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David Mitchell

About ten or fifteen years ago, I had a brief conversaton with Rev. Jesse Jackson.

I was still doing my part-time airport "private car" job, and was waiting on an arrival at the Savannah airport. I saw him standing alone over by the luggage claim area and decided to go over and introduce myself. I shared a story with him that he recalled. 

Back when we were still living in Denver, and my two oldest kids were in high school at a large public high school - George Washington High School -  Rev. Jackson visited the school and gave a sort of pep rally. The kids loved it. They came home that day and shared their excitement with us. I thought it was a nice gesture on his part though I was no fan of his politically.

He realled that visit to GW High, and we share a brief chat about it. Then we shook hands before I had to drift back over to the passenger waiting area. 

John Jackson

I rode in a hotel elevator in NYC with MLK in roughly 1964 or 1965.  I was with my parents but we were so flabbergasted we didn't speak.

My 15 minutes (seconds really) of fame.

David Mitchell

Okay John,

The category is now "elevator rides with famous people".

I think I posted this photo on the Forum a few years ago, but this is a fun time to use it again.

I took Mary and the kids to Disneyland back around 1980 and we invited a local priest from Orange County to join us for dinner. He is shown in the photo. I think you all might recognize him.

Anyway, after dinner at the Disney hotel, "Father Robert" and I went walking by ourselves around the hotel grounds. But first, I had to take something back up to our room and the two of us got on the elevator. As the doors opened and we stepped in, there was a very young (and very small) black kid in a bright orange jump suit, standing alone in the rear center of the elevator facing out into the lobby. "Father Robert" and I stood on each side of the young man also facing out into the lobby. Neither of us spoke. As the doors were closing, two young girls, (maybe 12 or 13) jumped throught the closing doors and fell at the young man's feet. They got up and each handed him a piece of paprer, asking for autographs.

The priest and I got off at the second floor to walk back to our room. As we walked down the hallway the priest asked me "What was that all about?"

I said, "Steve, don't you know who that was?" And he said he had no idea. I told him him it was Michael Jackson and looked at me like I was kidding. As we walked the grounds that evening, we kept seeing a golf cart with Michael and a hotel security guard cruising around the hotel grounds (which were quite large) followed by a group of about 6 or 8 young girls chasing after them. 

Steve explained years later that he had told that story to his young nieces and they teased him about it for years.

John Jackson

Yes, I thought my post might trigger an avalanche of elevator stories. - pretty much everyone must have one.  And, Dave, with your driving job, I'm guessing you have a bunch.

Janie Albright (Blank)

Not to be outdone, I once found myself in an elevator with Mike Radcliffe at the Wendy's convention in Los Angeles. He was with Porter-Wright and they were their counsel. Unlike John, we had a brief conversation. 😂

David Mitchell

Yes John, I have run into a few "names" while doing Savanah to Hilton Head (and nearby) pickups.

I have picked up movie actor Tom Berrigner about ten times. I have heard that when he was filming "The Big Chill" down here years ago he fell in love with the "Low Country" (coastal South Carolina) and also fell in love with someone down here. He lives about half way between here and Beaufort (site of "Big Chill", and The Great Santini).

We always picked Tom up in Savannah while holding up a false name tag - usually "Miller". He became interested in my Viet Nam service and we had a number of interesting conversations. He is a very quiet and private person.

I also picked up Meg Ryan and her young Chinese adopted daughter once. The dropoff point was interesting. They were going over to Daufuskie Island which has only boat access (no bridge). But the ferry boat landing for Daufuskie is very public and visible site. She and her "host" had arranged for us to use the barely visible and relatively unknown dock under the island bridge - no building - no public - no big ferry boat to attract attention. I dropped them by a quiet and little used dock and helped her transfer her bags onto a small 20 foot boat for a private ride - about 20 minutes over to Duafuskie. I learned later that she was meeting very privately with local Daufuskie resident, John Mellencamp.  

Daufuskie, by the way, is an intresting place. Half of it is very developed with condos and a beach and a hotel or two. The other half is legally blocked from development - but is instead preserved for the largest remainning colony of "Gullah" people left on the East coast. Gullah are direct descendents of the original slaves of the southeast coast and have their own culture, language, food, and art. They are mostly the descendents of escaped slaves who swam or floated boats out to the outer bank islands and were never pursued. They have survived hundreds of years without ever merging with other clultures - white or black.

Later, in one evening I picked up Tony Romo from a condo on Hilton Head dropping him at the small Hilton Head Island airport where his privare pilot was waiitng - and then had to speed back over to Savannah to pick up news commentaor (very famous, but I cannot recall his name) at Savannah and drop him back at a hotell near Bluffton. 

Finally, I drove this man - a buddy of Tony Romo's - on two nights back and forth from his hotel to dinner and sports dates with RBC Golf (Heritage) tourney on Hilton Head. After driving him the first night, he called my boss and asked for me on the second night. With his permission, I sent the folowing photo to Tony Romo, (who answered my mesages for a year or two) with the message that I was still "stuck driving the local Riff Raff to the golf course". They both laughed - super nice guys.

sorry for the sideway shot - its' Golf announcer Jim Nance.

John Jackson

Trump Says Andrew's Arrest Sets Dangerous Precedent of Pedophiles Facing Consequences

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—A visibly shaken Donald J. Trump told reporters on Thursday that the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor set a dangerous precedent of pedophiles facing consequences.

“King Charles released a statement where he said no one is above the law,” he said. “That was a horrible thing to say.”

Calling Andrew’s arrest “disgraceful,” Trump said it had made him “rethink the whole idea of becoming king.”

“If you can be a member of the royal family and still get arrested, what’s the point in having a crown?” he said. “You’re better off just having your own supreme court.”

Michael Boulware

John Jackson. I received your check for the reunion. Thanks for the special note you sent, liberals are kind to each other.

Lorraine; your check arrived as well. You sent a lovely note and it was nice to receive it. Our classmates sure make our job easier with your kindness and appreciation

David Mitchell

Way back in Basic Training, we had four Black guys who used to break into song when we were on a break. I can still picture the whole company (about 160 guys) sitting around during lunch break while we were at the rifle range. They sang stuff by the Temptations, The Four Tops, etc. This group seemed to be their favorite.

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

Janie, please check in with us to let us know that you are safe in Puerto Vallarta! I wrote you personally but know that everyone will want to know.

Cuidate, Juanita!

David Mitchell

Yes Donna, 

Thanks for the reminder.

Janie, hope you are safe.

Monica Haban (Brown)

Janie will surely advise, and elaborate. She said it's all around them, but they are safe.  Security in her building won't allow them to leave, understandably.  Targeting buses and taxis.  Prayers for all of Mexico, and especially Janie.  

Janie Albright (Blank)

I'm sorry I haven't checked in. I am safe. All is quiet here in Puerto Vallarta now. Sunday was a new experience for all of us. Fortunately it appears the Jalisco cartel (CJNG) was only making a statement in many MexIcan cities they consider their "territory". Just bc our leader El Mencho is dead we still plan to carry on and so no rival cartels better try to step in. CJNG was a new cartel and very secondary to the Sinaloa cartel that El Chapo controlled before he came to justice in the US. Once a leader is gone a power vacuum arises and other smaller players might see this as their opportunity. 

Puerto Vallarta is a very prosperous area where the cartels own businesses and nightclubs etc used to launder their money. They don't want trouble here. They even bring their families here to vacation. So we pray this is an anomaly meant to send rivals a message. Hopefully not to be repeated. 

They mainly set buses, taxis, and Ubers on fire as well as a lot of tiendas called Oxxo (much like a 7-11). Fortunately they made sure all of their targets were emptied of people and no one was injured. Not that I'm trying to make them out to be good guys. They are not, but again this was just a message. One cartel leader's death or capture changes nothing in Mexico. Like mushrooms more just pop up. It's a terrible situation but as much as it's good he's gone nothing will fundamentally change. I have no idea what the answer is. 

There definitely have been changes where we see a good-sized middle class emerging. Lots more people being educated. When we first started coming here over 20 years ago most children didn’t go past middle school. I belonged to a group that raised money for books and uniforms so children could continue on past grade school. Now there are many community colleges and more people go on to university. That being said there is still a huge underclass and cartels exploit these people. Even police are barely paid a living wage, and so there is much corruption. The cartels especially flourish in the rural communities where there is little opportunity and kids fall prey to the lure of easy money. I know we have this in our inner cities too with drug runners and so on but their safety net here is much weaker. And the cartels ruthlessly protect their turf and kill anyone in their way even the parish priest if he refuses to go along. I know you've seen these stories.

Mexico is a beautiful and diverse country full of the friendliest people you can imagine. No one walks by you on the street without a buenos días or greeting. Pray that positive change is coming and there will be no need to come across the border, with only good things in their future. ​🙏🙏🙏

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

So glad to hear from you to know that you are safe, Janie!

Thanks for your report on the situation. 

David Mitchell

Janie,

Thanks for the info. So glad to hear you are safe.

-------------

Meanwhile, I am curious to know about the snow storm in New Jersey 

John, (or anybody in that path)

how bad did you get hit? And I hope you don't have to shovel it all yourself. 

Joseph Gentilini

So glad to hear that you are okay, Janie.  I was just about to send you an email to find out.  Now I feel better knowing your safe news.  joe

John Jackson

Also happy to hear Janie is OK.

Dave, we got off fairly easy from our latest nor'easter - about 15" and it was wet but not too heavy.  But a couple of weeks ago we got about 12"  and  the last 3-4 hours was sleet so the top 2-3 imches was almost as heavy as ice.  We still had some of that left when the latest 15" came.  Add in the cold in most of January and early February (at one point we went two weeks and never got above freezing) and it's been our wildest winter in a long time. 

But I'm guessing others have similar stories to tell.

Michael McLeod

hope this link works

and hope you'll find it amusing.

It's a column I wrote years ago about a chance encounter with a fairly well known brit. I'm compiling a few stories I've written to pass on the my kids. This column is about a well known brit with whom I had a brief chat when he popped in and out of a classroom where I was teaching at Rollins College, which is in Winter Park, a pretty little town where I live, just north of orlando. Not sure why Sir Paul was in Orlando but he apparently was friends with the high-end family of one of my students.

https://winterparkmag.com/2015/04/17/winter-2012-7/

Michael McLeod

Jainie: why can't they just take out an ad in the periodica?

Deborah Alexander (Rogers)

Janie,

I join our classmates in feeling relief that you are safe.  I'm sure everyone was thinking of you after seeing the chaos on the news. Thanks for letting us know you are safe and well!

Debbie

James Hamilton, M. D.

Janie,

Definitely happy to hear you are safe and hope that you will continue to be so. Just keep your guard up as conditions could change.

Jim

Janie Albright (Blank)

Thanks to all who were thinking about and praying for me. Things totally back to normal. But, yes, must always be vigilant. Even in US. 
 

View from my balcony

Another beautiful sunset:

James Hamilton, M. D.

Janie,

Great shots of that beautiful area where you spend the winters!

Thanks for warming our minds and hearts!

Jim

Joseph Gentilini

Jim H - love the pictures of the deer. In some areas of the city here they are a nuisance. I still like to see them.  joe

David Mitchell

A Non-Combat Melodrama

Hooch Mates – Not Like It Sounds

All of our pilots - Officers and Warrant Officers - lived together in small plywood cottages we called "Hooches". That was a slang word for the small thatched-roof Vietnamese

homes all over the rural countryside. Our hooches were about twenty feet by forty feet with

corrugated aluminum roofs and a screen door at either end of the building. They were our full-

time home. We slept in sperate 8-foot by 8-foot cubicles - about eight guys to a hooch, on bunks with real mattresses and pillows. (This, in contrast to the two-story "Enlisted" barracks with large

open floor dormitory style bedding - and cots with those crummy thin mattresses).

Our cubicles had divided walls but no doors. It was sort of semi-private. We also had one larger space where they left out one of the dividing walls. We called it our "Club Room", and we could all gather in there. Each of the three platoons (Slicks, Guns, or Loaches) slept in their own separate hooches, but the Guns and Slicks also shared one more hooch as they were mostly12-man platoons compared to our 8-man "Scout" platoon. (Recall, they all flew double pilots, we only flew one pilot per ship - thus a smaller group). And finally, our CO and XO shared a separate and more spacious private hooch. This arrangement allowed our single "Scout" platoon to be a much more tight-knit separate group during non-flying hours.

The airfield allowed groups of local Vietnamese to come on the post during the day to

perform certain menial tasks. One of the largest of those groups were dozens of "Hooch mates" -

the nickname for our housekeepers. These women lived in the (next door) city of Vinh Long and

came in through the main security gate each day to help us keep house. They did basic chores like sweeping out the floors, polishing our boots, and dumping out some light trash. I seem to recall they also took our uniforms to the post laundry. The large bulk of them were older women,

dressed in rags with ugly (or missing) teeth. But our Scout platoon "hooch mate" was quite a bit

younger and very cute. She was also very sweet. If I recall correctly, her name was Tranh Ti

Cum Hoa. ("traun tee coom whaa") We all liked her and treated her very well. We also sort of

watched over her because we were conscious of her cute looks and the number of guys who

would be around during the day who were not flying. Since we usually had several of us not

flying each day, it was sort of an unwritten rule that we "baby sat" Tranh while she was in our hooch. I think she knew this and appreciated it.

TBC