Being married to Jack was an adventure. One minute we would be up to our elbows in grease and oil, and the next minute we would be dressed up flying to a formal diner in Vermont. On a cold winter day, Jack wanted sunshine and on a whim, flew an airplane to Florida and we were basking in the Florida sunshine. We kept a junk car at Sugarloaf, and in the winter we would load up the Cherokee six with skis and kids and off to the mountain for a half day ticket of skiing.
You can always tell about the character of man. How he treats his family, treats his ex-wife, how he lives up to agreements he made, and how he treats others. Jack was a well loved man. Not because he built an airport, but because he always thought about the people in his life. Jack loved life, loved people, and loved working. Jack loved building things out of scrap metal, scrap sheetrock, or wood. Jack had an amazing mind. Jack was not all work. Jack loved to play. Skiing, boating, even snow plowing was an adventure for him. The best part for me was I got to go on many of these adventures.
Only Jack would do the impossible. On a nice summer morning, Jack asked me if I wanted lobsters for dinner. I said sure. Jack wanted to cook the lobster at a small piece of property we owned on the Piscataqua River. He had built a small building on the dock we owned and he wanted to eat dinner in that little boat house. I asked Jack, would we be cooking the lobsters on the grill? "Oh no" he said. All he said was "you get the lobsters , and I'll take care of the rest". OK Jack. So off Jack went with an airplane and I to the fish market to get lobsters.
Jack had taken the back seat out of the back of the Cessna 172, and flew the plane to a grass strip in northern Maine, where he bought a used camp gas stove, put it in the back of the plane, and flew the plane home. Only Jack would think of using a plane to buy a camp stove. By 5:00 pm that evening, we were eating lobsters and were enjoying the evening sunset together.
Another great adventure was buying a used motor for our boat. Jack was a great mechanic, but the engine to our boat just would not cooperate with him. In typical Jack Hardy he decided to buy a used motor. Boat motors are expensive and a used one in good condition was the solution. Jack found one in northern Maine. The owner lived on a lake. Not a problem for Jack. We flew the Cherokee six to Twitchells (a great airport), rented a float plane, flew it to a lake. The owner of the used motor met us on the lake with his boat. He took us back to this cabin, showed Jack the motor. Jack bought it and back to the float plane we went, with a motor we just bought and loaded it into the float plane and back we flew to Twichells, then flew home. The next day we we back on the river boating to a restaurant for breakfast. Notice that many of our memories is flying or boating someplace to eat. While the destination was important, it was the trip together that was so meaningful. Oh, Jack would do cool things with other people besides me, but at the end of the day, we talked, held hands, while Jack told me of his adventures.
We all still miss Jack Hardy