Robert Grinsell

Robert Grinsell Interview

Interviewed by Sonia and Mark Dana Blocker

Recorded by Arlie Sommer

Also Present: Laurie Simpson

Time: 01:17:20

GRINSELL: [00:00:00] Area. Well, yeah. Now.

GRINSELL: [00:00:04] Back in the old days, I went to Blessed Sacrament Grade school, which is no more.

BLOCKER: [00:00:09] Yeah, I bet beach School now in Boise.

GRINSELL: [00:00:12] Yeah. There was, uh. Well, let's see, there was beach Boise, uh, and the one crossed interstate, uh, beach. Beach street. Beach school. That was beach. And. It got crazy. Yeah I bet. But we had a lot of fun.

BLOCKER: [00:00:31] That's good.

SIMPSON: [00:00:33] Scoot over closer to.

SOMMER: [00:00:35] Oh, for the for a picture. Oh, hi.

SIMPSON: [00:00:43] So the light is just not.

GRINSELL: [00:00:45] Oh, that's a big light in the wrong area.

SIMPSON: [00:00:48] A window.

SIMPSON: [00:00:49] Yeah. Oh. Well done.

SOMMER: [00:00:54] Okay.

INTERVIEWER: [00:00:56] James.

INTERVIEWER: [00:00:57] Can I talk to you now so you can know I didn't?

INTERVIEWER: [00:01:01] How come nobody wants to Talk to me.

GRINSELL: [00:01:05] Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know that only 12 people died in that.

SOMMER: [00:01:15] We've got it. We should maybe wait for that. Oh, yeah. Maybe. Um, yeah. We should. These would be cool. Okay, so if first, before we start, do you want to sign a waiver for us, please? Um. There's that, and it's just so that we can use this on a website. Um, put it on a website. And then we'll go around and do introductions and then start the interview. And so yeah, we're just going to be finding out about Robert and what he does and. So nothing. Nothing. He does nothing. Apparently.

GRINSELL: [00:01:55] Nothing but make airplanes.

SIMPSON: [00:01:57] And they're good. Somewhere in here. I lost the cap.

SOMMER: [00:02:07] Oh, no. And so.

SOMMER: [00:02:14] And a little bit before we start. I know it might be hard because of the positioning of the microphone, but if you guys have questions, do you mind just kind of like directing your head over to the, um, you can just kind of lean over to the microphone and speak into the microphone. And then if, um, I know it might be hard, but, um, if you if you think of it, just speak into the microphone. Just share this one.

SIMPSON: [00:02:40] Yeah. That's true. You can put it on the corner there.

SOMMER: [00:02:45] Yeah, yeah. And then just but especially on you, because you're the person being interviewed. Just speak into the microphone as much as possible. That's a good point. Get it right over there. Certain clients. I have spaces for two more mics, but I am missing one chord. Wow. Oh, but next time we'll bring more so that everybody can kind of be equipped on Friday. Fridays. The next time we're meeting Friday. Uh huh.

BLOCKER: [00:03:17] I think we're closing early on Friday because it's gonna be 95 out.

SOMMER: [00:03:21] We're meeting at ten.

SIMPSON: [00:03:22] I forgot about.

SOMMER: [00:03:23] That. Is that gonna be okay or.

BLOCKER: [00:03:25] Yeah, that'll be fine.

SOMMER: [00:03:26] Okay.

BLOCKER: [00:03:26] I think 12 on Friday.

SOMMER: [00:03:28] Oh, okay. That'll be perfect then. That's good to know. Okay. And then, um. Oops. Sorry. Just careful moving. Around here because this is actually a microphone too. And so. Um, maybe Verl. If you think of any questions you can, like, lean towards this or speak towards that. Okay, great.

Speaker7: [00:03:49] Our.

SOMMER: [00:03:50] We are recording. Um, shall we go around and everybody introduce each other?

INTERVIEWER: [00:03:56] How come I haven't seen you lately? You said I could later on.

SOMMER: [00:04:01] Or whenever we're doing an interview right now, we're all interviewing, um, Robert. You.

INTERVIEWER: [00:04:07] And then after him. Can I interview you? Because you've been promising me about that. Oh.

SOMMER: [00:04:14] Well, we'll see if we have time.

GRINSELL: [00:04:16] Turnabout. Fair play.

SIMPSON: [00:04:17] I'm rather a good negotiator.

INTERVIEWER: [00:04:22] I'd rather do that now.

GRINSELL: [00:04:24] Reversal of roles, if.

INTERVIEWER: [00:04:25] You don't mind.

SOMMER: [00:04:26] I do, because we're interviewing Robert. He's come all this way to be interviewed by all of us together. Well, when Can I interview you, then?

SOMMER: [00:04:35] Not today.

INTERVIEWER: [00:04:36] What? When?

SOMMER: [00:04:38] How about some other time? When we're practicing.

INTERVIEWER: [00:04:41] You might forget.

SIMPSON: [00:04:43] I'll write it down.

INTERVIEWER: [00:04:45] Okay, well, I kind of want to do it later on today. Whenever we, uh, wrap things before we wrap things up.

SIMPSON: [00:04:54] Bro, we need to, uh, we need to get.

INTERVIEWER: [00:04:58] Well. She's been saying that I could nick some other time, and this is some other time. I haven't done it lately.

SIMPSON: [00:05:07] This is not an appropriate time, though. Okay, we've got a special guest.

INTERVIEWER: [00:05:11] I'm going interview.

SIMPSON: [00:05:12] Them for you to interview.

INTERVIEWER: [00:05:14] If you don't want me to interview you, then what's the sense in me coming here? Then I want to do.

SOMMER: [00:05:21] Okay, well, we can figure out an interview time later.

INTERVIEWER: [00:05:25] You've been promised. Okay.

SIMPSON: [00:05:27] How about. How about if we say Friday?

INTERVIEWER: [00:05:30] Well, no, no, no, because Friday I don't work. And plus, I'm going to the trip of the coast.

SIMPSON: [00:05:38] How are you?

SOMMER: [00:05:38] That's fun. That's gonna be awesome. So. Okay, so we need to stay on track because we don't have a lot of time here. Well, can.

INTERVIEWER: [00:05:45] I interview you after Robert, then? Yes. Okay, we'll do a couple questions.

SOMMER: [00:05:49] Yes, we'll do that. Do a couple interviews. Is everything okay?

INTERVIEWER: [00:05:54] Well, you've been promising me sometimes.

SOMMER: [00:05:57] All right. So we're going to start this interview right now. Oh.

Speaker8: [00:06:05] Um.

SOMMER: [00:06:06] Robert, do you want to introduce yourself? And then we'll go around and yeah, just give introductions and then just start. We're kind of free flow. So.

GRINSELL: [00:06:17] Well, my name is Robert Michael Grinsell A.

SOMMER: [00:06:24] Do you want headphones on?

SIMPSON: [00:06:27] Look here. Do you.

SOMMER: [00:06:28] Mind? And I'll.

[00:06:30] Keep going. Some people promised me.

INTERVIEWER: [00:06:37] That I could do stuff some other time, that no one would do it.

SOMMER: [00:06:44] Girl. Are you okay? No. Let's.

SIMPSON: [00:06:48] What? You know what?

SOMMER: [00:06:50] Lighten up. Lighten up.

INTERVIEWER: [00:06:52] Well, I will.

SOMMER: [00:06:53] It's okay.

INTERVIEWER: [00:06:54] I will lighten up. Then. If you say I could later on.

SIMPSON: [00:06:58] Later, after the interview, she'll let you ask her a few questions today. And then maybe a few more on Friday. How does that sound?

INTERVIEWER: [00:07:04] I go to the coast on Friday.

SIMPSON: [00:07:08] Testing. Testing. Okay. Following week, that is.

SOMMER: [00:07:14] Uh uh oh. Is it hurting your ears?

SONIA: [00:07:18] The. No. Turn it down.

SOMMER: [00:07:23] Is that good?

SONIA: [00:07:25] Oh, yeah. Yeah. Good.

SOMMER: [00:07:28] Okay. All right, so now I start again.

GRINSELL: [00:07:32] Okay. My name is Robert M Grinsell. I was born in Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada.

SONIA: [00:07:41] Hey. Iggy.

SOMMER: [00:07:44] You can't hear. So headphones are better now. Sorry about.

SIMPSON: [00:07:56] How about now? Better if you're not in a hurry.

SONIA: [00:07:59] Oh, yeah.

SIMPSON: [00:08:01] Yeah. Okay.

[00:08:03] Okay. Um. And then Mark and Sonia, would you.

SOMMER: [00:08:08] Both introduce yourself before we start?

BLOCKER: [00:08:12] My name is Mark Dana Blocker. I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, mainly on Mallory and Fremont between MLK and Williams. And I'm glad to be here.

SONIA: [00:08:26] As. The power. So. Awesome.

SOMMER: [00:08:46] So do you want to talk a little bit about your paper airplanes and their.

GRINSELL: [00:08:54] Great. Well, this particular airplane I've been making since 1948. Ah, shortly after the Vanport flood. So it's I've been making them for about, uh, almost 60 years. Uh. Or a little more, and I've been enjoying every. But now I just make them for people who have kids or grandkids or kids playing at the park. If I happen to be there, yeah, I bring them with me and watch them have fun. That's my part of fun is. Throw one and watch their eyes light up. And then I'm gone. And they're easy for anybody to make. So. And they're cheap.

[00:10:04] That's it. Just this one.

SOMMER: [00:10:05] Right here, right? Yeah.

SIMPSON: [00:10:08] How far do they fly?

GRINSELL: [00:10:10] Depending on the aircraft and the size and what it's made from, they'll fly anywhere from 20ft. To out to sea.

SONIA: [00:10:23] Uh.

GRINSELL: [00:10:25] So they they do tend to fly a long range and. They're fun. For kids. And living in Portland in the early days was fun growing up because when I was a kid, as opposed to when you were a kid. We played marbles. We played, uh, keep away with a soccer ball. And that was our socialization. Is that we. We had no computers, telephone, but no computers. No. No little games to play.

SONIA: [00:11:17] Whoa.

GRINSELL: [00:11:18] So we had to entertain ourselves, and we did it. And in the evening, we would play cards. Pinochle. Poker monopoly. All the board games that they're no longer around.

SONIA: [00:11:39] Um.

GRINSELL: [00:11:40] Kids don't need those anymore. So it's changed our whole social socialization. People, kids to kids and people to people. There's no more interaction. I have my computer here. You have your computer there? Yeah. You don't. We don't get together like we used to.

SONIA: [00:12:01] No more.

GRINSELL: [00:12:03] And kids need that socialization outside of the school because they're they can be themselves and be on their own and enjoy having fun together. Each person, each kid takes a turn coming up with a game to play. And that way everything is great. We never had. Oh, once in a while we'd have a little difference of opinion, but it wasn't anything drastic unless somebody would run across to a bigger kid beating up on a little kid.

SONIA: [00:12:48] Yeah.

GRINSELL: [00:12:49] Then you turn the tables on him.

SONIA: [00:12:53] Yeah.

GRINSELL: [00:12:54] And you? We'd take him and get him aside and tell him that's not done. Mhm. And if you do it again you're going to get the same. And they some of them would get, most of them would get the message, some wouldn't. But that's life and that's individuals. But it, it helped a lot. As long as people understand that there are parameters of how far you can go with things. Then you can take and say that you've got a society of people, starting from the earliest age to the elders. And it all works out the same.

SONIA: [00:13:42] Um.

GRINSELL: [00:13:44] But when people ignore that, then you have problems.

SONIA: [00:13:50] Yeah.

GRINSELL: [00:13:51] So what do you do? You do the best. You do the best you can with what you've got.

SONIA: [00:14:05] And.

GRINSELL: [00:14:06] Try to enjoy life the best you can.

SONIA: [00:14:08] Yeah, because.

GRINSELL: [00:14:09] It's a it's a one time thing. You you get one time around and the game's over.

SONIA: [00:14:20] Mhm.

SOMMER: [00:14:23] Do you guys have questions to ask for Robert?

BLOCKER: [00:14:26] How long does it take to make one of those?

GRINSELL: [00:14:29] Oh. About minute, two minutes. That's good. I've got paper here if you want to see how to make one.

BLOCKER: [00:14:42] I'm probably not good at it.

GRINSELL: [00:14:46] It's easy. You just you take the airplane, the paper. Which side? Which side do you want up like this? This side. Okay, we'll turn it face down. You just taken? Well, let me put my cheaters on. Okay. You just take that. Fold it in half. Make the corners come together. And crease firmly. And you want more of this to show than this. So we'll take this like that. Like that. Can you describe what you're doing today? Just making folds to form the start of the aircraft. Then you bring it. Over. Over again. And now you got your keeper. That locks it all into place. And you just take it, fold it again and reverse. And then you fold it to the make there and then crease it. Then you reverse it and do the same with the other one. Now you have your wings. There we go. And you put up your wing tabs. This is a little long. You don't have a pair of scissors. And I left. I left my razor blade. In the truck.

SOMMER: [00:17:09] You can go and get scissors.

SONIA: [00:17:12] Okay, cool. Oh.

GRINSELL: [00:17:15] And then you have a basic airplane. And even in this state it will fly. Haha.

BLOCKER: [00:17:26] But that was nothing at all.

SONIA: [00:17:31] Nothing to it? No.

[00:17:33] Good. Two. And.

GRINSELL: [00:17:37] You what she got scissors y. What we'll do is we'll shorten this thing up. Okay? We'll shorten it up to. We'll get it, give it. We'll give it a little character. So we'll take it to about like this. And cut it and fold it back over. Get. Straighten out the wing tabs. Then the final cut is you cut it forward towards the nose of the aircraft. Snippet and pass the tail back up through like that. Like that. You got your airplane and you just take it and throw it.

SIMPSON: [00:18:38] What is your experience with airplane?

GRINSELL: [00:18:42] You mean.

SIMPSON: [00:18:43] Uh, real ones?

GRINSELL: [00:18:44] Real ones? Uh, I used to jump out of them.

SONIA: [00:18:53] You used to jump out of them.

GRINSELL: [00:18:55] You used to jump out of airplanes for the government didn't go far. With the 82nd Airborne Division. And. That was a lot of fun. We used to. We used to have people come, come in to watch the jumps. Mm. They put up a sign on the outside the base. Uh, sorry. Jumping today? Yeah. You're welcome to come follow directions to watch these men jump out of airplanes. Anyway, so here comes the 119. Come flying over. The guys are going out and people are looking at from the ground up as the parachutes open. And how. Oh. And then all of a sudden this, you could hear the guys screaming as they came out the, out the door. And because the way it was was that supposedly everybody was hollering Geronimo! Well, when the guys on the ground, some little old lady was there and she looked up and she said, oh, she's isn't that nice? Listen to them. There's they're saying, Geronimo. And this one guy steps up and he says, lady, you weren't hearing it right. That's I don't want to go. But it was fun and I enjoyed every bit of it. And I made I made my share of jumps 182.

SIMPSON: [00:20:49] Wow. What other high above the ground experiences you had?

GRINSELL: [00:20:55] Uh, yeah, about 9000ft.

SONIA: [00:21:02] Oh, with.

GRINSELL: [00:21:05] With three parachutes.

SONIA: [00:21:08] Uh.

GRINSELL: [00:21:10] You pull one, you fall, you jump out of the airplane, and you take your. Your flight position. Wings, your arms and feet. You're just kind of almost like a glide.

SONIA: [00:21:28] Mhm.

GRINSELL: [00:21:28] Then you pull the ripcord. The chute opens. There's a ring. You take it out. Turn it. Thing falls apart. You go like this, the chute goes away. Uh, you drop again.

SONIA: [00:21:49] Another.

GRINSELL: [00:21:50] 5000ft.

SONIA: [00:21:53] Okay. You're getting. And you pull.

GRINSELL: [00:21:58] It and it. Same thing. You release it. Then you fall another thousand 1500 feet to where you're only about, uh, thousand feet above the ground. And people are screaming because they they know that all of us used to wear two shoots, a main and a reserve. But I was where, uh, I had three free fall shoots, so I pulled the third one, and it opened, and I came in and landed, and people were like, I was half nuts. Well, there's some truth in that. I've never been accused of being smart. Mhm. Just enjoy being crazy. Mhm. But. That's that was I didn't know at that time because I was very young at the time. I was 15 years old.

SONIA: [00:23:10] Oh.

GRINSELL: [00:23:11] That what I did was illegal.

SONIA: [00:23:16] Why?

GRINSELL: [00:23:17] Because your government property and doing that, you're endangering government property. And that is a bad no, no. And post commander called me in and told me about it. I said yes sir. Once he got wind. Mhm. Unfortunately or fortunately for me, he let it go with that, uh, verbal warning. So needless to say I didn't, didn't do that again. But it was a lot of fun and it was an experience I wouldn't give up for anything.

SONIA: [00:23:58] Yea yea yea yea yea yea.

GRINSELL: [00:24:05] And I have fun doing it.

SONIA: [00:24:08] No, you do it again.

GRINSELL: [00:24:12] Or do it again. Uh, yeah I would, I would, I'd do it again.

BLOCKER: [00:24:20] We'll see. The airplane he made.

SONIA: [00:24:25] Mhm.

Speaker9: [00:24:25] Did you ever throw one of your. Airplanes out of.

GRINSELL: [00:24:28] No, no, I never did that. But, uh, what we had was, is that on occasion, what we we had guys from all over, and we had guys in the unit there at Fort Bragg that one of the guys in particular was born, uh, just about. Oh, I guess about 5 or 6 miles from the base, um, is where he was born. And we were out. They fly around to get you used to, uh, uh, being on long flights. So they'd take us out over the ocean and fly us around, and then they'd come in. Over the to go over the drop zone. Well, we were free to get up and walk around. Uh, in the plane and go back because the doors were always open, because they were hot in there and no air conditioning. So they'd opened up the two doors in the back, and you could go and look out the window or out the window, out the door. And but you had to hook up first just in case you should fall. Well, this one guy, he goes out, he hooks up, and he was flying over and he says, hey, that's my hometown. And he bailed out. And he landed in the football field. Yeah. Well, needless to say, the pilot got on the radio and sent the MPs to pick him up.

SONIA: [00:26:11] Wow. Mhm.

GRINSELL: [00:26:14] So he he didn't, uh, he got a little bit of enjoyment out of it. Walking off of the football field with his parachute and everything all wrapped up and put in the bag. And by the time he got through talking to a couple of friends or people that he knew, and here come the MPs, and they throw him in the back of the wagon and took him back to the base. Wow. So he spent ten days on dirty duty.

SIMPSON: [00:26:46] Maybe one of you could ask Robert what it was like in the 40s in the neighborhood.

BLOCKER: [00:26:52] How was it like in the 40s in the neighborhood in northeast Portland?

SONIA: [00:26:55] Yeah.

GRINSELL: [00:26:57] It was a lot of fun. I wouldn't I wouldn't change anything for the fun that I had when I was a kid here. Mhm. And where, where I lived was on the corner of Humboldt and Kerby and right cattywampus across from the corner of our lot was a great big old gas tank from, for the Northwest Natural Gas Company. It's not there anymore. And one block down was Jefferson High School. And back in those days, we used to get airplanes. Not like this, but like in the shape of a real airplane. Real wings. Like tail. Wings, tail. They were, uh, balsa wood. And we'd play with those until they got to the point where they would hardly fly anymore.

BLOCKER: [00:28:03] It was MLK named Union back then. Or was it.

GRINSELL: [00:28:06] It was Union. Union Avenue. And we'd take it. We'd take our airplanes and go over to Jefferson. Mhm. Climb up the fire escape with a little bit of lighter fluid and match, and we'd put a little bit of lighter fluid on the tail, light it and throw it off of the fire escape and watch it go down in flames. Just like the, just like the old fighter planes fighting in the old war pictures. Yeah, he's got a blazing end, but we used to have, uh, wood, airplanes, balsa wood that the wings were, were like this, but they had taken swivel and then they'd fold back and you could take them by the wings, and you had a, a stick with a rubber band on it, a heavy rubber band. And you could take it like this, pull it way back and let go. And that sucker would go up a couple of maybe 100ft.

SONIA: [00:29:10] Or a little more.

GRINSELL: [00:29:12] And as soon as it stopped, its forward motion, the wings would slap back in the normal position. And here it would go. It'd be just flying all over the place. Wow. And we. Yeah, yeah. And then have to chase it. But it's things like that that kids brings kids together. To have fun.

SONIA: [00:29:37] Yeah.

GRINSELL: [00:29:38] And when kids are having fun, they're not doing mischief. That's right. And that's where we've lost it. Uh, with the computers and everything else. We've lost it. We've lost that camaraderie. Camaraderie that we used to have as a group of kids. Enjoying being together, having fun together. And we used to go to the to the movies together. On, uh, Mississippi Avenue, it was the old Rio theater.

SONIA: [00:30:17] Oh, wow.

GRINSELL: [00:30:17] That is no more down in on, uh, across one block or half a block across, uh, Albina or, uh, on Albina Crossing, uh, Killingsworth. There was the old Colonial Theater. And then up on MLK. To the left was the Walnut Park Theater. Mhm. And they used to show every Saturday they had serials Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, whip with, uh, lash LaRue, Whip Wilson. Uh, all the old, uh, uh, childhood favorites when we were kids. And we could go there and two bits. You could sit there all day and watch these serials. And then one main feature, and then, uh, about a half a dozen cartoons. Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, Daffy, just. And we just, you know, had a lot of fun together. But things have changed and you don't get that togetherness anymore. It's. It's not like this. It's like this. Mm mm mm mm mm. You get. You put your fingers together and they're all warm. You open them up on a cold day and every one of them is cold. There's it loses. And that's what we're losing is the camaraderie between kids and people. And when? When people.

SIMPSON: [00:32:06] Do you remember about the Egyptian theater?

GRINSELL: [00:32:08] Oh, the old Egyptian theater that was up here. Uh, on. Well, just across right around the corner on, uh, MLK and, uh, uh, yeah. Anyway, Russell, uh, and it was one of the most beautiful theaters in Portland. On the on the facade out front. And when you go in it was it was designed for, uh. Not for not so much as a theater, but as or as a movie theater, but as a stage show. It had box seats on both sides and everything, and they'd have musicals in there and early, early way back in the in the 30s and 40s or, uh, early 40s, but the 20s and 30s, that's the way it was. And it was really when it said Egyptian. I mean, that's the way they made it look. Right. And when you go in, it was a beautiful theater. Well, the heyday of the stage shows had gone, so it was movie theater. They put in a movie screen and that's where we used to go. Every neighborhood had a theater. For kids to go to and enjoy a movie and company of other kids. And. Now all of the old neighborhood theaters are destroyed, right? There are very few of them left.

SONIA: [00:33:49] Oh, wow.

GRINSELL: [00:33:51] The one on, uh. That's that's progress.

BLOCKER: [00:33:55] We want our places in Alberta.

GRINSELL: [00:33:57] That covered it. Oh, 16th.

[00:34:01] No, it's on 30th in Alberta. Called the, uh.

BLOCKER: [00:34:07] Victory Outreach Church.

GRINSELL: [00:34:09] Oh, yeah.

BLOCKER: [00:34:10] It used to be a theater there. Alberta theater.

GRINSELL: [00:34:12] Well, the Alberta was on 17th and. And Alberta.

BLOCKER: [00:34:17] Maybe I'm thinking maybe they moved to 30th because when I was growing up, that's where we went and saw movies. Yeah, because me to the Alberta Theater to watch kung fu movies. Yeah.

GRINSELL: [00:34:26] It was an old wood, an old wood structure that was, uh. Oh, probably about from here to there. Not, no, not even that wide, but. And it was just long and kind of narrow and it was two story outside, but it was only one story inside, except where they had the projection room. Okay. And that's where we used to go and watch the, all the cartoons and ah, because that was, uh, we used to walk past Saint Andrew's Church on the way up.

[00:34:59] Mhm. And. Yeah.

GRINSELL: [00:35:03] Yep. Those are the. Those are the old days.

BLOCKER: [00:35:06] Right on. Thanks for sharing.

GRINSELL: [00:35:09] Yeah, I'd like to go back and do it all again. It'll be nice, huh?

BLOCKER: [00:35:15] Yeah. Yeah.

SONIA: [00:35:23] Uh huh. Uh oh. Yeah.

GRINSELL: [00:35:32] How old am I?

SONIA: [00:35:34] Yeah.

GRINSELL: [00:35:37] Well, yeah. No. Now, if I asked her that, I might get one across the lips.

SONIA: [00:35:44] Got that right.

GRINSELL: [00:35:47] But in my case. Well, I'm 72. Wow.

SONIA: [00:35:53] Mhm.

GRINSELL: [00:35:57] And. By most standards, I guess people would say, oh, what's that old man doing?

SONIA: [00:36:06] Yeah.

SIMPSON: [00:36:08] I'd like to ask Robert about the Vanport floods and his experience.

BLOCKER: [00:36:13] What about the band was talking to the microphone. The Vanport flood.

GRINSELL: [00:36:19] The Vanport flood? Yeah. How well I remember. We people were moving out of Vanport because of the high water on the Columbia and the Willamette rivers and the, uh, federal government that was government property. That was a government housing project for the people living there, worked at the shipyards, and the federal government came on the radio and told the people in Vanport to stay in your homes, that you would get ample warning to get yourselves and your belongings out of Vanport before the before the water.

[00:37:10] Would come in.

GRINSELL: [00:37:14] Well, the day of the Vanport flood, I had taken my brother, my oldest older brother's bow and arrow.

SONIA: [00:37:24] And I went.

GRINSELL: [00:37:26] Up and walked the dike along the Columbia and then turned at where, uh, about where the bridge is, and then walked back down the dike. Along, uh, where, uh, swift meat packing used to have a place right there on that, on that particular corner. And they occupied a pretty good part of that because they had, uh, cattle pens where they held cattle waiting to be butchered. Uh huh. And I walked along and I came to there was a, a cut in the dike that was an overpass or the train went over, but, uh, trucks could go under because they had to bring trucks in to deliver the cattle and get back out. Well, when I got to that, they had put in, uh, cross ties, steel plate, cross ties, steel plate, and then, uh, sandbags. And they just sandbag and sandbag and they just kept they were constantly sandbagging. And when I got there. The water was seeping through. And. I looked down and I saw that, and I looked at this guy and I said. That ain't going to work. And I went home. And three hours later. Screaming, howling, hollering and horns honking. These guys were running from leaving the the dyke. They were screaming, get out, get out! The dyke is breaking up. So my older brother had dad's car at the beach, so we rode out with the family across the street. And nobody got anything out. But ourselves. We got out up onto the dike in between Vanport and East Vanport. And we were on Denver Avenue.

BLOCKER: [00:39:56] North Portland.

GRINSELL: [00:39:57] Yeah. And we were behind the, uh, on the dike was up here, North Portland? Yes. North Portland and, uh, the dike, uh, from where we were on Denver and, uh, the Slough dike. Was right above, immediately above the theatre in that we used to go to in Vanport. Great big old theater building. And there was a parking lot right beside it. And. That's where we had to stop because of all of the people that came out to sightsee. To see what was going on. Mhm. So and behind us we didn't, we didn't know about there was a line of cars of people trying to get out that couldn't because they had uh, had the whole road just blocked. There was no traffic moving at all.

BLOCKER: [00:40:59] No way.

GRINSELL: [00:41:00] No way out. And there was a, a car that came screaming up like, uh, on the ground. And then they tried to climb the dike that we were on, and the car came up about maybe 20ft. And this young, this young couple bailed out and ran up, started to get up the bank, and they were having problems. So a bunch of the guys got together, formed a human chain. And they use that to take and go up. And they made it up onto Denver Avenue. And then all of a sudden here was this wall of water came washing in. It hit the car and. Went like just move the car a little bit and then this woman just let out a bloodcurdling scream. And the guys looked at her. And asked her what was the matter, and she says, my kids. She had left her two kids in the car, in the back seat.

SONIA: [00:42:07] Whoa. They got.

GRINSELL: [00:42:11] The guys. Two guys went down and they brought him out.

BLOCKER: [00:42:17] Oh, you know, our interstates at you know, our interstate is at.

GRINSELL: [00:42:21] Oh, yeah.

BLOCKER: [00:42:22] Was there many motels like they have now? They're.

GRINSELL: [00:42:26] Uh, on interstate at that time. There was one across the street from the fire station on, uh, Killingsworth or just before Killingsworth. There was one that was further down, uh, uh, towards town. There was like, I think at that time there was like three motels on interstate. And there was one just off in the Kenton area. Okay.

BLOCKER: [00:42:59] Do you know the names of them?

GRINSELL: [00:43:00] No, I don't. I can't remember anymore.

BLOCKER: [00:43:05] I was just because I noticed the budget end out there. The Western motel. Mhm. Um, then they used to call it the Knickerbocker. Mhm.

GRINSELL: [00:43:17] Well, the one the one that was right across from the, uh, Firestone Hotel from the fire station, was a two story.

BLOCKER: [00:43:25] That's the crown now.

GRINSELL: [00:43:27] Oh, okay. And, uh. But that's progress. Yeah. Yeah, right. I believe in the tooth fairy, too.

BLOCKER: [00:43:38] I was just curious if there was many motels there.

GRINSELL: [00:43:40] There weren't that many. That was, uh, that was pretty much residential.

BLOCKER: [00:43:45] Residential? Yeah.

GRINSELL: [00:43:46] And, uh. Well, because where I went to school was on Maryland. Mhm.

BLOCKER: [00:43:54] And uh remember John Ball.

GRINSELL: [00:43:57] Mhm. The name sounds familiar but I can't. I'm trying to think where that is. It was just a small school.

BLOCKER: [00:44:08] How about woodland? What woodland.

GRINSELL: [00:44:10] School? Woodland Park?

BLOCKER: [00:44:12] No. Woodlawn. Oh. It's over. Off of. Down by seventh. Moreland Boulevard down in that area.

GRINSELL: [00:44:20] Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one was not.

BLOCKER: [00:44:23] Too far from Columbia Boulevard, right?

GRINSELL: [00:44:27] Yeah. That, uh.

BLOCKER: [00:44:31] And let's see, that's why I went to grade school. Oh.

GRINSELL: [00:44:35] Well, you remember there was Dascylus Motors.

BLOCKER: [00:44:39] I remember that.

GRINSELL: [00:44:40] That and uh, right up on, uh, on. Well, let's see on, uh, Ainsworth. And we used to always go swimming down at, uh, Columbia or Peninsula Park. And we had a ball there. Yeah.

BLOCKER: [00:44:59] And it's still going strong these days. Yeah. And.

GRINSELL: [00:45:04] Uh, the feral house. That was a that was a big family, huge family. I think they had about 12 or 13 kids. Wow. And they they lived up on a high bank. Uh, you walk down the sidewalk and if you lived on, uh, up on the, in the feral house, you didn't want to come home drunk.

BLOCKER: [00:45:30] Mhm. Mhm.

GRINSELL: [00:45:31] Because there was like, uh, 32 steps. To get up to the landing where the house was, and then you had four more steps to go up to get into the house. Well, uh, one of the guys, one of the feral boys, uh, older ones, uh, I think it was Joe got a truck tire. And he drug it up those steps onto the little landing, like on the top of grass. And then it was grass down the rest of the deal. At the bottom there was a wall that you could take, and, uh, I could just as a kid, I could couldn't hardly reach up to touch the top. It was like, was.

BLOCKER: [00:46:21] There a place called, uh, I'm on MLK and beach called the 88 cent store. And MLK and beach.

GRINSELL: [00:46:30] Yeah, I don't know, I can't remember.

BLOCKER: [00:46:32] It was. Everything was $0.88 in that store.

GRINSELL: [00:46:35] Oh, the $0.88 store. Uh, no, I don't think they were.

BLOCKER: [00:46:40] They weren't there on MLK and beach.

GRINSELL: [00:46:42] I don't think they were there that early. I think they came in the, uh.

BLOCKER: [00:46:51] Early 50s early 50s about Martin Frank.

GRINSELL: [00:46:55] Murphy and Finnegan's. No. Uh. Let's see what, uh, Montgomery rewards Montgomery Wards was up on, uh, Killingsworth. Right. Uh, and there was another, uh, one in there, too. There was a. That was there early on. And. There was a lot of.

BLOCKER: [00:47:24] Do you remember the food stamp office on Vancouver? No. Just call it the Multi-Service center.

GRINSELL: [00:47:33] No.

BLOCKER: [00:47:34] Remember the welfare office.

GRINSELL: [00:47:38] No. Not really. Uh, my brother in law's mother. Lived a block off of, uh, Williams. Mhm. Or I mean off of uh Alberta. Mhm. Uh, and she had a photo studio in there for years already. Yeah. Way back when. But then she passed away. But my brother in law that one Jack Wagner. He was the one that was hauling sand down to Vanport to make the the sandbags to hold the water back. Mhm. And. According to the federal government, there were only 12 people died in the Vanport flood. And there again, I believe in the tooth fairy.

BLOCKER: [00:48:40] So you remember the milkman?

GRINSELL: [00:48:43] Oh, yeah. The old milk. Yeah, well.

BLOCKER: [00:48:44] They used to put the milk on your porch and ice cream. Yeah.

GRINSELL: [00:48:48] Well, yeah. Well, not only that, but I also remember the ice man.

BLOCKER: [00:48:53] The ice man.

GRINSELL: [00:48:54] Who used to, uh, deliver the ice to keep the, uh, the milk and ice cream cold. Oh, we didn't have refrigerators. We had ice boxes.

SONIA: [00:49:04] Ice boxes?

BLOCKER: [00:49:05] Huh?

GRINSELL: [00:49:05] You had a compartment up here. The old they were. Would all the refrigerators back then or all the were wood? Not. Not metal, not anything. And then they had a box on the top. That's where the ice went. And that was tin lined. Okay. And the ice man used to come around and he had these great big blocks of ice about like this. And he had marks in them. So of how much poundage each one was. And then he come out with his ice pick and.

SONIA: [00:49:39] Chick chick chick chick chick.

GRINSELL: [00:49:40] Take a piece off and grab it with his tongs. He had a leather shoulder deal with. And it was then it had rubber on it. He'd throw it over his shoulder and carry it up and deliver it to us. And, uh, this was in Vanport, right? And, uh, here you are. And you're. But the kid, we used to go out there, and whenever they were doing this, there was always some ice that was just small chunks. We used to grab those and run like hell and. Chewing the ice. In the summertime, I.

BLOCKER: [00:50:16] Get somebody else a chance to ask you some questions.

SONIA: [00:50:22] Um.

INTERVIEWER: [00:50:41] Thank you. Um. You live here in Portland, right? Mhm. How long have you lived here?

GRINSELL: [00:50:59] I've lived in Portland since 1943, I think. Um.

INTERVIEWER: [00:51:12] Um. What other sites have you been seeing? At the coast or wherever. What kind of sights have you see, like other ships and USSR or something like that?

GRINSELL: [00:51:39] Well, let's see. I've been to Korea, Japan, Monaco, the Ginza in Tokyo. Bangkok, Thailand. The Philippines. Hawaii. Those were all when I was in the military.

INTERVIEWER: [00:52:08] You, uh, do you go through Germany as well?

GRINSELL: [00:52:13] I've been to Germany.

INTERVIEWER: [00:52:15] How do you like that?

GRINSELL: [00:52:18] It's it's a wonderful country. It's got beautiful country to go to. Sailing down the Rhine on a cruise. And you look at the castles on the. On the sides of the river, on the banks. And when you, if you go to any of the foreign countries that were supposedly, you know, they were ravaged by war. But to take and go through them now and see the things that were never damaged, they were never hit.

SONIA: [00:52:58] O.

GRINSELL: [00:52:59] By either side by the Germans when they invaded France, when they invaded these countries. These places that are exist today were never bombed by the Germans. They were precision bombing. How to bomb, destroy, kill with and leave the important things there. The Eiffel Tower, the uh uh. Notre Dame, the cathedral. Uh, that was in France. You've got in Germany, the places that our troops bombed, that are still there today, that were never hit. And it was because, uh, like in Italy, there was one it was called, uh, the monastery, uh, Monte Cassino. It was a monastery that the Germans were using as a lookout for targeting the advancing troops on the ground. And the government, uh, they wanted it bombed. And, uh, so they checked with the, uh, Catholic Church and they said, if it will save lives, bomb it. But they didn't. They found another way. And when I went to Italy, I got there. And what I couldn't understand is why that was allowed to be used as a point where, guys, where the Germans could sit up there and watch and call for artillery to take and kill everybody advancing up that deal. I, I couldn't understand that because all they had to do was to take an airborne regiment and fly around it and put them behind, and they could cut off the supply lines and destroy the guns on the ground.

GRINSELL: [00:55:35] But they they didn't do that. They didn't have airborne forces available in that part of the, uh, part of the country, because I don't think we had a, an air base that they could take off from. Otherwise they'd have had to be refueled halfway and. No way. So. But you look at all of the all of Europe and Japan and the things that weren't destroyed, and it's amazing to see how the they could keep these particular things from being bombed is crazy. But it was done. And. But. If you if you ever get a chance, go and visit some of those places because and. Well. You know, it's, uh. It really makes you think. About our past history. Knowing what you know now and then going to these countries is what determines how you're going to feel when you get back, and it changes your whole outlook. We find out just how important our history is to us?

SONIA: [00:57:13] Yeah.

SOMMER: [00:57:14] Do you guys have any last questions? We don't have much time left. Um, so I thought you could do a couple more questions. Or is there anything maybe we could ask Robert if there's anything that we. He hasn't talked about that you'd like to talk about or.

BLOCKER: [00:57:30] I think I have mine now. Okay.

SONIA: [00:57:34] Hey.

SOMMER: [00:57:34] You okay?

[00:57:37] Um, just a question.

INTERVIEWER: [00:57:42] I would like to ask you one.

SOMMER: [00:57:45] Uh, okay. Um, what are we gonna do that afterwards? And so, um, but, you know, there was one part, I think, one story that you didn't finish, which was about he was talking about the 12 people, that there were only 12 people that died at the vampire. And I was wondering if you could finish up that story for us. So I knew I had to do.

GRINSELL: [00:58:04] Well, my brother in law, Jack Wagner, that was bringing the sand into, uh, for the bags to reinforce. The dike was driving a gravel truck. He had made his delivery and he was coming out, and there was a busload of people behind him jammed. I mean, people were jammed into this old type school bus. You know what the, uh, long nosed school buses are now? Well, those were the buses that we used to for transportation to downtown Portland. Uh huh. Well, this bus was jammed full of people, and he came up onto the dike. And that bus had never made it up the dyke. All those people on that bus, with the exception of one the driver, he crawled out through a window and the rest were left in that bus, and it was hit with that wall of water and they drowned. And how many other people, uh, were trapped in their automobiles will never be known. But they, uh, from eyeball knowledge, my one brother in law and another one and his dad were firemen in Vanport.

SONIA: [00:59:47] Whoa.

GRINSELL: [00:59:48] And so they had to take and go in after the flood when the water was receding. Mm. And in doing that, they found the bodies and they were loading them onto trucks and taking the bodies down to across, uh, Broadway Bridge. Mhm. Those warehouses over there. And they were laying the bodies out in there to be identified. Right. But according to official statistics, there were only 12 people died in the Vanport flood. Wow.

SONIA: [01:00:31] Oh, is that all?

BLOCKER: [01:00:34] I look like it'd be more if it was a flood.

GRINSELL: [01:00:36] There was more. They don't know how many more. Wow. The government will never tell how many more actually lost their lives in that Vanport flood.

SONIA: [01:00:47] Whoa.

SIMPSON: [01:00:49] You talked about the importance of the local or of history. And if we could get back quickly for the quick last question to the local history here in Eliot, could you talk briefly about how the Emanuel Hospital and the Coliseum expansion affected the neighborhood?

GRINSELL: [01:01:05] Well, yeah. That.

SOMMER: [01:01:10] Bullet. Oh. Oh, sorry.

GRINSELL: [01:01:12] Well, Emanuel Hospital, after the Vanport flood was a four story hospital. Not very big. It's the old building. I don't know if it's still there or not, but the old original building. And then the nurses training school was across the street. And that was all there was to. Uh, Immanuel Hospital. Now it travels. It's it's moved out. It's bought property. As property became available to expand, a hospital has to grow. That's that's a fact. But does it have to expand out or can it expand up? And what they were, the way that they did this, or the reason that I can see behind it all is, is that there's nobody can tell me that hospitals don't make money.

SONIA: [01:02:25] Mhm.

GRINSELL: [01:02:27] But anything that they have at the end is called profit. And if they are a profit making organization, now they've got to pay taxes. But if they buy property for expansion. That's hospital money. Hospital grounds. So they don't have to pay taxes and they because they can maintain that non-profit status. So consequently, it's spread and it's still spreading. You can see it, uh, you can go by and you can see that, uh, say a half a half a block is something that you know about. And you go by three months, six months later, whoops. It's now hospital property. And that's the way it went. Mm. Thanks. And so consequently they have to keep expanding or growing to get rid of those excess funds in order to maintain non-profit status. And like the Coliseum, the people of Portland wanted that put out in Delta Park. Because the Air Commission wanted to take and get behind that. And across Denver, they were going to take and wanted to build this Coliseum Air Commission and this whole thing. They wanted to build a sports center. I mean, a complete sports center is what they had in mind with an Olympic sized swimming pool, in case at some point that Portland wanted to take and get the Olympics here. And they were going to set that whole thing up for all of that with having a field for, uh, soccer and where guys could come in and throw the javelin and everything else with the Olympics. But the city fathers had taken and condemned this property where the Coliseum is now. They had condemned that and bought it. Uh, now, did the city actually buy that, or was that the city fathers that bought it out of their own pocket and then sold it to the city to build the Coliseum, because three times they put it out to a vote of where the people in Portland wanted the Coliseum to be put. Three times it was Delta Park. Wow. Three times that was rejected. And they put the Coliseum where it is today.

BLOCKER: [01:05:33] Wow.

SONIA: [01:05:34] Yeah.

GRINSELL: [01:05:36] And consequently. Uh, did, uh, did the city fathers make a pocket full of money by over evaluating the land, selling it to the city of Portland? Or. Did they just want it there for other reasons? It's a question. Yeah. What? What particular part of it do you want to believe? I personally believe that Mayor Schrunk and three of his cohorts, him through his offices, condemned the property. And then they bought it at condemnation proceedings and then turned around and sold it to the city and made a bundle of money off of it. That's right.

SIMPSON: [01:06:31] That's it. And many houses. Huh? Many houses left? Yeah.

GRINSELL: [01:06:38] When it Delta Park, it wouldn't have interfered with anything because all of that was vacant land. And the only the only big thing out there at that time was G.I. Joes.

BLOCKER: [01:06:50] Yeah, I remember GI Joe.

GRINSELL: [01:06:52] And. But. But then again you see. But that's that's progress.

SIMPSON: [01:07:03] So we all say thank you.

SOMMER: [01:07:05] Or did you have anything else?

SIMPSON: [01:07:06] Did you have another question? Did you have the girl?

BLOCKER: [01:07:11] Oh, thank you very much, Robert. Uh huh.

GRINSELL: [01:07:14] Well, I'm going to make one more airplane.

SIMPSON: [01:07:17] Can I get a picture of the four of you facing this way? The light is not just real quick. Oh, yeah. Just turn around so I can see you. Maybe.

SONIA: [01:07:33] Okay. There you go. Okay.

SIMPSON: [01:07:36] Ready? Smile. Thank you. Cute.

GRINSELL: [01:07:41] Lily. You're faded. Oh.

SONIA: [01:07:48] Well.

GRINSELL: [01:07:49] This is now this one.

[01:07:56] Will. Hey, Joe. Oop.

SIMPSON: [01:07:59] Gotta put one more.

GRINSELL: [01:08:00] Yeah. Gotta put the cheaters on. Well, I brought your lunch.

SONIA: [01:08:05] Are you.

GRINSELL: [01:08:05] Okay? You need to go. If you go ahead.

SOMMER: [01:08:08] If you need to go. I think he's just gonna make one more airplane.

GRINSELL: [01:08:11] Unless you want.

[01:08:13] Make me make one with you. Sure, you could make one. I gotta go.

BLOCKER: [01:08:18] I gotta use the restroom. Okay, I think.

SOMMER: [01:08:20] Thank you. Go ahead and.

BLOCKER: [01:08:23] Okay. I need to ask James to walk me back.

GRINSELL: [01:08:27] But this is.

BLOCKER: [01:08:31] There he is. James, can you walk him back over to see buildings? Thank you very much, Robert. I got a lot of what you said.

GRINSELL: [01:08:39] Okay, well, you take it easy. You too. And you want to. You want to take one of these with you?

SONIA: [01:08:45] Sure. Okay.

BLOCKER: [01:08:47] I'll cherish this. Thank you guys. Bye bye.

GRINSELL: [01:08:50] If you want to make it look like an airplane, though, just pinch it together and then put tape across and then stays looking like an airplane. Okay, now.

SIMPSON: [01:09:07] I'm gonna need to get back to work. Oh, thank you so much for coming. That was really great.

GRINSELL: [01:09:16] Here.

SIMPSON: [01:09:16] Let's see if.

GRINSELL: [01:09:20] You know anybody that has, uh, kids or grandkids.

SIMPSON: [01:09:33] They're in here. Yeah. Thank you for the airplane. Uh huh.

GRINSELL: [01:09:38] Well.

SIMPSON: [01:09:39] I'd like to show them to the girls.

GRINSELL: [01:09:41] Yeah. Let me know what they.

SIMPSON: [01:09:43] We have 27 kids on the block. Oh, well, good. On Monroe Street. We'll share them with the neighborhood.

GRINSELL: [01:09:48] Yeah, well, let me know how they, uh. Which which do you want to show on the top?

SOMMER: [01:09:55] I want this.

GRINSELL: [01:09:57] Or the map? The map, the map. Okay.

SOMMER: [01:10:00] So that was great.

SIMPSON: [01:10:03] All right, I'll see you guys later.

GRINSELL: [01:10:04] We just turn that face down.

SIMPSON: [01:10:07] Good luck. Thanks. Thanks again, Robert Uh.huh.

GRINSELL: [01:10:12] Take care. Okay. Now, which do you want to to show? This is Paso Robles.

SOMMER: [01:10:19] Um. Oh, either this part.

GRINSELL: [01:10:22] Or that part.

SOMMER: [01:10:23] Um, this part.

GRINSELL: [01:10:24] More of this part.

SOMMER: [01:10:25] Well, the middle part, but I guess you can't show it.

SIMPSON: [01:10:28] No.

SONIA: [01:10:28] Yeah.

GRINSELL: [01:10:29] So we'll do it this way then.

SOMMER: [01:10:32] Okay.

GRINSELL: [01:10:34] And there you go.

SOMMER: [01:10:41] So this one.

GRINSELL: [01:10:46] And then fold it to the other one to match. Okay. And then take and bring it to where that all joins and crease and then bring in the ears. Oh. Like this. And bring it to the fold line again. And then the other one to the same corner. And then fold the keeper over.

[01:11:25] Pick it up, okay.

GRINSELL: [01:11:26] And then reverse the fold. Okay.

SONIA: [01:11:35] Okay.

GRINSELL: [01:11:36] And then you just take and fold it down. Okay. And try to keep it.

SOMMER: [01:11:45] In this level. Oh, sorry.

GRINSELL: [01:11:47] In the same.

SOMMER: [01:11:49] I accidentally mine might be a mutant. Oh, it won't.

GRINSELL: [01:11:53] Make any difference. And then you do the same thing with the other one.

SOMMER: [01:11:59] This is kind of fun with these fatter.

GRINSELL: [01:12:02] Bring that and then pinch it together real good. Then you do the little wing tabs. Bring it up about a quarter of an inch or so. Okay. And then match it to the other one. Okay. And then you have an airplane.

SONIA: [01:12:28] Okay.

GRINSELL: [01:12:28] And then you just take that. Take your scissors. Mhm. Take it. Aim it. The scissors forward. And and bring the tale through. And there you have it.

SIMPSON: [01:12:48] Yeah.

SOMMER: [01:12:48] This is. I'm gonna make more of these. These are fun.

GRINSELL: [01:12:53] And then if you've got tape or staple.

SIMPSON: [01:12:57] Tape put.

SOMMER: [01:12:57] Together right here. Is that what you did? Yeah. Just take it right across here.

SIMPSON: [01:13:03] Like that.

GRINSELL: [01:13:04] But even even in this state, though, it will fly. But now I'll show you here. What you do is you take these and. Really pinch them. Whoops. Okay, there we go.

SOMMER: [01:13:27] I made mine kind of have a fat. Bottom side on.

GRINSELL: [01:13:31] There. Okay. Now that's. More in there. You take that to that, that, to that and like that. Now this one's gonna tend to bank to the to the, uh, to the left because you can see the difference in the wing size.

SOMMER: [01:13:52] Yeah.

GRINSELL: [01:13:53] So when you throw it okay, it will.

SOMMER: [01:13:56] Tend to works to the left. Oh right. To the right.

GRINSELL: [01:14:01] Okay.

SOMMER: [01:14:02] Severely so.

GRINSELL: [01:14:03] Yeah.

SOMMER: [01:14:05] That one goes perfectly straight. That one's always gonna go to the right. Boomerang plane.

GRINSELL: [01:14:12] Anyway. Now we'll do this one right quick.

[01:14:18] Am I trying to shoot you, James? This one's beautiful.

SOMMER: [01:14:26] I like the way this one.

GRINSELL: [01:14:30] Now, this other one here is going to come out. This one will come out looking like the stealth bomber.

SOMMER: [01:14:38] The stealth bomber. Mhm. What are the characteristics of the stealth bomber? Stealth bomber. I guess I'm not familiar.

GRINSELL: [01:14:47] The stealth, the stealth bomber. Well, can I write it on the back of this?

SOMMER: [01:14:52] Um, how about on the back of this?

GRINSELL: [01:14:54] This is the stealth bomber. Is comes out looking like.

[01:15:06] Kaboom! I spoke too.

SONIA: [01:15:09] Soon.

SOMMER: [01:15:09] Oh, right. Wider I see. Yes. I know what you're talking about. And it's black. White airplane.

GRINSELL: [01:15:23] Yeah. It's a it's a, like a half a diamond and it's painted black. Mhm. But this is when that'll come out looking like that. There's that, there's that.

[01:15:50] There's that. This is what you can do with the pipe cleaner. So. Yeah.

GRINSELL: [01:16:11] Yeah, just.

[01:16:15] Say he had Mississippi. That's a cool one.

SOMMER: [01:16:19] Huh? That's a cool one. I like the picture. What is your name? Tina. Tina. Hey, Tina. How's it going? It's going good. Did you see these paper airplanes?

INTERVIEWER: [01:16:33] Oh, mine. Don't.

SOMMER: [01:16:34] This is Robert. He's making them with us.

GRINSELL: [01:16:37] Hi. Hello. No scissors.

SOMMER: [01:16:41] Oh, here it is.

GRINSELL: [01:16:42] Right here. Here they are. Okay, then we'll take that. Do that, and then it'll become an airplane because it's got a tail.

INTERVIEWER: [01:16:54] Up and that is what makes it fly.

GRINSELL: [01:16:57] No, that's what guides it. Oh. But then you can just take it. Yes, and?

SOMMER: [01:17:12] Very cool.

GRINSELL: [01:17:14] There are. When they're like when.

[01:17:19] They're in this.