Women Take Flight

Sometimes, the obtuseness of museum people and the lack of skills of observation among my own family amaze me. A couple of years ago I bought a fleece pullover from a local aviation museum's shop which commemorated their exhibition, "Women Take Flight."

Now, I bought this particular shirt for a number of reasons. 1. I have been intimately involved in small planes since I was born. My dad was a flight instructor as well as owned a grass strip which he built in Athens, Michigan. I was always around planes. 2. I knew a couple of women aviators....ones who were contemporaries and who knew Amelia Earhart. 3. I took flying lessons when I was 12 4. I admired the women who flew in WWII, even though until I moved to Troy, I didn't realize the part that Waco airplanes played in that endeavor. 5. It was blue and my sweatshirts were dying. 6. It was embroidered with an abbreviation which made me LOL. Yep. Proudly, over the left breast was a winged "W.T.F."

I think the better part of this is my perverseness with the embroidery. I knew that the winged W.T.F. had no meaning for the museum other than "Women Take Flight." Still. I wondered how long it would take for people to realize this.

The answer? Tonight at dinner, my husband looked at me with a started expression and said "WTF?" My daughter, a teen, broke into laughter...and said "WHAT?" I grinned , "It actually stands for Women Take Flight." She snorted and said, "That's now my favorite piece of clothing you own."

Of course...this wasn't the first time I had worn this particular garment. In fact, I must have worn it at least 100 times since I owned it. I can forgive the museum folk for not looking into this, although I think if I had working at this particular institution, at this particular time, I would have realized it.... However, I guess it just goes to show you how un-observant my family members are.