The Evolution of Joe Port

The Story of Joe

Preface

Joe Port began as a carving that I had done with a chainsaw. He was not called Joe Port at the time. The idea to name him came from a passing comment from an onlooker who told me it reminded him of this guy named Joe who hung around the airport . I never did ascertain where or what airport he was alluding to but from his description he sounded to be referring to some homeless person. I sold that carving and a couple more like it, but every time I did one I could not help but think of the man whose likeness I was performing. It was in a sense a real person. Well in truth, cover a persons face with that much hair and it could be anyone.  Still the part that stuck with me was that Joe's story could be anyone's.  The symbolism was such that I couldn't ignore it if I tried. The vision it conjured reminded me of a folk song by Gordon Lightfoot I liked called Early Morning Rain.  The mood created by an indigent watching planes coming and going carrying people off to follow to there dreams, and for whatever reason the line, "I'm stuck here on the ground" rang loudly to me.  The song as well as the image of  some poor soul hanging around an airport suggested to me the plight of the disenfranchised, or those whom by whatever reason had lost out on the opportunities that would allow them to ride the jet plane. 

After many years and thousands of miles, I found the  best way to stave off the boredom of long periods driving mindlessly down America's highways was to think creative thoughts.  It was there, behind the wheel, traveling from show to show that I developed the Story of Joe.  A story, symbolically at least, that could be anyone's.

It was early in the century called nineteen hundred when the age of flight came upon us.  It was largely due to the efforts of two brothers named Orville and Wilbur Wright. Their success ushered in the reality of a long sought dream, that was of man's ability to fly. To Orville and Wilbur it brought great renown, to others it lay the groundwork for concepts and ideas yet to be dreamt.  No less illustrious in their vision were two other brothers, Joseph and Aaron, who were there that fateful day that the Wright Brothers made their pioneer flight.  They, as many others, had been struggling with the concept themselves.   It was a day of mixed emotions for them to realize a dream they had held for so long had long last become reality.  Though they felt elation over the accomplishment they also felt crestfallen that it could not have been their own . Their vision of the future of flight now however, turned to the more practical side. And while others dreamt of flying to the moon, these two turned their attention to the more earthly side of coming back down.  They reasoned that although this was a great discovery it had no practical application. They quiet rightly assumed that people would not be interested for long just flying from one sandy beach to another.   As they returned to their home in Vermont the Port brothers began to formulate their idea of actually building landings zones for this new craft. It was obvious that any of these new craft would require a large unobstructed flat area in order to take off and land. But what kind of surface would work best?

They liked the idea of using sand to land on because there was a softness to it and it would be easy to grade. The problem however, was that there wasn't a lot of sand in Vermont and most of what they could find had a river on top of it making it difficult to harvest for any purpose. But they agreed that a soft surface would work the best in the case something might go wrong with the airplane as it landed. So going with the soft landing concept they went on trying to think of what Vermont had a lot of that was soft.  They thought of leaves, but decided against them especially when Joe pointed out that leaves had a tendency to blow away.  If that happened in any other season besides autumn, they would have to go out and hand pick them in order to replace them which would be expensive and tedious.. None of the rest of their ideas ever reached fruition, until Joe's brother happened on the idea of using moss.  First, moss was plentiful in Vermont, especially on those northern facing slopes, and it was even softer than sand. In addition, it would regrow if it had to, so it wouldn't have to be replaced like those pesky leaves.  With that decided they went off to clear the land and grow their moss.  It wasn't long before they were standing looking at an emerald green, oblong strip of land with a 6 in. deep luxurious layer of soft cushiony moss. Beaming with confidence, they went off to buy a flying machine they had heard of in New Jersey. They would buy it, fly it back, and be the first ever to land one of these machines on something other than a beach.

As they flew back home to Vermont they pondered their future with great excitement.  It was Joe who first coined the name "landing strip". Then Aar suggested the somewhat lengthy company name "Arr and Joe Port's Landing Strips. They grew evermore excited at the prospect of their fame as they dreamed of  building Landing Strips for flying machines all over North America.

After surviving their first landing on their new strip, they came to the conclusion that the deep soft moss was conducive to creating a cart wheel effect in the craft upon landing, which was potentially dangerous. After recovering from the crash they went out to mow the moss. It was only after attempting this, that they settled on the idea of using grass instead. It seems that mowers were never made to mow moss and every other effort to cut the thick burly mat proved equally taxing. After replacing the moss with grass they went off to get another flying machine. Needless to say, this time the landing was a success as was the subsequent business of building landing strips around the world.  Joe and Aar did become famous in small circles, but as with the founder or inventor of any utilitarian device they never became household words.  Or did they?  It seems as with any lengthy name, as time passes, it is prone to being shortened through usage. The first of these truncations came after Joe's passing when the business then became known as "Aar Port's Landing Strips". Although for brevity it was around that same time that the "Landing" was left out, so that the common reference became simply Arr Port's Strips.  And still further after Arr's death, the strips were commonly referred to as we know them today, airports.

Joe's contribution to the development of the modern airport system is largely forgotten. His name however fell to a more dubious, albeit no less common usage, than Aar's.  After many years of founding airports across the nation, Joe retired to moss farming in Vermont.  He had an idea to use moss as replacement for grass in lawns. He was all too aware at this point in time that moss can't be mowed, but he felt the beauty of growing it in yards was that it never grew over 6 in. high and therefore it would never have to be mowed.  The local airport had become a great boon to the community it was getting up to 3 flights a day, not counting mail delivery.  This created the need for a mechanic and since Joe was pretty handy with aircraft, and since watching moss grow can get kind of boring, Joe decided to fill the position. He was immediately referred to as "Joe the mechanic", a phrase which has become the generic when referring to any mechanic, though this too has been shortened through time to the familiar "Joe Mechanic", as in " Who do you think you are, Joe Mechanic?  A phrase which is perhaps as obscure in meaning as the mechanic himself is in deed

Joe is to me, the epitome of obscurity and therefore serves as the quintessential model for all who have labored to achieve the more mundane contributions to the society of man.  Joe's just the "regular Joe" who dreams, tries, succeeds, fails, and then tries again. Joe's dream for moss covered lawns was once again superseded by grass.  After his death, his moss farm was turned into a sod farm.  It seems that Joe overlooked a fundamental fact.  You can't get what is nurtured by darkness to grow in sunlight.  Giving rise to the saying "A rolling stone gathers no moss", but that's another story.

Click here!  to see a carving of Joe Port