Mom and the Tiger Moth

As I mentioned in my last entry, my mother is pretty reserved. She's quiet. She's not a big adventurer and doesn't like to take risks. Yet, there was a time when she wasn't like that. She wasn't wild or anything but she did some things I don't think I'd ever do. The story of how she and my father were stationed at a Canadian Air Force base during World War 2 is another story.

The Tiger Moth I'm speaking about is shown in this picture (from this link). The Tiger Moth was a training aircraft that was used in Britain, Canada and other Commonwealth countries. Mom worked in the office on the base and once in a while, the trainers would take the girls in the office up in those flimsy looking things. No cockpit. Noisy. Not much between you and the air rushing by. And the pilots, of course, wanted to see if they could get the girls scared. So, I could almost imagine my mother going up the first time. But once she knew what to expect? Just amazing. Mom, you never cease to amaze me!

Do we get scared as we grow older or just wiser? Do we think we're invincible when we're younger or do we just need to be more careful because we have people we're responsible for when we're older? I don't know but we definitely seem to do fewer crazy things as we age. But I'm glad we have the stories to tell.