LANDING IN MY PRESENT

by

Mary Clark

Biography / Aviation / Historical / WWII

Publisher: Hellgate Press

Date of Publication: June 15, 2020

Number of Pages: 218

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Mary Walker Clark barely knew her father. When he died, he left not only the obvious void every teen would experience, but took with him scores of Indiana Jones-style tales about flying the Hump, a treacherous series of US missions that transported supplies over the Himalayas to China during World War II.

It would take a chance interview with a pilot who had flown with her father in the war to launch a series of extraordinary journeys—into a shrouded past and halfway around the globe to India and China—for Clark to finally come to know the father whose absence had haunted her for decades.

Landing in My Present chronicles the adventures of a daughter who chose to pry open a painful past while enlarging her view of an adventurous father long thought lost.

Amazon • Hellgate Press

Every now and then a book will come along that will touch a myriad of emotions and this book does just that.  The journey that Mary Clark takes us on spans nearly a century starting with her father’s life through her journey to learn more about his past that just wasn’t discussed.  It might have been the times or perhaps that was just her father’s personality, but as she delves into his story and her memories, a more complex man emerges.

Charles (Charlie) Walker died when Mary was just 16 and a junior in high school from a freak accident on the family farm located in the Panhandle of Texas. While he didn’t die right away, there came a point where her mother had to make a tough decision, one that no one ever wishes to make in their life.  This is a quote that shows Mary’s maturity looking back at the situation and the decision her mother made:

“I admired her for making that decision (to bring him home to die) and deeply felt the sadness and anxiety that would have accompanied the choice she didn’t want to make.  I wished we had talked during that emotional time but we didn’t, an early indication of my family’s tilt toward silence, choosing to let traumatic events sink below consciousness.”

I think many families from that time period didn’t talk about feelings or what they were thinking about doing and just did what was necessary.  This next quote ties into that mindset and sums it up nicely and I think if anyone were to look back on their ancestors they might see the same traits, I know I do.

“My cousin Carolyn calls this “stuffing.” You stuff all the bad news down deep and don’t allow it to surface. A more proper description is that we lived in a culture of silent grief.”

Fifty years later, she started really questioning what she knew about her father and decided to learn more about him after hearing an interview with a fellow aviator that flew with her father during the war.  She is an analytical thinker and I felt like each piece of information she uncovered was filling in the puzzle of what her father experienced during the war.  She started with what she knew and dived deeper into family archives and researching the Hump pilots.  Considering how late she waited to research these pilots, many had passed away but she was lucky to have met a few and their families that shared what information they had gleaned from their father that aided in her research.  The letters she uncovered were like a gift to her.  They shared stories and memories that assisted Mary in her research and filling in the missing pieces of her father’s life.  I found it interesting that the military gave each soldier personalized stationery.  In today’s world, they would just text or email those they wished to communicate with so the art of a letter is slowly being lost which is a shame because that is how we track our history.

Researching her father’s past had positive benefits.  Mary and her brother’s remembered more once they shared memories which might trigger another memory and really open their minds to their childhood.  I know if I think about my past, I remember some things but others will share stories that I have forgotten.  So I can see where this would be a huge benefit to any family.  But the negative consequences included the guilt that Mary felt for not knowing her father better. She shouldn’t blame herself for not knowing him better because she was a teenager and what teenager really knows their parent?  I know I couldn’t tell you things about my dad’s past when I was a teen because we don’t think that way at that age.

Once the research was done, we are taken on a trek through India and China and the towns and villages that Charlie visited while stationed over there.  I could feel the emotions from Mary’s writing on the impact it made on her to see where he lived, worked, and how the people in those countries felt about the US Military stationed there during WWII.  It was amazing that 50+ years later that some were still so thankful for what people like her father did for them.  I could sense some closure on that part of his life.  There was still more research to do, but this helped assuage her desire to know more about her father.  Between her descriptions of the scenery and the pictures, it is easy to picture these in my mind.

There are a few things that I took away from this book – and these are my interpretations – to document your family history.  Ask the questions, interview the grandparents and parents, ask what it was like when they were a child, how they met their spouse, the different paths that they took to where they are now.  The other is to not let so much time pass by before asking the questions because you never know when it will be too late.  I wish I had asked my father more things before he passed away.  Much like Mary, I will have to do my own research and ask my mother more questions so that information isn’t lost.  I also learned to cherish your family.  Time together is better than anything else.

This was an educational book on many fronts – from the war to family dynamics.  The addition of the photographs and memories just added to the depth of this memoir. I think anyone that enjoys history and different aspects of WWII would learn something new and be amazed at the bravery that some people hold.

I leave you with a few additional quotes that spoke to me.

“What I didn’t see until later was the biggest loss of all, his story.”

“My parents weren’t afraid of the world, so neither was I.”

“I had come to more fully understand Dad’s experience in this remote location, and that we did.”

I give this 4 1/2 paws.

Mary Walker Clark is a retired attorney turned travel writer who loves taking readers with her to worldwide destinations. She has been traveling independently and internationally for over fifty years. Her essays may be found in the Paris News, at her blog, “Mary Clark, Traveler,” and her podcasts at KETR 88.9, an NPR affiliate. Clark is an award-winning member of the North American Travel Journalists Association and a contributor to Still Me, … After All These Years, 24 Writers Reflect on Aging.

In 2016, Clark traveled to India and China to follow her father’s WWII footsteps when he was a Hump pilot flying over the Himalayas. Her journey to connect with him fifty years after his death is told in her book, Landing in My Present.

Clark is a fifth generation Texan living in Paris, Texas.

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THREE WINNERS

FIRST WINNER: $25 Amazon card

SECOND WINNER: Signed copy of Landing in My Present

THIRD WINNER: $15 Amazon card.

 July 21-July 31, 2020

(US only)

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