Life is actually full of all kinds of fantastic people when you yourself is active and get out there to experience the world, which is pretty evident from some of the posts.
My first celebrity was back in about 1953, I was ( 13 ) on a flight from Oakland, Ca. to Burbank on a DC 4 Airliner. We landed at Burbank and I looked out the window and saw all kinds of news people,
movie cameras, flash bulbs, etc. Turns out Marylin Monroe was seated in the back of our plane.
They had all of us passengers deplane first. I was walking down the isle to the rear exit door, for the stairs. No jetways in those days. I was about 13, and I knew Marilyn was a movie star, and that was about all of my vast knowledge.
As my mom and I approached to go past where she was seated, I smiled, and gave Marilyn wave. She smiled back and did a little finger wave.
Later, when I was in college, I worked out at Disneyland, and did shows with Walt Disney, and even tried to hustle Annette Funicello . Had no clue who she was, but the she was a class act, and that is another story.
Life was pretty exciting on a steady basis, with living at the beach cities, heavy duty street and strip drag
racing, body surfing, major party time. Those of us that are left standing , still get together, annually or sooner , and talk story.
After the
service the next 40 or so years was professionally saling and powerboating and also flight instructing , corporate pilot, and fighter pilot.
Great people, and with Air Combat
USA ( military fighter pilots ), we flew with many of the TV, movie, and celebraties. Actually had them in the left seat, hands on flying as we talked them through full of 5 and 6 G dogfights.
For us instructors it was not a big deal, we treated them like we did every one else, and had three cameras in the aircraft and made a top gun movie of them.
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Sailing, one story was a flake warf rat who had a small pacific sea craft FLICKA.
He made what ever
money he could by telling people he could marry them since he was a real sea
captain. So, these couples would fall for that, and he performed the
service out on the ocean, or in
newport harbor, give them a tour of
Newport Harbor and complementary drinks, and congrats. None of those marriages were
legal in anyway, but the couples thought is was all official.
On
kauai, and other places , i have met the full on B.S ers, who babbled constantly about their sailing prowess. Met this dude at a local bar in Lihue, and yada, yada.
Well, he was working on boats, and took one of his clients sailing vessels up to Hanalei Bay from Nawiliwili Harbor. Boozed it up pretty good with his warf rat buddy.
It is quite a long
passage back to Lihue, and the harbor where the boat was slipped.
it is now very late night , or early morning, his buddy is passed out, and he is looking for Nawiiwili Harbor entrance. He is telling me , he sees an ORANGE LIGHT, and figured it was the channel entrance. Thar aint no orange nav aids, but I just listened to his story, The light was on a building many miles from the harbor. He ran the boat over rocks and grounded and it . Boat was a total, The owner , who he did some
work for , did not know he had taken it. He left the island, whereabouts unknown.
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Back when I was a CFI , fight instructing, one of my fellow instructors and I had flown over to Catalina's
airport in the sky. You could order a Buffalo Burger at the little restaurant, and sit outside. They had speakers so you could hear the aircraft talking to the unicom operator. A cessna 210 is on a straight in approach. Not according to procedure. caught our attention,
Catlaina Island's , runway , sits on top of a tall hill, with cliffs on three sides. it is a short runway, no FAA tower. Just the advisory
airport dude, in sort of a tower.
Over the speakers, we hear...TAKE OF SIR, YOU
GEAR US UP ! Then we hear the scraping , screeching sounds of the belly of a plane, sliding down the runway. this fellow hhad not gone thru his landing check list. Did not lower his landing
gear.
We are running full speed out of the airport coffee shop, out to the plane. The four guys are now out, and several of us, try to pull the 210 off the runway. The airport is now closed to all traffic. I talked with the pilot. Turns out, he was a Flight Instructor from Orange County John Wayne airport.....the plane belonged to one of his students, who told him he could fly it .
Well, he decided to take these three guys over to
Catalina for lunch. The owner of the plane did not know he had taken it. He was supposed to have notified the owner if he was going to fly it. Plus, he did not follow the normal flight pattern and course rules for landing or complete his landing check list. Us humans could not get the airplane moved, and a airport worker, drove over a small tug, tied a
rope to the plane and drug it off the runway.
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Sailing tale, Pirate in Turtle Bay , Baha. Boat
delivery from Cabo to Los Angeles. About half way up the Baha,
Mexico Coast, we stopped in Turtle Bay,
fuel, water and a break
The three fellows, non paid crew, jumped in the dink and rattled ashore to find a bar.
Erica stayed with me, I was catching up on the log, and she was squaring the boat away below and making up our bunk.
The Pirate. ( only priate story that I have )
I heard a thud against the
hull. Figuring it was our dink and the three be- whiskered dudes returning since they could not find a bar. Nope, looking out the aft st'b portlight, I see a ratty bearded , long haired, scruffy looking, sarape wearing dog, beginning to board our boat. Hargghhh, time to repell all boarders.
His dink painter was held in one hand, and he was grasping the life line, to pull himself into the cockpit. I grabbed our very pistol...old style metal flare gun. Inserted a shell, pulled back the hammer, and took a shooting stance in the companion way. The now loaded weapon was pointed dead center at his chest.
He stopped about mid way of his climbing over the life line, his eyes expanded to huge, and he screams in surprise. The metal barrel of that very pistol must have looked like a shot gun to his thieving bones.
WHAT TO YOU WANT ?
He babbles something like, he was just coming over to see if we needed to exchange dollars for pesos.
NO, YOU SAW THE THREE CREW LEAVE THE VESSEL AND DINK ASHORE, YOU THOUGHT NO ONE WAS ABOARD. YOU CAME TO STEAL ANYTHING THAT YOU COULD.
(Passports, cash, credit cards,
electronics, etc, etc. )
He was a haole due, big sarape over his shoulders and was on board his delapidated, beat up,
Cal 25.
GET OFF THIS BOAT, AND IF I SEE YOU AGAIN, I WILL KILL YOU !
End
game.
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Most of the people that I have associated with, in life, especially in the service, high explosives, sailing and flying are pretty darned sharp, and interesting and positive. .
In other places We do run into whackos, and sometimes they are so far gone that we just stay clear of them. We do not invite certifiable crazies , into our lives.
But, we totally enjoy those who are true adventurous , skilled, and interesting ,
As most sailors here, we have lived amazing and active lives, meet all kinds of people from all walks of life , and still do. All we have to do, is say ...Hello !
For us, the posters here on this forum, life is great fun, because we get out there and actually live it.
We are the fortunate ones.
Good on ya,
Denny
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