"In 1933 I was
playing out in our front yard at Blythe, California. I was 3 years old and having a good time digging holes in the
yard when I heard a strange noise. It
was a sort of a low pitched rumbling sound, I guess I felt it rather than heard
it, but as the noise grew closer it became louder and I began to hear it from
right above me. When I looked up, I
was astonished to see the biggest object I had ever seen. It reminded me of a huge fish with motors hooked on its
side, with a finned tail, strange markings, and a bus type thing with windows
hanging below it. I ran to the back
door and told mother to come quick and she hurried out to investigate.
By that time, the thing had moved to the south of us and looked just like
a big round ball. Mother said it was a zeppelin, the first one she had ever
seen. She said the markings on the
tail were symbols of a country far away over the ocean called Germany. The
zeppelin also had a name painted on it; mother said it was called the Graf
zeppelin. As we stood gazing at the
thing, it made a lazy curving turn toward a line of low hills to the west, and
then we could see the full extent of the thing, it was huge!
It gradually disappeared into the distance, but I could still hear those
roaring engines long after the zeppelin was out of sight.
I will never forget the Graf
zeppelin.
Note:
the Graf
zeppelin flew many trips from Germany to brazil with fare paying passengers.
In 1940, it was purposely destroyed by the Germans.
