Christmas with Strangers

In this final segment of four, we find our muddy, disheveled, young and very pregnant couple on the porch of benevolent people. A day that started with potentially fatal results ended in the comfort of a warm home, celebrating Christmas with strangers. The same day when another couple, long ago, was also welcomed by strangers in Bethlehem.

A Foggy Start

Today’s drawing depicts a single engine plane of the late forties and its three passengers. The plane did not have an electric starter like today‘s private aircraft. One had to hand-prop the plane. It is the equivalent to popping the clutch on a manual transmission auto. Fortunately, for the husband doing this cranking, the engine started the first time.

Federal aviation regulations would indeed frown on this type of flying today. The author states that, aside from being very dumb to fly in these conditions, the pilot would lose his license. In this case, assuming he was spotted on a dense, foggy, Christmas morning, that is.

The flight went well. For awhile. The density of the fog varied until it got much worse.

Foggy Christmas Morning, 1949

This is the first of four pencil drawings I will post. The drawings help illustrate a story for a gift book entitled, “Christmas Morning with Strangers.” It is an inspirational, true story about a light plane crash on a foggy Christmas morning in 1949 involving a young, expectant, married couple, their pilot uncle, and the hospitality of a nearby family. Thankfully, everyone survived the crash. Ironically, the author of this story is today an experienced pilot and his mother was 9 months pregnant with him as the story opens.

First up, today, is the arrival of the plane at the couple’s Oklahoma farm on that foggy morning. The plane has been parked and awaits its journey. The anticipation of being with family for Christmas overrules any logical fear of flying in dense fog. Typical of the era, a grass taxiway and dirt road were their catapult to the air.

The drawings retain more detail than the foggy conditions would have provided. In reality, a blank canvas might have been more accurate. But the author and I did not want to lose the story’s content.