers, it looked like little Europe. Men & women that looked and sounded like they were relatives of BORAT….from the movie.

Four registers were going constantly with payments into the hundreds of dollars. Each one complaining about some overcharge.

We spent a few hundred dollars and only had 1 ½ baskets of stuff.

I remember $300 would have bought the entire Kmart franchise a few years ago.

I guess there should be a point. Ah, let me see….I’m an idiot… nope…racist….hmmmm, I hope not…. nothing else.

So Never mind…talk to you soon.

A Quick Panera Exit..

DON'T FORGET TO DOUBLE CLICK THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM



That would be an interesting story for your blog, Mark remarked.

After thinking about it maybe, yes it might get me writing again.

This Morning I got a late start to the front window at Panera.

I walked in just after the 9am services folks arrived and the lines almost went out the door.

I grabbed a chair and placed it as a third chair in the aisle. Took off my jacket and listened to sideshow Si say Jim you’ll be blocking the people. Then he laughed as he realized he spoke in public for the first time in months.

We all started joking and talking when something started to smell. No not Front window Commander Ron, but something in the store.

We all smelled it and saw smoke creeping from the heating vents into the store.

I might be slow but I’m not stupid. Smoke appearing in a public place is a good time to leave.

They all laughed as Panera is always burning their bagels. But we’ve never heard a smoke alarm.

Anyways, I left and stood outside with my jacket and they all pointed thru the window and laughed at me.

I took a few photos thru the window and then assisted some female Samaritan with jamming open the doors.

Then it was my turn. First Roger the Job Dodger walked out, complaining of the smoke. Big John was right behind him. But Commander Ron held off as long as he could.

Even Sideshow ran out before Ron. And of course Lawyer Jim, who is recovering from 2 heart attacks and a Carotid Artery problem, crept slowly out before our Commander.

We all stood outside until Ron said “Why don’t we go across the street to Starbucks.”

We all moaned…it’s too expensive.

“Well, I tell you what, I’ll buy. I’ll buy you one of those caramel drinks.”

That’s good enough for me. So, we all ran across the street, grabbed a little table and sat with folks that ordered drinks with foreign made up names.

We were laughing at how Commander Ron is a school teacher and leader in our community. But he had to be lead out of a smoky Panera.

The fire trucks came and I took photos and videos. Soon, fresh air was restored to Panera and the trucks left.

We still talked for awhile and I had to leave to pick up Karolyn’s bday cake for later tonight.

We all said its time to go and Ron was the first to run out of Starbucks.

We must all be old and senile. We walked across the street to get to our cars and re-gathered in Panera. Again, the laughing continued.

We left after a few minutes while the smell of burning wire was still in the joint and it was refilled with a new batch of customers sucking down coffee.