I’ve just logged about an hour over at Umbrage Universal, mon other blog, and hours before that updating my Brotherhood of Jobs web site, and that workout prompts this romp in semi-flashback. . .
You wouldn’t believe who I just met out at the airport! GENE AUTRY! Dad and I went out to the airport to watch the airplanes like we do many Sundays when the weather’s so nice. I love to watch them take off and land, the drama that doesn’t end for me until the airplane is almost out of sight after leaving, going who knows where. When they come in, that long descent, becoming more than a distant dot just above the horizon, growing bigger so that I usually can tell a Cessna from Stinson before Dad and really getting interested with the distant silhouette tells me it’s a big airplane, a DC-3 or a C-119 delivering cargo to the Air National Guard unit . . . . that is so nifty, especially when they taxi by and I can smell the aviation gasoline and their hot engine and feel the breeze from their propellers . . . . . is there anything better at 11:30 on a sunny Sunday than this? Not in MY book! Well maybe, come to think of it. Dad and I usually go into the terminal restaurant and he buys me a hamburger, some sizzly french fries and a Coke, and we sit at a booth by the window where we can see the planes come and go. Those aromas mix with the fragrance of the hot vynl upholstery and a touch of cigarette & sometimes cigar perfume and life is the best. If I could, I’d stick one of those Phillies Cheroots into my nose so I could savor the sweetness, but Dad would have a fit. And as long as he’s buying, I can live without it.
So we’re walking out of the restaurant, and there are some people in the parking lot, like a group or a small entourage. In the middle is Gene Autry — GENE AUTRY! Pop didn’t tell me about this, but he must have known because usually he doesn’t bring his camera when we come to the airport!
So we walk over, and all the grownups are nodding and smiling, especially Mr. Autry who bends down and shakes my hand when one of the men introduces him to Dad and Dad introduces him to me! What a neat guy! I think the first song I memorized the words to was his recording of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! Not really a cowboy song, but a fun song for sure. I’ve seen him in the movies too, mostly downtown at the Orpheum. I’m really glad Dad took a picture! Maybe he’ll have it blown up to an 8 x 10 or something. Maybe I’ll learn how to play his songs on a guitar when I grow up. Man, what a treat!
Live long . . . . . and proper.
