bjgreen
Using a plane to search the skies for some lost birds? Image: Holden’s New Book on Birds, Charles F. Holden, 1892
By Betsy J. Green
Nineteen-nineteen was the year of the airplane in Santa Barbara. But perhaps some expectations were just a bit too high. A Santa Barbara woman whose canaries flew the coop put an ad in the local paper hoping that someone might spot her birds in their yard. But what about spotting birds on the wing?
“When approached on the subject, Lieut. A. Poppic [a local pilot], the intrepid explorer of the upper levels, stated that he could follow a canary anywhere, except under some of the city bridges. All Lieutenant Poppic wants is one good squint at the canaries, and he promises to corral the feathered beauties, hogtie them to the fuselage of his ship and bring them home wagging their tails behind them.”
UP CLOSE & PERSONAL
If you like my “WAY BACK WHEN” posts on Edhat, you are invited to come to my mini “Magical History Tour of Santa Barbara in 1919” at Chaucer’s Bookstore on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. (The “Way Back When” posts are excerpts from my new book, “Way Back When: Santa Barbara in 1919 – The Best Stories of the Year.”)
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