Round Engines

"Big John" wrote in message
...
Dudley

One story on Pancho.

Edwards wanted to either extend or build a new runway that would run
through her "establishment".

After going round and round with them she went to Washington and
talked to some of her old time cohorts there and that was the last
ever heard about tearing her place down for a new runway )

The Washington types she talked to were Lts and Captains when she
associated with them in the early days.

Sometimes it's all who you know.

Last time I was there was eating a steak and talking to Pancho when
half a dozen broads made up like Hollywood Starlets walked through the
room.

I ask what they were doing and was told to mind my own business )

Big John

The story we got was that the powers that be at Edwards who took over after
the "old guys" were gone really did a number on her when the extension deal
was going on. The word was that the "fire" was very suspicious to say the
least.
I think Pancho kind of faded away after that and I heard she had moved out
into the desert up North a bit. The last I heard she had died all alone up
there living in a trailer.
I think Yeager and Hoover and some of the regulars kept in touch with her
for awhile .
Pancho's place was a real part of American aviation history. It's a damn
shame nobody tried to save at least part of it for posterity.
The problem with places like Pancho's is that their real value was in their
existence and in what that meant to the people who gathered there.
To those who survived those early days at Edwards, I'm sure the ghosts of
those people remain even to this day.
The average tourist wouldn't be able to "touch" this nostalgia, or
appreciate the memories of a place like Pancho's. Only those who lived
through those times and knew first hand what transpired there would have any
real appreciation for the site.
I remember places like Pancho's as special to me as I made my way through my
aviation career.
There was Trader Jon's in Pensacola for one.There's was a picture of Skip
Umstead and me tacked to the wall in back of the bar Skip was Blue Angel 1
in the old F4's and was killed at Lakehurst I was driving there to have
lunch with him and heard about the crash on the car radio. I know Bob Stumph
and a few of the Blue Angels tried to save the place, but it all came apart
somewhere along the line. It's a clothing store now. Sign of the passing
times I guess :-)) My picture from the bar is probably gathering dust with
the other artifacts from the old place waiting to be put into a Naval
aviation museum.
There was the Belvedere Hotel and Bar across the street from the main gate
at Pax River where we would meet and raise hell.
Many are gone now, but I can still see their faces and hear their laughter
once in a while in my fondest memories.
I guess it's this kind of thing that makes Pancho's so special.
There's something in Latin that sums it all up I guess;
"Sic Transit Gloria Mundi"
Dudley