August is halfway over, and another summer on Cape Cod is slowly approaching Labor Day. The Falmouth Road Race is the last major sporting event before football season. This year’s race on Sunday, August 18th, is right next to a Monday holiday on August 19th.thNational Aviation Day. You say you’ve never heard of it?
It wasn’t on my calendar either, but then it was. When I looked at the last weeks of August on the wall calendar in my study and was actively planning a September vacation, 8/19/24 was entered for it. Time for a little research, and yes, there is a website, nationalaviationday.org. Franklin Roosevelt established the day with a proclamation on August 19, 1939, in honor of the birthday of Orville Wright, who was born in 1871 and was still alive at the time. The purpose of the commemoration was to promote aviation.
My newfound knowledge that day coincided with a trip to the photo archive to find old pictures of the Falmouth Road Race. A photo trip down memory lane used to involve a trip to the basement to retrieve negative sleeves from the packing boxes, always hoping they had been filed in the right order, which was usually not the case. Now all you need is a few keywords and the digital archive quickly fills the screen with images. But still with the luck of finding an old envelope with snapshots from 30 years ago.
Covering the “road race” was a real staple for reporters and photographers back then. There were photo positions on both support vehicles for the men’s and women’s races, one person at Nobska Light, and backup at the finish line. For many years there was also the option of aerial photography, either in a small plane or preferably a helicopter. The aerial photography was a wonderful job. First, it made for such amazing pictures taking along the coast to the finish line in Falmouth Heights. Second, you didn’t have to be at race headquarters at 6 a.m. before all the roads were closed, you could just drive to the airport in Hyannis, fly to Woods Hole, watch the race, and be back on the ground by 11:30 a.m., develop and edit film, be at the beach by early afternoon.
I was surprised that the last time I did this job was in 2000. The photography gods were happy that day, the weather was clear, the wind was coming from the right direction for the target under the American flag. A good reason to celebrate National Aviation Day, even 24 years later.
Thank you to our subscribers who make this reporting possible. If you are not a subscriber, please support quality local journalism with a subscription to the Cape Cod Times.Here are our subscription plans.
