The model for the tavern in my story was sold by the German family that owned it. It is still a tavern, but has a different name, different facade and probably a different style. The rest of the countryside described in the story still remains pretty much as it was 50 years ago, but I don't know how much longer. Everything else along that pike has changed.
Pammy was a reflection of a girl I went with in my teen years. She was a pilot and she went for a while before me and again after me with a guy who ended up flying helicopters. Although I used that situation somewhat, the guy never lost an eye. Brook's story was true, including driving himself to the hospital, of another friend of mine in those days. Dramatic license, you know, and I wanted the irony of when Pammy loses an eye.
Brook's scar and his explanation of being busted up by a break-away tire rim happened to my father.
That was pretty much the fate of that old girlfriend. She lost an eye and suffered a lot of other damage after a motorcycle accident. It wasn't as bad as Pammy. She wasn't left having to be cared for constantly with no memories.
The near air crash was also a true account of something that happened when I was dating this girl. As I said, she was a pilot at 16 and we would go up in a small plane on weekends and fly around. She stalled the plane and everything in the story told how it was except for one vital difference. Since my girlfriend was underage, even though she had her
pilot license, she was not allow to fly without an adult co-pilot. It was the co-pilot that managed to restart the plane and keep us from slamming into the woods below. Didn't make it any less scary for us in that plane. especially for me with my fear of height.
Other than those things, everything else is pure fiction.
(The author and his pilot girlfriend 1959.)
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