World War II Bomber Gas Station

Milwaukie, Oregon

Gas up under the wings of Victory! Bomber Gas has been a landmark in the Portland area since 1947, when it arrived and became the region's most unusual filling station. It stopped operating as a gas station in 1991, and has since been associated with the adjacent restaurant, where visitors could grab a bite and a souvenir Bomber place mat.

A serious restoration effort on the B-17G, aka "Lady Lacey" (after Art Lacey's British wife), has been underway at times. In 2012, the nose and cockpit had been removed.

Tipster Blair Shorney sent us this account of how the plane ended up in Milwaukie:

Shortly after WWII a guy named Art Lacey wentto Kansas to buy a surplus B-17. His idea was to fly it back to Oregon,jack it up in the air and make a gas station out of it. He paid $15,000for it. He asked which one was his and they said take whichever you wantbecause there were miles of them. He didn't know how to fly a 4 engineairplane so he read the manual while he taxied around by himself. Theysaid he couldn't take off alone so he put a mannequin in the co-pilot'sseat and off he went.

He flew around a bit to get the feel of it and when he went to land herealized he needed a co-pilot to lower the landing gear. He crashed andtotaled his plane and another on the ground. They wrote them both off as"wind damaged" and told him to pick out another. He talked a friend intobeing his co-pilot and off they went.

They flew to Palm Springs where Lacey wrote a hot check for gas thenthey headed for Oregon. They hit a snow storm and couldn't find their wayso they went down below 1,000 feet and followed the railroad tracks. Hispartner sat in the nose section and would yell, "TUNNEL" when he saw oneand Lacey would climb over the mountain.

They landed safely, he made good the hot check he wrote, and theystarted getting permits to move a B-17 on the state highway. The highwaydepartment repeatedly denied his permit and fought him tooth and nail fora long time so late one Saturday night he just moved it himself. He got a$10 ticket from the police for having too wide a load.

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Wings of Freedom restoration

Banned from Walmart

Some of you remember a few years back I got a letter from WalMart regarding my husband’s behavior.  Well, now that a WalMart put in a new store only a mile away you can understand my concern. 

For those of you that missed out last time around here is a review of the letter with pictures I have added to it.

Dear Ms. Borden:

Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban him from the store. Our complaints against him are listed below and have been documented by our video surveillance cameras.

1. On June 15th he took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other people's shopping carts when they weren't looking.

2. On July 2nd he set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. On July 7th he made a trail of ketchup on the floor leading to the women's washroom.

4. On July 19th he walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice: "Code 3 in Housewares. Get on it right away!" This caused the employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from her Supervisor that in turn resulted in her filing a Union grievance, causing management to lose time and costing the Company time and money.

5. On August 4th he went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layaway.

6. On August 14th he moved a "CAUTION: WET FLOOR" sign to a carpeted area.

7. On August 15th he set up a tent in the Camping Department and told children shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the Bedding Department, which 20 children eventually did.

8. On August 23rd, when a Clerk asked if she could help your husband, he began crying and screamed "Why can't you people just leave me alone?" EMTs were called.

9. On September 4th he looked right into a security camera and used it as a mirror while picking his nose.

10. On September 10th, while handling guns in the Hunting Department, he asked the Clerk where the antidepressants were.

11. On October 3rd he darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the "Mission Impossible" theme.

12. On October 6th, in the Automobile Department, he practiced his "Madonna Look" by using different sizes of funnels.

13. On October 18th he hid in a rack of clothing and, when customers browsed through the clothing, he yelled "Pick Me! Pick Me!

14. On October 21, after an announcement was made over the PA system, he screamed in a loud voice "Oh no! It's those voices again!"

                           And, last but not least -

15. On October 23rd he went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, then yelled very loudly "Hey! There's no toilet paper in here!" , causing one of the clerks to pass out.

Done shopping for the day

Color Pictures from Africa

 Africa map as it was when we were there

 X marks the spot where we lived

 Burning bricks for the houses that dad helped build

 One of the houses that dad built

 The group that was at the mission around 1955

 Mom holding an African baby

 A first class bridge that we had to drive the pickup across

Mom and my sister

To see more of these pictures go to this site

Africa In The Fifties

Here are a few pictures from my time in Tanganyika, Africa between March of 53 and Sep of 57.  To see more pictures from this time click here.

 Our Family probably around 1956

 My sister and I along with our house boy

 This took several hours to dig out from

 My brother and I having breakfast while on safari

 My sister Galilee

This was one of two albino children we saw while in Africa

Retirement

The above picture taken from my retirement party album from 2001.  To see more click here.

Monday it all came to an end.  Unfortunately, it was not the nice sunny day that we had coming over on Friday.  Chains or traction devices were required over the pass, so it was a lot of 4 wheeling coming back. Arrived back at Carole's early afternoon.

Here is the link to the rest of today's pictures.

Every one left on Sunday PM except the Bordens, but all we did was sit around and eat, drink and be merry.

Only one picture to share today, Ramona checking on the men in the hot tub.