“He took the Fokker to three thousand meters, nearly breathless with the speed of the climb. The long flat rays of the sun were deep gold, and the earth was a mosaic of sharply contrasted yellows and purples. The rich, sweet exhaust mixture coming back from the engine was, in the high coolness, an ambrosia ...”That’s a description in the 1964 novel “The Blue Max” of future German ace Bruno Stachel taking his first flight in a Fokker D-7 over the battlefields of Europe during World War I. That war, the descriptions, even the biplane are very real — it’s Stachel who is the stuff of fiction, but certainly a memorable character.
He came from the mind of Jack D. Hunter, a former Cecil County resident whose novel featuring Stachel became a 20th Century Fox movie. Local residents and visitors to Chesapeake City may be familiar with The Blue Max bed and breakfast at the corner of Bohemia Avenue and Second Street. The impressive, three-story structure was so named by Jack and Tommie Hunter, who renovated the building and opened a shop there in the 1970s. The Hunters later lived in Chesapeake Isle overlooking the water.
Sadly, Jack passed...
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chesapeake city, flyboys, jack hunter, the blue max
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In our old house in Chesapeake City, there is a third floor walkup attic that I am slowly tranforming into a living space. I suppose the time would be better spent writing, but I enjoy time that's spent hammering nails and spackling drywall. The left-brain, right-brain switch is a good thing. The attic was once home to a newlywed couple (one of the things I removed was a wire clothesline) and then bats. All of these former residents are gone. I've put up kneewalls, put drywall up in the dormers and cover the walls with tongue-and-groove paneling. The result -- well, let's just say I'm not a carpenter. But I like to crank up the tunes and hide out high above the world . . .
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attic, chesapeake city, home improvement
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