Looking Through the Window PAIN

 Title

               Looking Through the Window PAIN

When viewing through a window from the outside, it does not necessarily reveal the emotions felt on the inside. That is why I felt compelled to share my story.

 

During the present COVID-19 pandemic, I was the victim of a severe fall which gave me a head injury. After going through the Emergency Room, Hospital and later in Rehab Center, I was quarantined for two weeks to make sure that I had not been infected and I would not contaminate others. This was the most frightening experience I’ve had in my entire life. I have always been very active and to be restricted into an area and receiving my meals as ordered, a shower when available by personnel and toilet needs each day left me feeling isolated and helpless. The only contact I had was visually through the window in my room. I was fortunate enough to have a ground-floor room with a window. Some were less fortunate. Upon my entrance into this facility my wife sent pictures for each day of the week for remembrances of the things we had done before this terrible pandemic. I would place these in the window and joyfully look at them each morning. This brought me some comfort although it was not the same as the touching, hugging and kissing a love one.

 

I would watch people passing my window and wishing I could be out there doing the same thing walking and enjoying the day. I would rearrange my wheelchair so that I could be in a position to look through the window and see my loved ones as they appeared daily wishing me get well prayers.

 

Those daily visits certainly helped my mood but at night it seemed so much darker, feelings of missing my loved ones and wondering when I would be free from being quarantined. It made sleep more difficult because of this fear. After two weeks of isolation, although I did see people for help with occupational therapy and physical therapy, it still left a dire need for me to be out of this confinement. This brings me to the subject of this blog. I was fortunate as I said before to be on the first floor and have a window, others were not as fortunate in my age group and were aware they were predisposed to this virus.  They would be sent to another level for physical and occupational rehabilitation, usually in the same building but no access to a window or contact with loved ones.  As time progressed it was obvious  they would be there probably till the ending days of their lives. 

Can you feel the emotion looking through a window from the outside and not enduring the sadness of the way you would feel in these conditions. I want to share this terrible feeling of being locked in space, loss of contact with loved ones until your death.  Think about it, people wear t-shirts and shoes to get a beer but won't wear a mask or use social distancing to help prevent the spread of this virus.  I saw nurses, doctors, caregivers and first responders all risking their lives and families to help protect us.  

I do hope you will give some consideration and thought as you read my blog, that it is not as much about me, but those who are less fortunate. 

 

Wink

 

Rolling The Film Backward

ROLLING THE FILM BACKWARD

It was a cool fall day in Biloxi, Mississippi and I had some time off from my USAF Air Traffic Controller School. I decided to take a stroll down to the ocean and see if I could get a few pictures. I had my 4 x 5 Speed Graphic camera with me when I saw a huge white lighthouse located between a highway and the ocean, the Biloxi Lighthouse. I fell in love with it right away and wondered about it’s history. I decided to take a picture and framed it with a huge oak tree in the foreground in order to show it’s proximity to the ocean.

The 48-foot lighthouse was constructed in 1848 at the cost of $12,000.  It has survived the Civil War and several hurricanes. It still stands today.  With it’s fourth order fresnel lens, it remains an aide to navigation.  It has the distinction of having the most female keepers of any other lighthouse.

In 1973 it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places.  In 1987 was declared a Mississippi Landmark. It’s history has given rise to a number myths. In days gone by, one of the popular legends about the Biloxi lighthouse was that it was painted black following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865. What actually happened was that the lighthouse was originally painted black and then repainted white so as to make it stand out more against the background of live oak trees. This occurred in 1867 -- two years after the president's death. The Biloxi lighthouse is also the only lighthouse in the world situated on a highway median.

This experience taught me not only to be aware of the image I was photographing, but to also contemplate it’s historical background. I find lighthouses go far back in time and share so much of our early history of exploration and navigation.

A year later, I was transferred to Otis USAF Base in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

*Next will be Lighthouses of Cape Cod.

Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame

I wanted to share some exciting news.

October 20, 2018 I will be inducted into the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame.  This is a great honor and my family and friends will be on hand as will be colleagues from Wisconsin Aviation to help me celebrate.

I was also employed by Wisconsin Aviation Inc. which is a full service Fixed Base of Operations and is totally separate from the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame. 

Here is the article from the Midwest Flyer Magazine.

From the Midwest Flyer Magazine, August/September 2018:

Madison, Wisconsin-Don Winkler of Madison, Wisconsin, will be inducted into the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame on October 20, 2018 at ceremonies to be held at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Winkler worked for Wisconsin Aviation, Inc. at Dane County Regional Airport as the company's public relations chair from 1996-2014.  He remains involved with fundraising for the company's hangar dance and Madison's Honor Flight.

Winkler has worked with the media to promote Wisconsin Aviation, aviation careers and aviation in general by coordinating school tours at Dane County Regional Airport.

As an employee of Wisconsin Aviation, Winkler has also coordinated special appearances of warbirds and aircraft groups flying to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, and television coverage of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh by KIDS4TV cable television program in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

Prior to joining the staff at Wisconsin Aviation, Winkler was an air traffic controller the U.S. Air Force from 1951-1955, and later with the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) in Madison.  For the majority of his career, Winkler was a sales manager at Sears, Roebuck and Company, in Madison.  He is a long-time pilot and passionate photojournalist and has been an active member of the Civil Air Patrol beginning in 1971.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation Bureau of Aeronautics presented Don Winkler with it's "Carl E. Guell Aviation Education Award" in 2005 in recognition of his efforts to provide tours for more than 1,000 children at Dane County Regional Airport.  Guell, who was a senior staff member with the bureau, founded the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame in 1985.  In 2015, Winkler received the Wisconsin Airport Management Association (WAMA) "Lifetime Service Award" for his dedicated service to aviation in Wisconsin.

HANGAR

HANGAR

Talking with my granddaughter, the subject of a Spelling Bee came up. I asked her, “How do you spell the word that identifies the building where an aircraft is stored?” She said, “I think it is Hangar.” I was pleased to say the least.

Over the years, actually 60, I have heard it spelled like something that you hang your garment on, Hanger. This misspelling is common not only with the general public but journalists, teachers and even aviators. Realizing this, I decided to incorporate it into the tours I held while working at Wisconsin Aviation Inc., Madison, Wisconsin. 

Over a period of some 16 years I hosted an average of 800 children a year at the Dane County Regional Airport. The tours were held on the east ramp of the airport, more notably known as the “General Aviation” side. The average age of the children on the tours ranged from 5 to 7 years old, as well as some requests from day care centers for some as young as 3 years old.

 As school budgets dwindled, I then went to the class rooms of various area schools. No matter where I held them, school or airport, the tours all started out the same. “How many of you know where an aircraft is stored when it is not flying and how do you spell the name of that place?” Depending on the age and reading experience, less than 10% knew. At this point I would tell them how to spell the word. I would tell them if they remembered it by the end of the tour, or movie if at the school, they would receive a balsa wood glider, a cookie and a coloring book about the airport. 

At the airport, they got to sit in a Cessna 152 and fly on an imaginary flight to wherever they dreamed up. When returning to the terminal building I could hear them reciting, “HANGAR”!

My hope is that with the early exposure to Aviation, youth would be more inclined to pursue careers as pilots, mechanics and in customer services.

My next Blog will be remembering 16 years of HANGAR DANCES, with an amusing, but embarrassing situation.

AN AIRSHOW EVERY DAY

When you mention the word Airport in Madison, Wisconsin, out pops the name Pat O’Malley’s Jet Room Restaurant. The two are synonymous in most people’s minds. Where else can you find ease in parking, great viewing framed in huge glass windows, outstanding cuisine and a glorious selection of Corporate Jets, General Aviation aircraft and Home Built Experimental planes. The thrill prevails seeing people departing and arriving, even celebrities now and then.

After 20 years of service in the Waunakee, Wisconsin area, Pat sold the O’Malley Farm Café in 1996 to pursue other interests. A year later, missing his former love, that of being a successful Restaurateur, Pat and his wife Pam opened the Jet Room Restaurant in the then 1937 vintage Terminal Building, on the east ramp of Truax Field. The restaurant continued operating under the auspices of Wisconsin Aviation/Four Lakes until the building’s demise in 2002,

The old stone building was replaced by the new state-of the-art Wisconsin Aviation 2.5 million dollar General Aviation Terminal Building. O’Malley’s Restaurant reopened then in a more illustrious motif to better serve the General Aviation public.

Most recently announced, Pat and Pam have decided to retire and purchase an RV (Recreational Vehicle) to travel on to new horizons. The restaurant will remain as the Pat O’Malley’s Jet Room, under new ownership with the O’Malley’s assisting in a smooth transition for as long as needed. It will be lacking their personal ambiences and colorful memories but aspire to continue serving its patronage in the same spirit. 

1937 Transitioning to 2002

Vintage Jet Room

Pam and Pat O'Malley 

Pam and Pat O'Malley

New Wisconsin Aviation Terminal

All photo credits to Don "Wink" Winkler

THE HOPE FOR PEACE AND JOY

                   

As I look forward to the new year of 2017, hoping that it will be a year of peace and joy, I reflect back on one memorable occasion. While photographing arrivals at Wisconsin Aviation, Madison Wisconsin, I had the pleasure of recording photographs of the Dalai Lama’s visit.

Having been the Director of Media/Public Affairs, I had the opportunity to film many celebrities over the years, but this had a special atmosphere. He is not someone who was pretentious in manner, but one who projected kindness and peacefulness. I hope I have recorded this in my images of him.  A man, truly one of love and joy.

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

MY dear friend Robert, who was a WWI German Pilot, was a gentle soul with a heart as pure as his white beard. After the war Robert migrated to the United States and had an illustrious career with Research Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, retiring after 37 years of service in 1967. Robert resided with his wife and 5 children in Madison Wisconsin. They later moved to Lodi, and that is where I first met Robert.

Robert had a collection of sepia tone prints he had taken while serving as a Reconnaissance/Aerial Photographer in the German Airforce. We talked about converting them into slides so that he could share them with interested aviation enthusiasts. Being a member of the Civil Air Patrol, I thought this could provide him a venue to accomplish this. As our friendship progressed I found another side of this man. With his beard and a smile, he would transform into Santa Claus. In fact he became known as the “Lodi Santa” and would preside at the Lodi Library during the Christmas Season. He once remarked that children would pull on his white beard and be astonished that it was real and not like that of the ones worn by the Store Santa’s!

I knew it was Christmas when I would receive a phone call opening with “Ho, Ho, Ho”.  I would respond to this in the same manner and then he would say, “Acht Donnie, Fröhliche Weihnachten, (Merry Christmas)”.  Later in the morning he would make his annual stop at WIBA and be on the radio program with Jim Mader, a well-known host. Robert would play his precious Music Box which would play O’Tannenbaum. Robert would sing along and this became a tradition. Robert has left us now, but his voice still resides in my mind each Christmas. Jim Mader has passed away also and WIBA's radio format has changed to Fox Radio. Robert’s family still has the precious music box. 

Robert truly was a Man For All Seasons.