Thursday 3 September 2009

little red arrows

The Red Arrows just seared over the house. I rushed (I ambled) out to take photos and ended up with half a cloud heart pierced by half a cloud arrow, a weird rainbow, and lots of blue. The jets I did manage to pin down on camera look silly. Static and silent rather than screaming fast enough to break your neck looking. And tiny. You dont really see the Red Arrows as tiny, when watching a display.

This was a thing on Plymouth Hoe, to commemorate the start of WW2. I dont really get this. The End, yeah. The Start? It`s a Thursady afternoon. People here are either off their heads in a variety of difficult fashions, or at work. The majority of witnesses to this air display were pensioners, and why not. Although I watched it, kind of. And my neighbour two doors down, who actually has a regular job, but is obviously on her day off today. She said, as we stood out the front, gazing skyward across the playing fields, the Red Arrows havent been here for about six years. I didnt know that. I`m not sure it made any difference to my enjoyment. I got excited by the noise and speed, but did I think about the start of WW2 enough, or in the right way?
What a difficult thing it is to watch jets, especially ones with red, white and blue smoke falling out of their guts. I could whoop , and cry a bit, and shrug. There.

2 comments:

  1. I like this; it's perceptive, subjective, humorous and thought-provoking. I've never seen the Red Arrows myself, and, not to sound too ignorant, don't understand their point. I mean I get the sentiment(?) behind it, the dedication of one thing to another thing while different people come together and watch the spectacle (and donate money or something?). But why red planes? What do they represent? (I AM unfortunately ignorant of most historical reasonings behind most current trends and cultural 'norms'.) I also like the picture; it's symbolic...

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  2. One of the pilots once told me he`d found it hard to leave behind his old life as a bus driver, but he seems to be over it now.
    In tonight`s local paper, a woman is wanting to sue someone (whoever it is in charge of the Red Arrows) because just after the planes flew over her farm her horse dropped dead. Apparently the horse panicked and hit his head on the wall of the stable. I kid you not.

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