At 90 years old, Cecil Wright spends much of his time basking in the Florida sun. However, his name is still well known in the aviation world in Orleans County. He is one of this county’s early pioneers of air flight.

  In the September issue of the Northland Journal Mr. Wright’s son, Duane Wright, writes about his father’s aviation career before, during, and after World War II. The following is an excerpt from his article:

 My parents owned a cottage on Lake Salem where my sister & I would live in the summer with my grandmother Lena Wright. We had a carpenter named Howard Baird that was doing some carpenter work on the camp, he ran out of nails so we called my father at the airport which was more than 10 miles away. He said he would bring some right up.  A few minutes later we could hear a plane coming, he flew over the camp & Mr. Baird stood out in the road in front of the camp. My father flew over & dropped a bag of nails from the plane. Mr. Baird was looking up and quickly moved out of the way & the bag of nails landed where Mr. Bair had been standing.

Another time we needed a loaf of bread so my father flew over & dropped a loaf of bread to us, his aim wasn’t as good and the bread got caught in a tree limb. One of the older kids in the neighborhood climbed the tree & got the loaf of bread for us.

One of the other articles in this month’s journal is about the life and music of Eveline Wagner of Newport. The daughter of Gideon and Marie Caron, Mrs. Wagner has spent much of her 100 years making music, including part of that time with the Bobbin Mill Players. The following is a portion of an article written by Scott Wheeler, the publisher of the Northland Journal.

The Caron children grew to become talented musicians, but they apparently didn’t inherit the talent from their parents. Their parents didn’t sing or play musical instruments, but that didn’t stop them from instilling the love of making music in their children.

 ‘At first we could just sing because we didn’t have any money,’ Eveline said. ‘The boys were good singers.’ In time the children were given harmonicas to play. The children quickly took to the handheld instruments. Since receiving that first harmonica, Eveline has always had one close at hand. To this day she keeps one by her bedside just in case the urge to make music should come over her.”

 Also another article in this issue is about a book written by John Meurs, a man who grew up in Nazi occupied Holland (the Netherlands). In his book, “I Won’t Be Home for Christmas: A Day in the Life of the Mighty Eighth”, Meurs tells about a November 26, 1944 bombing mission by the U.S. Eighth Air Force, a day that is forever etched in his minds. Including in this book is mention of the life and death of Newport native, John Kendall, who died during that mission.

 These are just some of the articles that appear in the September issue of the Northland Journal.