As I get older, I have been more conscious of the stuff I own. As I collect mementos through my journeys in life, I have the growing concern that I have too much stuff. One day, as I was looking through some of my things it occurred to me that the reason that I have some of these items is because of the story behind them. To clarify, I do not mean merely a souvenir from a trip I took, but something that has a deeper meaning. I could part with all the refrigerator magnets that I have collected to represent the places I have travelled, but not these objects. At least, not with some deeper reflection on the value they hold. Some of those items I will never part with such as my Grandfather’s pipe stand. What follows is my attempt to catalogue a few of these interesting things.

In the movie Twelve O’Clock High, Dean Jagger’s character Major Harvey Stovall finds a toby mug in a shop window identical to the one in the 918th Bomb Group’s officer’s club. The toby mug, a masked Robin Hood, sits on the mantle and is the indicator to the room if there will be a bombing mission tomorrow or not. If Robin is facing the wall: no mission. If Robin is facing the room: mission.

Toby Mug Dean Jagger and the Toby Mug

Back when I was an instructor we did something similar before every flight. Or rather, our students (who were instructor pilots) would as part of their pre-flight duties, turn Zeke around to face the wall. If they forgot to turn Zeke to face the wall that was a monetary fine that went into the funding of their graduation party. The astute reader may ask why did we change up the facing of the toby mug from the obvious inspiration of the 918th? Zeke was to be turned to face the wall so he could not see our students’ ensuing buffoonery in the aircraft.

As for Zeke, he was not a toby mug, but a bust of an aviator looking skyward made by Michael Garman in 1973, called “Flying Leather”. A previous instructor donated Zeke to the squadron and as to why the “Flying Leather” bust is called Zeke. No one seems to know.

Zeke Zeke on a bookcase

Today, a fellow former instructor has the original Zeke on a shelf of memorabilia in his basement. My Zeke was a going away gift when I left the squadron and rests, always facing outward, on my bookcase.

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King, Henry, dir. 1949. Twelve O’Clock High (United States: 20th Century Fox, 1949), Theatric Release.

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