Never Say Can't

Orville E. Dickerhoof was born before the Wright brothers flew their first airplane and lived to see a man walk on the moon. His own adventures began when he bought a Curtiss Jenny biplane in 1922 and restored it to flying condition. He barnstormed around the midwest in a variety of airplanes, offering rides and participating in aerial circus acts. When he wasn’t flying, he worked on the railroad. During his aviation years, he survived a number of mishaps and crashes, and became acquainted with some of the most famous fliers of aviation’s Golden Age. In his 90s, at the end of a full life, and still retaining a sharp memory, Dickerhoof related his memoirs to Tom Baker, who wrote them down and added some historical context to create this book. Photographs and letters from Dickerhoof’s scrapbook help to illuminate life in rural and small-town America during the time when great locomotives thundered across the prairies and the first airplanes took to the sky.