SWEET NOTE: Kristie Bentley of Grayslake, Ill., writes, “My
grandfather was Bill Goss. Among all of my wonderful memories of
this quiet man one surfaces every year as Valentine’s Day
approaches. Each year he would give each of his ‘girls’ a
heart-shaped box of chocolates.”
“Grandma, would receive the large heart with about 20
chocolates. His daughters would receive the next size heart with
about 10 pieces. And then his granddaughters received the smallest
heart with maybe 6 pieces. He did this for every Valentine’s Day
that I can remember while I still lived at home.”
“Thinking back on it I find that it is one of the nicest
gestures among a lifetime of nice gestures.
“It is hard for me to put into words how special this made me
feel. The memory of this yearly ritual has the power to engulf me
even now so many years later. My parents also gifted us with a gift
and candy for this auspicious day.
“It didn’t matter if I had a boyfriend or how many valentines I
may or may not have received at school, because Grandpa and my
parents were my valentines.
“It was a lot of years before I realized that not every family
was like this. And it reinforced the feelings of thanks that I was
born into my family.”
THAT CRASH: On a recent RTS subject, we hear from Denny Ordiway
in Cyclone about that Christmas eve plane crash 40 years ago: “the
first time I had a flight on Allegheny Airlines was November 1966
when I came home from Amarillo Air Force Base, Texas, for a few
days leave. We had a long layover in Pittsburgh and our flight
departed about 4:30 p.m. with the rain changing to snow. We were
supposed to stop in Franklin, but the weather there was not good.
On the third attempt, my pilot landed at Bradford-McKean Airport
during a blinding snowstorm when it was already dark.”
“Two years later, I’m in Vietnam at Phu Cat Air Base and read
about the Christmas Eve crash in our newspaper, ‘The Stars and
Stripes.’ There was also a picture of the upside-down Convair 580.
After the crash at Pine Acres, the airlines Pilots’ Association
listed 10 bad airports in the country. Bradford was at the top of
the list.”
