Hi all,
My father, Loren "Swede" Davis, was a resident of Wrightwood from about 1961-1964. My folks were divorced but I spent every other weekend in Wrightwood. Dad was a test pilot at Edwards and also flew air attack for the Forest Service during fire season. There were a couple other USFS pilots in town at the time. One, Al Adolph, was dads best friend. Al was lost while fighting a fire in a B-17 in the mid 70's. There was another fellow in town that dad always said was one of the craziest pilots he had ever seen. Don't remember his name.
Dad was also on the ski patrol at Holiday Hill and Blue Ridge.
Dad moved overseas in 1964 when he took a job as chief test pilot for a German company. He was lost on a test flight in 1965. He was planning to move back to Wrightwood when his contract was up.
I remember Keenan Wynn, Lee Marvin and Steve McQueen as they all spent time in Wrightwood and the four of them raced motorcycles together. I fondly remember riding around town and in the hills as the monkey in Keenan's sidehack. There was also a gal in town named Jeannie that dad was dating. She drove a small pickup like a Ranchero or El Camino.
I went to GoogleEarth and looked up Wrightwood trying to see if I could remember where dad lived. I think it was near Edna and Apple. Must be about 25 years since I've been down that way. Could probably find it driving around but not from satellite photos.
Anyway, I found this site through an article and link on a wildland firefighter website (
www.wildlandfire.com) I hang out on and wanted to say howdy.
Best,
Loren Davis, Jr.
Kenwood, CA
