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This week, some pretty adept piloting of a cropduster near Emmetsburg, Iowa, circa 1953. This pilot really has some sweet moves as he swoops overhead, narrowly avoiding an unwelcome meeting with the road below and the heads of onlookers.Contributor Casey T. in Virginia, USA, asked his grandfather (and cameraman) Paul H. of Waukee, Iowa, to recount some stories about this footage, and here’s what he said:

George Bryant was the manager of the Emmetsburg, Iowa airport, and was the pilot of the plane. He did a lot of crop spraying. Obviously he was a very good pilot. He was able to fly over telephone lines, cross the country road and fly under the electric line.

He sprayed herbicide on the corn. When he landed on the road after spraying, your [Casey’s] great grandfather, Paul L. Huscher, who is in one of the pictures by the plane, jokingly asked George if he was detasseling corn. Hybrid corn was detasseled for cross pollination. George flew so low that corn tassels were pulled off and hung on the spray bar.

Great grandmother Nellie Huscher, and great grandfather Ray Wright, were there that day watching. Grandmother and I were there also. I think George showed off a little.

As a little side note, George Bryant and my father, Paul L. Huscher had a little car accident in Emmetsburg some time after these pictures were taken. I figured George was a better pilot than he was a driver. All were still friends.

Also, as a side note, George had trained your great grandfather Ray Wright, to fly. Unfortunately Ray hadn’t told your great grandmother, Louise Wright, about this, and when the private pilot’s license came in the mail, Louise saw it first and burned it. I don’t think Grandpa Wright flew much after that anyway.

High-quality raw footage of this excerpt and more from this reel of home movies are available for download and reuse under a Creative Commons license at the Internet Archive. See our File Directory for a link.

Music: Cinema Volta, “2005-11-03″ from the Podsafe Music Network