Short story: I was visiting the Aircraft Museum at Tillimuk Oregon and wandered past the control tape across the tarmac to the refurbishment hanger. The crew were working of an A-26 and a PBY. The PBY was almost finished; the A-26 had 6-50 calibers in the nose and had just been buffed to bright mirror finish aluminum. Wow!
The guys, all in their 60's and 70's, were all wearing orange jumpsuits - and had a machine shop that would make any grown man cry. Milling machines, lathes, drill presses, metal brakes and shears and rack after rack of Snap-On tools. I damn near started to cry!!
They invited me to sit in both planes and chatted with me about how much fun their "work" was! Of course they all were doing it for free. Heck, I would have paid to be the "floor sweeper" in that shop!
I have always thought that that whole crew had a better handle on how to spend their "declining years" than most!!!
'nother short story...
I was shooting some video at the Smithsonian Warehouses in Silver Hill and was told I had to find my own way back to the front gate. My director and I wandered past one building near where some aircraft were being refurbished. We stopped to look inside through the window in a door, and saw a cigar-shaped feature sticking out above the rest of the planes in the warehouse. I cracked the door open just a little, and the light from outside just illuminated the writing on the nose of ... Enola Gay.
It was the kind of chilling moment I love. It was a more intimate brush with history than I could ever get in a museum setting.