Wally Byam and the Airstream
As the 19th century drew to a close and the first years of the 20th century rolled by, the still-young United States of America stood upon the precipice of a sea-change in the ways and means of living. Much of what had gone before was not terribly different than the way life had been lived for hundreds of years. Building and construction, agriculture, travel, and much else besides depended upon manual labor, with horses and oxen and other beasts of burden acting as the primary means by which human civilization supplemented its own natural physical strength.
After the great upheaval of the Civil War, however, it was beginning to be apparent to those who may have been able to step back and observe developments that change was in the offing. Steam power was rapidly transforming industry and transportation, the first discoveries in electromagnetism were translated into practical means of long-distance communication, and, similarly, the great electrical innovators Edison and Tesla soon brought electrification, artificial illumination, and other new wonders to the United States and the world. Clearly, the civilization was on the cusp of an accelerating transformation of life.
Born into this boundary between the old and new on July 4, 1896 was a boy who, based on the circumstances of his family, seemed destined for a life of mundane, everyday labor. This was Wally Byam. Born to disadvantage, abandoned by his father as a boy, his mother and stepfather both dying shortly after he finished high school, he was determined, nonetheless, to succeed — at something.
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