Am I in Kansas Anymore?

Stop One-Anthony, Kansas

The first stop on the gypsy tour was Anthony, Kansas. 

It’s was a pretty drive.  The Flint Hills were turning yellowish rust and the sunflowers are everywhere.  If you are not from Kansas you may be picturing the “typical” huge sunflower.  Actually, wild sunflowers are more like yellow daisies that are caffeinated because they stick straight out from their stem.  But the flowers always face the sun.

The other thing non-Kansasans don’t know…  That people from Kansas do know that they are not in Kansas anymore. 

Anthony is about 2000 people and home of my 86 year old Grandpa- Bob.  My Grandpa is a storyteller.  This visit, he tells me he has had a good life and the good Lord has taken care of him.  He survived 2 plane crashes during WWII.

Bob was a bombardier during the war.  He was in the” bubble”. It was a key spot on the crew.  One for the obvious reason of shooting the enemy, two because you had good visibility to what was going on around the plane.  The bubble was tight quarters.    He said he would have a Charlie Horse in every muscle in his body when he climbed out of the bubble.

There were 9 guys on the crew.  They were flying in the Berlin area when they were hit by Flak or Anti- aircraft artillery which is shot from the ground.  They went down in a field 30 miles south of Berlin.  As they came down, two French women and a French man ran across the field to meet them .  The threesome hustled the crew to an abandon barn.  For two weeks, they traveled at night hiding in bombed out buildings. Eventually, they got to the British border.    

Side Note:  My Grandpa is a player.  He really likes the ladies.  So he also throws in that he was accused of “keeping warm” between the two French ladies.  I not sure if I buy this. The logistics of 10 men and 2 women sleeping in bombed out buildings seems a little sketchy.  But hey- if you thought you might get caught at any moment by the Germans and tortured… Get it while the getting is good.

Six missions later, the plane went down because they were out of gas.  They went down near an abandoned airfield.  There were cans of gas on the field.  They formed a line and passed the cans from man to man getting enough gas into the tank.  After taking off, there was a hammering on the side of the plane.  The captain yelled back at Bob to check if the hammering was a loose strap.  Hell no-Bob yelled down those boys are shooting us.  They “high-tailed” it out of there before anything critical was shot.

Moral of the story :  Get tail or high tail.

Next stop Memphis- Final resting place of the king!