A Grizzly in the Mail and Other Adventures in American History

16. How Lucky Was Lindy?

16 HOW LUCKY WAS LINDY? I was conscious again of the fundamental magic of flying . . . for not only is life put in new patterns from the air, but it is somehow arrested, frozen into form. —Anne Morrow Lindbergh When I moved to St. Louis, I quickly became aware that several events in the past continue to hold deep roots in the sentimental consciousness of the residents. The Lewis and Clark expedition, the focus of my stay in Missouri, is one. Another is the 1904 World’s Fair held one hundred years after Lewis and Clark passed through the city. In many ways the fair signified the pinnacle of St. Louis’s potential, when the city stood on the verge of true greatness and for one brief moment held the nation’s attention. The third event is really a person . . . Charles Lindbergh. In 1925 young Lindbergh moved to St. Louis as an airmail pilot and began a relationship with the city that lasted a lifetime. He 200 How Lucky Was Lindy? managed to convince several businessmen to invest in his dream to fly solo across the Atlantic. On May 21, 1927, he landed in Paris and won the $25,000 Orteig Prize for this feat. He also became an instant worldwide celebrity, the subject of newspaper headlines around the globe. St. Louis residents joyously shared in this moment of personal triumph: Lindbergh’s plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, was named for their city. Upon his return, Lindbergh was welcomed with a seven-mile parade, five hundred thousand people lining the route. Lindbergh allowed the Missouri Historical Society to display his extensive collection of trophies, awards, and gifts, which more than a hundred thousand people viewed in the first four days. (Lindbergh eventually donated the collection to the society.) During my time in St. Louis, however, I knew little about Lindbergh . I drove down Lindbergh Boulevard often, walked under the replica of the Spirit of St. Louis hanging in the Missouri History Museum atrium, and viewed a special Lindbergh exhibition there. But, despite the fact that my condo stood several blocks away from where Lindbergh had met with his investors, and my desk overlooked the hill in Forest Park where thousands had gathered to watch him perform aerial maneuvers, my historical interests were firmly focused on another century. Ironically, though, my next place of employment also owned a collection of Lindbergh items and featured a Spirit of St. Louis (the real one) hanging in its entrance. Three years into my job at the National Air and Space Museum, my focus suddenly shifted to Lindbergh as I began work on a new exhibition called “Pioneers of Flight.” Packing with Lindbergh You can tell something about a person by observing the way he packs. Is he efficient, a spatial thinker? Does she throw it all in at the last minute? Does she make lists? Obviously not all journeys require the same preparation. I love to travel but hate to pack. Fortunately , unlike Charles Lindbergh, I will never have to pack for a flight thousands of miles over wilderness. How Lucky Was Lindy? 201 In the spring of 1931 Lindbergh began packing for a trip that would take him and his wife, Anne, from Canada, across Alaska, and over the Pacific Ocean to Asia. Meticulous to a fault, he tried to anticipate every possible emergency scenario, from a forced landing in the middle of the ocean to a crash in the northern wilderness. They would be visiting Eskimo villages where Anne was the first Caucasian woman the villagers had ever seen and also attending embassy parties in the capitals of Asia. Anne observed that Lindbergh turned packing into a science of prioritizing. As she put it, “Every object to be taken had to be weighed, mentally as well as physically. The weight in pounds must balance the value in usefulness .” She wrote that her husband “added and subtracted endlessly from lists.” They sorted things into three piles: necessities, discards, and a pile representing items that needed to be put in one of the other two piles. They allowed themselves only eighteen pounds each for personal items. Anne admitted that shoes were the most weightexpensive item in personal baggage. She took only two pairs. She later wrote that her husband “always packed up the equipment himself and took great pride in the neat orderly way in which it all fitted down and presented...