Located on top of a hill on Coronado Avenue, overlooking Beyer Blvd, Northgate Market, and in the distance, Tijuana, is a giant silver wing dedicated to the memory of John J. Montgomery.
As you may have read from the plaque above, John J. Montgomery, an early aviation pioneer, was the first to conduct a controlled winged flight in 1880 - from this very same hilltop! Schools are named after him (elementary, middle and high school), a stretch of the 5 freeway and even Montgomery Field airport.
Interestingly, he died when he crashed his glider in 1911 and is buried in Colma, California. Years ago Bert and I were driving around in San Mateo (the county in which Colma is located) years ago and there were graveyards all around. I mean, A LOT OF DAMN CEMETERIES! It was creepy. Little did we know that Colma was founded as a 'necropolis' ('city of the dead') and most of its land is dedicated to cemeteries! In fact, the dead outnumber the living in Colma, where good old John J. Montgomery lies mouldering away. There was even a low-budget indie film made in 2007 called, "Colma - The Musical" which I must definitely check out! The director of "Colma - The Musical" is H. P. Mendoza, a Filipino American dude who is also gay. His second (also a musical), "Fruit Fly" made the gay film festival rounds and features his actress friend L.A. Renigen who also starred in "Colma...". I plan to see both movies on DVD soon...Gotta support my Pinoy brethren!
Since 1950, the Wing has been a South Bay landmark, a point of reference if you will. It's from a WW-era Bomber and can be seen for miles around...But, if you ask anyone from the South Bay (especially over age 30), they will probably mention that the Wing was a notorious MAKE OUT SPOT! Heh, heh, kind of like Otay Mesa's own "Inspiration Point" (that's a "Happy Days" reference for you youngsters or non-pop culture geeks out there)!
More on the Wing:
Check out my previous post on the Wing from last Fall here.
Here is a campers's take on the Wing as a camping site
and...a brief mention on the "South Bay" entry in wikipedia
and a short blurb on it's history from the Luckie Waller website
Next stop, a morbid stop at San Ysidro.
2 comments:
It was neat to see TJ from this hilltop. Gosh I didn't know there were cities dedicated to cemeteries!!
hey dennis - yeah, we didn't know we were in "colma". we were actually driving around san mateo to find the "AACP" (Asian American Curriculum Project) bookshop. It's run by Florence Hongo (a Nisei) and was one of the first bookstores dedicated to Asian American books as well as the Japanese American experience. I believe she may have been a WWII internee.
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