The last of the Emily “Mickey” Hahn outtakes from China’s Wings that I’ve been posting for the last week or so… (Start here and work your way forward.)
Like many of the CNAC pilots, Hal Sweet was friendly with Mickey Hahn. She and Charles Boxer had decided to get pregnant, and they’d succeeded, even though they weren’t married. Her and Charles Boxer hadn’t made any announcement, but the the whole world must have noticed, because in the summer of 1941, Mickey’s condition was obvious. However, nobody had the gumption to mention the situation to her face.
Society’s tight lips became a joke between her and Charles Boxer. They decided to award a prize to the first person to mention the pregnancy – a box of chocolates if it was a woman, a box of cigars if male.
Hal Sweet bumped into Mickey Hahn in a shop after the DC 2 ½ episode. He hemmed and hawed and invited her for a drink. She accepted.
Sweet cleared his throat a few times once they were seated.
“Ah… Mickey… have you been married lately?”
She explained to him that he’d just won a box of cigars.
Hal Sweet frowned at her swelling tummy, “All right… but Mickey, why a limey?”
Hal Sweet and the cigars: “All right, but Mickey, why a limey?”: Hahn, Emily, China to Me, pp. 255; Cuthbertson, Ken, Nobody Said Not to Go, pp. 214, citing a personal interview with Emily Hahn.
I just finishe reading “China’s Wings” and find it very imformative since I knew of CNAC as a CBI Army veteran and having been flown over the Hump on the way home from China after VJ Day. I found your book easy to read and value all the details that filled the gaps in my own knowledge of the pre-WWII war in China and CNAC’s role in CBI Hump flying. Maybe I will see you at the Burlingame CNAC reunion. I live in Sunnyvale.
Lescher Dowling
Lescher, Thanks for checking in, and thanks for your kind words. Very interesting that you’re a CBI vet in your own right — where did you serve, and in what capacity? We’d love to see you at the upcoming reunion.
Cheers, Greg