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From Mensagenda - July 2002
Survival: Tradition!
In 1966, my father learned of the death of his
older brother, Albert. Later, Dad wondered about "The Farm," a site
in Ohio. Albert had never married, and Dad had expected The Farm to be
sold and the proceeds to be shared with the siblings. This did not
happen, so, obviously, the youngest brother had absconded with the
estate!
Nope. Warn't so. My mother and I knew The Farm
was a nudist colony in Ohio. It was left to Albert's friends, and
the main meeting hall was named Albert Hall.
Albert was a power farmer
(tractors in use), a mechanic, and a pilot who learned to fly in the late
twenties. In the early thirties, he left Kansas and moved to Ohio. He was
a flying instructor at the Lorain Fly Service. He owned a trucking
business and was a partner in the Pentz Motor Co. He was the only deaf man
to hold a pilot's license. His sense of touch was his
"communion" with his planes.
He flew J.I. Standards with
Curtis OX5 motors, and an OX-Waco. He was a test pilot and a flight
instructor; in 1940 he worked with "Lindy" in Lincoln, Nebraska; he was
a friend of Will Rogers and Wiley Post; and he ran booze across Lake
Erie during prohibition. He also founded The Farm.
Upon his death his wake was attended by priests,
bishops, rabbis, ministers, and by politicians and friends who were
well known. It was then that it became known that Henry Albert
"Bozo" Voet aided youth in education, jobs, and more on his exemplary
journey as a mentor.
I remember that, as a baby, I sat in the seat of
Uncle Albert's airplane. Years later, I took my flight
lessons in the 1960s and soloed April 25, 1964, at Crystal Airport,
Minnesota, where I flew Cessna aircraft.
Traditions are of family or otherwise. My
family, my people, have been involved in all kinds of shenanigans, and
so have I. It has given me the sense of freedom, yet a responsible
freedom.
Jerry Rau, a Twin Cities folk-legend
singer/songwriter, has a song, "My Name is Freedom." For Jerry,
Freedom is wild and reckless, and the brother of sister Courage, the son of
father Justice, and mother Truth. I would add my personal mentor,
Responsibility.
I honor those who try, who attempt that
which needs exploring. It is not for us to have dicta or maxims, but to
test and try again using new concepts.
Science may be tested and found fallible;
that is, it may be shown to be wrong. Otherwise it is not science, but
becomes dogma.
Uncle Albert tried and dared. There is the
need to push the envelope (a term in loading an aircraft appropriately
so it will still fly), a need to do for others, especially for those
who need to learn. We acquire information, apply it as knowledge, and
appreciate and develop it as wisdom.
There are traditions, traditions in
culture, family, and personal experience. One needs to remember and to ponder,
to meditate and then teach others what one has learned.
William Saroyan wrote in "The Human
Comedy" (an antiwar musical of 1943), "Each individual is the whole
World." So was my uncle, the whole world in his time and for those
who really knew him. Tradition!
Henry Albert Voet. Born August 8, 1900,
died March 6, 1966.
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