Dear Asterix,
Thank you for your excellent reading of Hiram Bingham's
memoir. I found his information and observations fascinating, though I know very little about flying. Consequently, some of the details went over my head.
I looked up Hiram III in Wikipedia, and see that his 7 sons were 2-15 when he entered the war. I found it odd that he didn't mention his family at all in this memoir, though he wrote about the importance of the men getting letters and packages from home.
We knew two of the sons, Mitch and Brewster, and their wives, Hilda and Frannie, because Brewster (Bruce) was a family friend of my mother-in-law's family (all missionaries, as was Hiram II). We stopped by the family "camp" in CT one day, when Bruce and Frannie were vacationing there. Hiram III had built a small playing court, fenced and with a fence roof, in the yard, so that one person (or two?) could play a variety of games without loosing the ball. The court could be installed in a small yard or on a roof. I've seen something similar sold today. In the house, we stood around the piano, played by Frannie, singing hymns.
Mitch and Hilda owned a lovely house overlooking the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. They would invite us up for tea and we once housesat for them. They had a beloved cat, eventually eaten by a coyote.
Mitch said that his dad was a difficult man to live with. He decided on a profession for each son, and sometimes they didn't want to follow that path. Mitch was supposed to run the family farm, hated farming, but eventually got to be an artist and author.
From your reading, I now know a lot more about WW I and early aviation. I've looked up your other books, and will now try the "Recollections of the Civil War."
Pardon my rambling. I really enjoyed your narration.
--Mollie
Los Angeles
