When I was a kid, a really little kid, my mom married a guy that liked to fly. He was a postal carrier, but his true joy was flying. My mom made that happen and I ended up growing up around airplanes. Small ones, Cessna 150s, 172s, Pipers, Grummans and all those little pip-squeak planes. The guy had quit his job and he and my mother had started a flying club, where people could lease planes or take flying lessons.

I logged quite a few hours in the air. Flew out to Wichita, Kansas and picked up a new airplane and flew back with him. Whoa, that rattled every tooth in my head! Constant little joy rides up and down the California coast. Every family vacation was done by airplane. Mendocino, Cloverdale (yeah, if you’ve been to Cloverdale you should be rolling your eyes right now!) Disneyland and just about every weekend we flew to The Nut Tree in Vacaville, California to have lunch.

And when I was a teenager, I made an amazing amount of money washing those airplanes. Ever tried to peel bug guts off your car? Try an airplane! I earned every cent.

So it’s understandable that Amelia Earhart was a very familiar name to me. That guy my mom married was pretty impressed with her. So when I heard a movie about her was coming out I was pretty nostalgic.

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