I (Meredith) got to tour an airplane called an albatross. It's an old Indiana Jones/Casablanca-esque aircraft, oozing old school romance and adventure.
Why did I get to tour it, you ask? Good question; let me tell you. The 76-year old owner of the albatross is also the owner of a house that was in the line of a fire not too long ago. He was pretty much convinced he was going to lose everything, until a Chinook came over the ridge and doused the previously undousable fire, saving The
Old Dude's house and everything in it.
So Old Dude wanted to thank The Pilot, and figured, as a pilot, he must like aircraft. And brought him an albatross to look at. BUT! The other reason Old Dude wanted to give him a BIG thank you was because Old Dude had a favor to ask of said pilot, yes, even above and beyond the saving of the house. Turns out, as The Pilot had been saving Old Dude's house, Old Dude had been taking pictures of pilot saving old dude's house. And Old Dude has had those pictures printed up and enlarged to 11x17, to be framed and hung on the walls of the house that didn't burn to the ground ~ and Old Dude wanted said pilot's autograph on the pictures. Old Dude recognized that this was a big favor (??????) and so wanted to offer a big thank you, and did said pilot think a tour of an albatross was a big enough thanks? Spoiler ~ yes, yes the albatross was enough. The albatross was unnecessary in this context.
Said pilot saved said house three days before said old dude's 76th birthday. "You gave me my home and all my memories for my birthday..."
2 comments:
And obviously David was that pilot. Marvelous story and great to see Meredith's (slightly edited) writing again!
I told her if she were still blogging, she would be posting this story that came in an email to me and her sister. I asked permission to post it with pictures and she said yes. The only editing I really did was capitalize The Pilot and Old Dude to make them their names and not just titles. I wanted to add "hear cavalry music" as the Chinook comes over the hill but I decided not to. I hear it though. And yes, that is a picture of David out of uniform. She does write well, doesn't she? I'm always glad to know it isn't just me being a proud mother!
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