On Sunday, I took my son and a couple of his friends to the WW2 airplane show.
I fell in love with the Corsair. The pilot was clearly in love with it, too. There was such joy in his voice as he was talking us through all the maneuvers he was doing, flying loop after loop above the airfield.
The entire day, my head was full of memories and stories. WW2 - the Great Patriotic War - it had an enormous presence (a weight) for those growing up in the USSR. There was not a single family I knew that hadn't lost people to that war.
All those airplanes flying above, paratroopers jumping, with their parachutes opening up at equal intervals... It's funny how some things just trigger a memory, and then it's like a string that you keep pulling - more memories come out.
In the 80's, we lived near an airbase. There were planes in the sky all the time. I was a kid, and I wasn't particularly interested in airplanes (or weapons, or anything military-related) - but I remember that whenever we had guests, they were always a bit taken aback by all the noise from the planes. I was so used to it, I barely noticed.
One day, I was playing outside, and I noticed something funny in the sky - it took me a moment to realize these were parachutes! Soldiers were jumping out of a helicopter. It looked like white clouds being seeded in the sky at exactly equal intervals. The boys from my school got super-excited and ran off to the field where the soldiers were landing. I wasn't curious enough to join them (I may be regretting this now, all these years later... just a little bit...)
It's funny... so many year have passed - but the childhood, with all the wonder, disappointments, experiences, and adventures - some days, it feels like it's so close I could touch it.
WW2 feels so recent - that was my grandparents' time. I heard so many stories - sad, happy, funny, heartbreaking - and they are all linked to my childhood in the USSR.
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