Still Nuts After All These Years

Nonsense!

"Why peanuts mommy...why?" asked my very young daughter during a long yet boring flight.

"Well," I replied, "remember when you asked me about what tradition was? Serving peanuts on airplanes is a tradition!"

This tradition can be traced back to the very first flight made by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

As the story goes, Orville was taking the crudely constructed airplane up for its very first test flight across the beautiful Carolina countryside. The plane, a bulky yet horrendous craft, sputtered along at some speed and actually made it off the ground!

After a few seconds of flight, the aircraft suddenly encountered wind shear at 12 feet.

The doomed plane plummeted to the ground, breaking apart in a freshly plowed peanut field.

The pilot, in shock, but not dismembered, emerged from the soil with a mouthful of... yes... peanuts.

Wilbur found this to be hysterical and insisted that peanuts be placed on all subsequent flights as a symbol of good luck, fertility and many happy landings.

The idea of meal service aboard airplanes originated when one of the Wright brothers' later flights resulted in the plane nose-diving into a manure field, but that's another story......