In 1926, George Allen Kelley was a teenager fascinated by the pilots and their aircraft at Lambert Flying Field in North County.
He would hang around the field, hoping to catch a conversation or see something exciting. The big man in town causing much of the excitement was Charles Lindbergh, of course. He was working on the aircraft he planned to fly solo across the Atlantic as part of a highly anticipated competition. Lindbergh was considered a longshot, but he had won the financial backing of some St. Louis businessmen.
Kelley, who used to chat with the young pilot, was loitering at the field one day and noticed Lindbergh had left a pair of Dunlap pliers. He picked them up, figuring he had a cool souvenir if Lindbergh succeeded in his ambitious plan.
