A good share of what is fun about teaching is the two-part recipe of making the strange familiar to students and–just as important–making the familiar strange. One example of the latter is exploring the bizarre properties of water, good old H2O, a compound that profoundly influences this planet, and makes it uniquely habitable to familiar forms of life.
This past March, while winter tourists from Japan were still numerous in Fairbanks, one elderly visitor made the familiar strange for me. He clearly belonged to one of the groups arriving by chartered jet from Tokyo. On the sidewalk outside one of our retail stores he stopped in a flow of pedestrians to search the sky overhead. At first I slowed to avoid bumping into this gentleman. Then I grew curious as to what arrested his progress. The throbbing engines of a propeller-driven airplane soon intruded on my hearing. Most Alaskans take for granted the comings and goings of venerable aircraft, relics built before the age of jets dawned, 50 or more years ago. Presently, a DC-6 cargo plane appeared, making its final approach to nearby Fairbanks International Airport. It dove and banked steeply with flaps and landing gear extended, looming larger in our view before settling out of sight onto the runway.
It dawned on me that this spectacle was undoubtedly a sight and sound strictly from the past in Japan. What went through our guest’s mind as he intently followed this DC-6? Such aircraft must have been common in Japan for a couple of decades following World War 2. This “senior’s moment” made me realize that we Alaskans fail to appreciate our being one of the last refuges of working airplanes that pre-date the era of jet flight.
This past March, while winter tourists from Japan were still numerous in Fairbanks, one elderly visitor made the familiar strange for me. He clearly belonged to one of the groups arriving by chartered jet from Tokyo. On the sidewalk outside one of our retail stores he stopped in a flow of pedestrians to search the sky overhead. At first I slowed to avoid bumping into this gentleman. Then I grew curious as to what arrested his progress. The throbbing engines of a propeller-driven airplane soon intruded on my hearing. Most Alaskans take for granted the comings and goings of venerable aircraft, relics built before the age of jets dawned, 50 or more years ago. Presently, a DC-6 cargo plane appeared, making its final approach to nearby Fairbanks International Airport. It dove and banked steeply with flaps and landing gear extended, looming larger in our view before settling out of sight onto the runway.
It dawned on me that this spectacle was undoubtedly a sight and sound strictly from the past in Japan. What went through our guest’s mind as he intently followed this DC-6? Such aircraft must have been common in Japan for a couple of decades following World War 2. This “senior’s moment” made me realize that we Alaskans fail to appreciate our being one of the last refuges of working airplanes that pre-date the era of jet flight.
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