It’s true. I love my adopted home state of 26 years, yes I do, but I am not blind to the fact that we may have cornered the market on weird.
Recently as we drove through East Texas on our way to Pa Palmer’s funeral, we saw this airplane on the side of the road. We thought at first that it was abondoned, which is odd enough, but then we saw the homeowner underneath the fuselage running the weedeater (if you look closely at the photo, you’ll see two tiny legs under the airplane) – which only begs more questions than it answers. Was someone living there? Was this the Taj Mahal of trailers? Why bother with the weedeater when a stick of dynomite would work better?
As we drove down the road, Antique Daddy and I had an interesting discussion where we considered different scenarios explaining how the airplane got there. All my theories involved a keg of beer and someone named Bubba saying, “Hey y’all! Watch this!”
Rachel May says:
Famous last words.
June 6th, 2007 at 7:27 am
Grace says:
Being a next-door neighbor in Oklahoma, I can attest that weirdness does seem to thrive in this area of the country.
That is hilarious! I like your theory about Bubba and the keg of beer.
June 6th, 2007 at 7:37 am
cruisermom says:
You were up in my neck of the woods! That plane has been there for years. The guy had several there at one time and was planning to open a “museum,” but then cooler heads prevailed and he sold all of the others. He just has a soft spot in his heart for this one. He used to let people stop and go inside, but that was years ago when my college-aged kids were small. I don’t know if he still does that or not.
June 6th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Snapshot says:
Yep, most likely scenario.
June 6th, 2007 at 7:52 am
boomama says:
What does it say about me and my life-long state of residency in MS, AL and LA that the sight of a plane on the side of the road would barely make me blink an eye?
June 6th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Therese says:
There’s a theory that the statement, “Hey, y’all. Watch this!” are often Bubba’s last words ever.
June 6th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Annie from Where the Green Grass Grows says:
Well, at least they have the courtesy to wack the weeds so that it doesn’t look like so many cars up on blocks in redneck front yards… I can say “redneck” because I are one. (to quote Jeff Foxworthy)
June 6th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Susan J. says:
Um, that is not the only plane by the side of a road in east Texas. My boys always watch out for one a little further east than yours. The other is some kind of military jet.
My theory is that the countryside in east Texas is so flat and boring that you need things of interest to break up the monotony.
June 6th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Big Mama says:
I think I’m married to Bubba.
June 6th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Rivkeleh says:
Oh, honey, just chalk it up to the South altogether. When hurricane Hugo hit South Carolina, we were visiting my relatives for my cousin’s wedding, and discovered out behind the hangar (my uncle was a crop duster) that sometime in about 1957 (because that’s the date on the tags), they’d parked their Corvair out behind the hangar and never driven it again. When we found it, now that the hurricane had blown a bunch of overgrowth out of the way, we found it, gorgeous and complete with tags still on, except trapped by the enormous tree that had grown up through it. I try to imagine forgetting a car. And all I can think is “only in the South.”
June 6th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Kacey says:
I can believe that someone would live in an old airplane — in Florida people live in anything with a roof, including cardboard boxes. We have a doublewide for the winter months and I fondly call it a candominium. An airplane would be fun, except for all those steps!
June 6th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Blue House Mom says:
I laughed out loud when I realized what you meant by weedeater. I’d never heard that term before – we call it a trimmer or a weedwhacker around here. So funny!
June 6th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Audrey says:
We have something similar in Colorado Springs: http://www.coloradoeats.com/Solos/index.html
I’ve never been, even though it’s only a couple of blocks from my house.
June 6th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Lisa (qtpies7) says:
Our former landlord used to fly over and land on the road and park in our driveway. It was weird, our kids loved it, but it was weird. That airplane just sitting there, that tops it though!
June 6th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
maggie says:
Definitely the Taj Mahal of trailers.
June 6th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
ComfyDenim says:
Ya never know when a plane will come in handy. All those seats…
June 6th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
ComfyDenim says:
not to mention the in-flight movie.
June 6th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Cathy says:
you know, it says something about southerners that none of us seem to be the least bit surprised that a plane would be parked on the side of the road! i was heading up i65 on day when the traffic slowed to a crawl. a man on a large tractor was pulling a light weight plane up the north bound lanes to the shelby county airport exit. it had made an emergency landing on the median. it was two lanes at that point and if you pulled on to the shoulder to look you could see the wings. when it got on the exit we all saw it as we passed, one man in overalls on his john deere pulling an airplane.
June 6th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Beck says:
You know, Texas sounds a lot like where I live, except here is cold and has blackflies.
June 6th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
simply me says:
I journeyed to Texas about 3 years ago and was super enthralled with its kinda Weirdness.lol
June 6th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Linda says:
I’ve been catching up on all your posts, and may I just say you bless my socks off!! If you don’t save all of those precious posts about Sean and put them in a book I will be quite put out!!
You have a special gift. I’m so glad you share it with us.
June 6th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
jan says:
One of these days I will tell you about my husband’s uncle who drove his tractor through Highland Park one night.
Or maybe about the cousin who had a gas jet but no heater attached, so when he got cold,…..
June 6th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Judy says:
All kinds of things pop up, don’t they? I don’t think the south has a monopoly on weird
Check out Lucy: http://www.levins.com/lucy.html
June 6th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Robbin says:
Ahhh. It is situations just like that that made me love Louisiana so much.
June 6th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
Tracey/Real Estate Girl says:
I am married to Bubba!
Famous last words of a redneck…
Greetings from South Alabama!
June 7th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Jennifer says:
I’m curious as to where you saw it now. I’m from East Texasish.
June 10th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Overwhelmed! says:
Too funny! I’ll bet someone lived there!
June 11th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Paige says:
As I scrolled down your blog catching up,I almost flew to my feet. You were in Lamar County! My hometown to be exact. Did you also notice the HUGE liquor store right next to it? Paris is a dry town so any direction you drive and pass the city limits you hit some crazy stuff, including this airplane! Where was the funeral? I haven’t stopped by in a while…glad to see you have been published!
June 16th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Steff says:
I live in NE Oklahoma and theres a guy a couple of towns over that lives in a plane as well…and somewhere not long ago i saw a boat sitting on the side of the road resembling the SS Minnow…the tale that goes with it is that they are using it for a guest house.
weirdness prevails in this area
June 21st, 2007 at 11:08 pm