The Mystery of the Missing Sock

 

Almost every weekday, I babysit my four year old granddaughter for a couple of hours after preschool. Some might consider it a chore, but in his own way it's a privilege that I'm glad that I've earned. It's usually a rather mundane experience where we play with toys, watch something on TV, or go out in the yard. Then came the mystery of the missing sock.

Me: Where is your other sock?

Her: I dunno.

Me: You had it on a minute ago; did you take it off when you took off your shoes? (Maybe I missed it)

Her: No

Me: Then where is it?

Her I dunno.

The house is only so big, and she had been nowhere except the living room, so the sock couldn't be too lost. I dropped the subject in favor of corralling her to the table so we could play with Play-Doh. The next day, again she appears with only one sock..

Me: Do you know where your sock is?

Her: Un-uh.

Me: But you did have both socks on you came in this morning, right?

Her: I guess.

Me: But now it's gone.

Her: Un-uh.

Well, since I never found the sock from the other day, I looked around and eventually discovered both of them behind the couch. Not sure how they got there, I decided I wouldn't waste any more time on it today. However, I decided that tomorrow I was going to keep a closer eye on her when she went behind the couch and solve this mystery.  

Sure enough, the next day I saw her go behind the couch. I gave her a few minutes before I walked over and peered over the top of the couch to see what she was up to. She and her sister both play behind the couch occasionally, taking dolls and other things back there in creating their own little world. It's good for them to have an imagination like that. But had she dreamed up some sock-eating monster that was devouring her socks?

I looked over the top of the couch, being careful not to let her see me. As I watched, she took off one of her socks, placed it over her hand, and created a puppet. Then the puppet was part of the game that she was playing with her toys. I had an answer, using her imagination she turned her sock into a toy. As is usual for a grandfather, I was impressed and proud of her to come up with something like that on her own.

A little while later, she crawled out from behind the couch wearing only one sock. She crawled up into my lap and asked me to put on Peg+Cat, which I did.  After she had been sitting there a little while, I spoke.

Me: You've been using  one of your socks as a puppet? 

Her: She looked at me for a moment without speaking, and then while still looking at me, said "Uh huh".

She never explained further. She just went back to watching her show on TV. After all, if I'd figured that part out I must know the rest of what she was thinking. Besides, Cat was busy trying to teach Peg something about counting by tens and that demanded her attention. 

There are a lot of little things like this that have happened and continue to happen with all 11 of my grandkids. Each of them are unique individuals with different talents and personalities that I have grown to appreciate and love. This one is my youngest, at least at the moment, and I am so privileged getting to watch her grow up.

Being a Grandpa is cool.

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Non-Dental Plaque Removal

 

If you’ve never been a military brat or been in uniform yourself, you might not be familiar with one of the motivating factors that the military uses: The plaque. Each plaque includes your name, what you did, and customization from the presenting organization.  A memento of a certain period of time.

Sure, you get medals for specific things you’ve done or specific goals accomplished, but besides that you sometimes find yourself being presented with either a certificate or a plaque. Plaques are for things that are one step beyond simply completing something but not quite enough to get a medal. Over the course of a career, people normally put these up in their office or at home on an I Love Me wall. When you consider a full career being 20 to 30 years of service, the number of plaques you acquire over that period adds up.

When I transitioned from the military to civilian life, I got rid of a few plaques, but then there were some I just couldn’t part with at that point, so I wrapped him up and stuck them in a box. Recently, I took time to make another cut in my plaque collection, and the ones pictured above are the ones that are now history.

The oldest plaque is for Airmen of the Quarter when I was at Langley Air Force Base. It was the last thing I did before becoming an NCO.

The two similar plaques are from when I attended Leadership School on Guam. One is for being the Class Speaker; the other for being a Distinguished Graduate. Whereas I arrived at the school knowing I was going to take the Class Speaker award, Distinguished Graduate was a surprise. I still remember the school vividly, having learned a lot about leadership there. Also learned the importance of ongoing education; not just for further advancement but because taking time away from the job refreshed the spirit.

The NCO of the month award for February 1986 was while part of the aerial port unit. After completing Leadership School, I changed my specialty from transportation to logistics planning. So, the plaque from the 43rd Bombardment Wing only covers the year I spent there prior to moving back to the US. Yes, the military gives you plaques simply because you’re leaving.

The last two plaques in the picture were simply because I was moving on. One from the 305 Air Refueling Wing at Grissom Air Force Base and another from the 930th Maintenance Squadron (AFRC).

These are not all the plaques that I have. These are the ones that I’ve decided it was time to part with. Saying goodbye to them is bittersweet, but necessary. These were part of the past long ago and served the purpose of recognizing significant things I did but more importantly keeping me motivated during the two decades I spent in uniform.

From this point on, my dentist will probably be the only one doing plaque removal.

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Crew Chief for a Day

When I walked into the Air Force recruiter’s office all those years ago, he asked me what job I wanted. I’d already taken the ASVAB test and the linguistics test as well. I scored high enough that I could have had any job in any of the services. He asked me about becoming an aircraft mechanic. I told him I was okay with that as long as I didn’t have to ride in anything I ever fixed. He stared at me for a minute, waiting for me to explain, and eventually I added, I have zero mechanical skills, and knowing that there was no way I’d board anything I fixed. He smiled, and then we reviewed several other jobs that had nothing to do with mechanics. Thanks to that brief interchange, the Air Force probably saved an aircraft.

Fast-forward years later, I was serving with the 930th Fighter Wing as a logistics planner. I liked the job for a lot of reasons mainly because I was good at it. I was deployed within the A-10 maintenance unit to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, working out of a ready room near the flightline. Since I’d been part of the unit for several years, I was comfortable enough to step out of my role occasionally and into others I thought might be a good way to pass the time. Standing near the edge of the flightline, watching the morning takeoffs, I was talking to the Chief for maintenance as the crews got planes ready to go. At some point I made an offhand remark that I’d like to crew chief an A10 not as a full career but just as a onetime deal. As is often the case, if you say words in front of the right person, things happen.

The next morning when I walked into the ready room, the Chief saw me across the room and walked right over. Putting his right hand on my shoulder, he said, “Today’s your lucky day; you’re going to go launch and recover an A-10.” Without waiting for me to respond, he waved one of the veteran crew chiefs over and quickly explained that I was going to be doing a launch and recovery of his plane that morning. I half expected an objection since some amateur was going to get to play with his airplane, but he smiled and said, “Let’s go have some fun.”

Before anyone gets upset, I was never just turned loose on a multimillion-dollar airplane. I was being closely supervised by a crew chief with decades of experience, and I carried with me the knowledge of how to operate safely on the flightline where fighters were located having done it myself for several years. The Air Force’s formal program trains an auxiliary workforce to launch and recover aircraft, allowing people not normally involved to assist. It’s called cross-utilization training (CUT). I was getting the abbreviated version.

We walked out to his plane on the flightline, and he quickly oriented me on the steps it took to launch. We walked around each of the positions on the aircraft; he explained what each did and then took me back to the nose aircraft where I’d be working from. He then handed me a checklist, and we started going over each step and what functions had to be performed and verified. We went over the list twice, and I felt comfortable with each step. We spent maybe an hour out there, but when it was done, he declared me ready, and we went off to get a cup of coffee until the pilot was scheduled to show up. I was pretty wired at actually getting to do this. I know it may seem silly to crew chiefs who did this three times a day every day, but for me it was something far different from my normal skill set. We saw the aircrew van headed for the flightline, so we walked back out to the aircraft.

Aside from the maintenance folks, nobody knew what I was up to that morning until the pilot walked up to the aircraft. Like the other guys, I stopped and saluted the wing commander as he walked toward the A-10. A look of confusion crossed his face for a moment, and then he asked, “Why are you out here?” I replied I was his crew chief du jour. He looked over my shoulder toward the real chew grew chief, who was standing, and then nodded. “Okay, why?” For the past several months, I had been working on a special duty assignment with the Wing Commander that was going to downsize the unit. So, my response to his question was an inside joke “Looking for job security.” He smiled and turned to climb up the ladder into the cockpit.

With the pilot securely in place, I began running through the checklist with a few other airmen helping me accomplish the preflight of the plane with the pilot. I’ll never forget standing there with the aircraft completely ready to go, rendering the salute to the pilot as he pulled out of the parking space and the airframe I was in charge of – – for the moment – – rolled forward and started heading for the end of the runway. My part was done, but at the end of the runway there were guys who would arm all the munitions. I followed the veteran crew chief back into the break room, and for the next three hours we sat and played euchre while the plane went off to fly its mission at the range.

We walked back onto the flightline as the plane taxied back to its parking spot. I then marshaled it into a perfect parking position and ran the return checklist on the plane. After the pilot shut down the engines, I stood by on the ground as he climbed out of the cockpit and returned to earth. I asked if he had had a pleasant flight and if there were any problems. He smiled and shook his head. “No problems at all, crew chief.”

I turned toward the actual crew chief with a huge grin on my face. A successful mission is one where the takeoffs and landings are equal. I’d done that.

There are many things I did in the Air Force both regular and reserve that I never would’ve been part of if I hadn’t raised my hand and put on the uniform. Once I did that, it was easy to seek other challenges and life experiences within the realm. I am so glad that I can count this as one of them.

Not my launch, but this will give you some idea of the process.

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History In a Can

It’d been sitting on my desk for some time. It also sat on my desk in Michigan, Germany, and Kuwait. But today, I was looking at it a little more intently. The news that Kodak might not be around much longer brought this roll of film more to the forefront of my attention. It had been so long; I didn't know what images were on the roll, or even if they were still viable.

When my dad was stationed in Germany, he was heavily into photography. He had his own darkroom set up in the apartment he shared with my mom. There was nothing he talked about much, but now and then I’d come across boxes full of black-and-white pictures that were obviously self-developed and printed. I was told he stopped printing his own photos at home when the enlarger got knocked off the table and destroyed. I never asked him, so I have no way of knowing. What I did ask him was to teach me how to take pictures and develop them. 

Fortunately, the base we were at had a photo lab in the recreation center. So, we bought some film, took some pictures, and then went to the rec center to develop and print them. By the end of the day, I had 10 photos that were worth keeping that had survived the manual photo process. I also got to hang out with my dad all afternoon. 

He eventually gave me his old 35mm camera to replace the 120mm fixed-focus camera I had been using. The Agfa he gave me had a built-in rangefinder, but it was still hit or miss if I could get the subject in focus. I worked hard at it, burning up a couple of rolls of Kodak Tri-X film a week. Eventually, I got interested in other things and set the camera aside.

When I was stationed in Germany, I picked up my camera again because there was a camera shop right across the street from the dorm where I lived. I used to walk through the aisles and drool over the equipment. I eventually bought a fully manual Pentax camera and started taking pictures. Black-and-white got boring quickly, so I moved on to shooting with Kodachrome and having to pay somebody to develop it. Photography can be an expensive hobby. I got back into black-and-white, including processing my own pictures when I was in Berlin. The rec center there had not only a darkroom but a full studio, so I started shooting pictures of people. 

Later, when I went to Guam, I taught a course in photography that included darkroom processing of black-and-white film. It was a lot of fun, and I had full access to the equipment anytime I wanted. I was still using my trusty Pentax. 

Eventually, I passed the camera on to my son, and I bought myself a Nikon. Actually, I bought two — one digital, one film. I still use those when I want to take a serious picture with creativity over and above what my phone will allow me to do.

Hearing that Kodak might go away, I was pushed to take the roll of film in and get it developed. Surprisingly, some frames contained images good enough to see. As you can tell, light leaked into that camera canister and gave the photos a halo effect you see around the edges of pictures. As for when and where they were taken, in Venice around 2003. That means the film had been around waiting to get developed for right at 23 years. I’m impressed any image showed up at all. I expected to get a note back telling me they couldn’t print the pictures because there was nothing to print. Getting actual photos back was a pleasant surprise.

I think maybe I need to break out my Nikon and throw in a roll of film and then go take some pictures. It would cost too much to set up a darkroom, so I will do the developing, but that’s okay.

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More Than Being a Good Loser

 

Just because I'm not a sports fan, doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the lessons sports teach, in particular the root of good game play — sportsmanship. Usually this means a team or individual not pitching a fit after losing, but seeing it as a lesson about things to improve for future play. People usually view those who blame outside factors or claim unfair gameplay as poor sports. 

A few weekends ago, I traveled an hour away to watch a teenage grandson Ian's soccer team play in an end of season tournament. Because of traffic, I arrived a little late, and the game had already started by the time I got parked. After getting comfortably seated, I paid attention to the game going on in the field in front of me. I know the basic rules of soccer, but there are a lot of nuances and strategy that I don't know. It didn't take more than a few minutes to realize that the team I came to watch was simply not doing well. They seemed to be more interested in passing the ball back-and-forth rather than moving it forward or going for goals. Occasionally, the other team would make a drive downfield and score.

Because I arrived late I was not sitting with other parents that were also there to watch Ian's team. With that, and the lack of scoreboards (because of the asinine theory that kids don't need to know how well anyone is doing) I did not know what the score was. Based on what I had witnessed, only the other team that scored so my assumption was our team was losing.  

As play continued in the second half, the boys seemed a little more energetic but still were not scoring. When the game was over. I walked to where the teams were having a final meeting with their coach, knowing that with this loss they were out of the tournament. As the team meeting broke up, I heard people telling the boys on the team what great sports they were and how it'd been a great season. I really expected them to be more upset, but you can still hold your head high after losing to a superior team.

When I finally got Ian away from the rest of the crowd, I asked him what the final score was, and he told me his team had won by a sizable margin. Then he explained, in the first 10 minutes of the game they scored over 15 points. At that point, they could've just ground the other team into the dirt, but rather than doing that, the team took it easy and simply defend the lead. So, when they had possession of the ball they would just pass it back-and-forth, giving you the team a chance to steal. They were slow to run downfield to give the other team a chance to make a goal here and there. Ultimately, they did all this to spare the other team's pride, since their victory was assured. In fact, because of the win, they were going to play the final tournament game in about two hours. I told him I'd hang around for that.

It was a different lesson than the one you normally hear about sportsmanship. This was about how to be a gracious winner and taking the victory without demolishing the other team just because you can. I was proud of him and his teammates. They let the other team leave with their heads held high because they had played their best, despite being significantly outmatched. It feels good when you can walk away with something like that.

The last game? The opposing team was equally skilled, which made the game exciting to watch. Both teams left it all on the field doing their best making goals when they could and trying to hold the other team's scores as low as possible. In the end, the team I was rooting for one that game too.

Note:  The pix are from a few years ago, not this tournament.

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Start Your Engine, Mine's Running

 

Many of my memorable childhood experiences took place with me sitting on the living room floor watching TV with my family. Many significant and impactful events marked the late 60s. Space launches (to include the first moon landing), the assassination of MLK and RFK, Woodstock, Prague Spring, Viet Nam, and of course sporting events. My dad was a big football fan, so on Sundays the TV was tuned into whichever game he had an interest in the day. But one Memorial Day weekend in 1969, the TV was showing something I had never seen before––automobile racing. Not just any kind of racing, Indy car racing.

I was nine years old when I plopped down in front of the TV after the singing of the national anthem and Back Home in Indiana then I first heard the command “Gentlemen start your engines.” Thirty three cars took off and spent the next three hours turning to the left. It was exciting to me, and even though I was aware of what a race looked like I had never seen one quite like this. The cars looked like the ones that came with the racetrack that I got for Christmas a few months before. My toys had come to life.

As the race went on, I got used to hearing the announcer blurting out a play-by-play using vocabulary I was unfamiliar with and intermixing that play-by-play with facts and figures from today’s race and those in the past. I vividly remember the pit-stop problems AJ Foyt, the predicted winner, had. Those problems led to Mario Andretti winning his first Indy 500 after leading 116 of the race’s 200 laps.

I found things to get excited about in the race, pit-stops, almost crashes and the conversions with the crew chiefs during lulls in the action. The announcers explained about the wings on the front and their function. Before the race was over, I’d learned a layman’s lesson about speed and racing–and I found it interesting.

I’ve mentioned before that I have zero athletic talent and as a result, watching sports never held my interest. Looking back, this was probably because my ego demanded I win those things I took part in, but winning was rare so my attention quickly waned before I got better. Not sure if practice would’ve helped, but maybe. Of course, I’ve always enjoyed the Olympics, but never as a fan of a single sport. It was just a chance to root for the home team. But on the Sunday before Memorial Day in 1969, I found something that was called a sport that I liked.

One of my grandfathers was a big baseball fan. Specifically, the Atlanta Braves. He could quote stats on all the players, games, and who won what game going back eons. I always thought that was kinda cool, and it became one of those things that I saw as being a fan of the sport. Because the end of May is not the season for much else, most sports news turns to the event about seven days before the race. This includes a lot of history, as well as all the new rules and improvements to the cars since the last time the race was run. This made being a trivia maven for the race easy. By the time the race whirled around 1970, when Al Unser, Sr won, I was equipped with the knowledge to truly enjoy the race for the challenge of man and machine that it was.

Along with all the race science and safety information, I also learned about the traditions. From the quart of milk at the finish line, to kissing the track’s Brick Yard after winning, and of course the victory lap with the hand up and out of the cockpit raised in victory. I also learned about the importance of a good pit crew and why 1969’s race should never have ended the way it did.

From that first race, I’ve watched almost every Indy 500. Sometimes in the US, sometimes overseas, I’ve even listened when I couldn’t watch the race. The 109^th race was viewed at my local American Legion with some other veterans. Mostly, watching the race has been an almost solitary endeavor, so it was different being with a group of folks.

Alex Palou was this year’s winner. He made a pass 14 laps before the end of the race that allowed him to dominate the final scramble for the finish. As usual, I felt bad for the guys who wrecked early on, including Scott McLaughlin who crashed before the race even got the green flag. I didn’t hear of any injuries and that’s always a good thing.

For now, I'll tuck away all of my racing knowledge into the back part of my brain where it'll remain unused until next May when I prepare to watch the greatest spectacle in racing, that starts with those words Drivers, start your engines.

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The Magic Transporter. Why Should Kirk Have All the Fun?

 

I don’t remember the specific date when I used the Magic Transporter for the last time, but I think I was about eight or nine. I do remember the events that were going on the night it happened. 

My dad was very interested in the space program. So, if some event was going on, he’d call me into the living room to watch it on TV. I’d sit on the floor and listen to Walter Cronkite as I watched whatever NASA was up to on that particular mission. On that evening, the lunar lander had landed safely on the moon, but there was a lengthy delay between landing and when someone actually stepped out of the capsule. That knowledge narrows it down a little, since there were six crewed landings between 1969 and 1972.

I recall laying on the floor in front of the TV, and covered up with a woobie my dad had brought home. I remember Cronkite talking with his cast of experts and broadcasting live audio from Mission Control. Every radio transmission ended with a distinctive beep. 

At some point, I no longer heard the beeps as exhaustion overtook me and I fell asleep. 

What happened next was something almost everyone can relate to. Somehow, after falling asleep in one place, you mysteriously found yourself in your own bed, tucked under the covers, when you awoke the next morning. Of course, folks who were kids before Star Trek began in 1966 had to call it something else besides the Magic Transporter. Whatever you call it, it was an experience many of us share and I count this among the many wonderful memories I have of my childhood.

When I became a father, I found out what it was like on the other end of that magic, when I served as Magic Transporter for my children, taking them from wherever they fell asleep to their bed. Just like me, not one of them questioned how that magic happened. They just accepted it as part of life and went on.

Night before last, I served as transporter again. I had rocked my youngest granddaughter to sleep and with that mission accomplished I picked her up, put her in her bed, and covered her up. The next morning, she made no mention of the magic that moved her from one place to another. I know at some point in the future, she will take over my role and I hope that when she does, she remembers her rides on the Magic Transporter fondly.

By the way, something is simple as my dad sharing his interest in space, led to my own interest in it. Which, probably led to me taking my son to Space Camp. Yes, it is a real place.

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