Part 7. You should have seen this coming

Playing in the back yard was suddenly interrupted by the familiar sound of Daddy's work truck coming up the drive way.

The horn was repeatedly honking, so we knew something was up. We all ran out of the back yard to the back patio to see what was going on. It wasn't Daddy, it was Cecil Carter, the job superintendent that managed all of the construction work Daddy had going on at the time.

He was a mess. He had on khaki pants and shirt and was covered from head to toe with something black like oil and grease. As he got out of the truck he was jumping up and down, waving his arms through the air, yelling: "Nora, we're rich, we're rich, we hit it, the well hit and it's a good one".

When he began to explain that the oil well had "come in", momma said: "What oil well"? Mr. Carter's face suddenly went blank and he said: "We've drilled an oil well and it came in this morning". I remember that he was looking around and asked: "Where's Leon"?

Momma turned around, faced us, and told us to go in the house. We knew something was up but didn't really have a clue what it was. Not long after that, Mr. Carter left and Daddy came home. He was clean as a pin and in fact, was wearing his coat, tie, 50's vintage hat and was dressed to the nines as he always was.

I'm not sure what the conversation was about, but the next day, momma came home in a brand new, 55 model Oldsmobile Rocket 88 and we all went for a ride. The following day, Momma came home in a brand new, baby blue, 4 door Caddy with every conceivable accessory including a "wonder bar" radio that only had to be "touched" to change stations. It also had electric windows and air conditioning.

The day after that, Momma showed up with a new mink stole. I can imagine the conversations between Mom and Dad that prefaced the new, improved situation for Momma. She wore it to church that Sunday and many a compliment was received by all the ladies at the church.

Of course, later on, we discovered that Daddy and his lawyer had invested in some drilling operations in Oil City and the first well was a winner. Many years later as I was going through some of Daddy's papers, I found an income statement that declared $18,000 and some change as his income from "Cottage Builders". It had nothing to do with additional income from the oil field but in those days of 15 cent per gallon gasoline, I think 18 grand was huge.

Not long after the oil well episode, something happened that was one of the coolest things I'd ever experienced in my life. Daddy took Linda and me to the airport and introduced us to a locally famous World War II pilot named Joe Messina. Joe had flown C 46's over "The Hump" in the China, Burma, India Theatre and was well known throughout the aviation community as "The Man".

Joe had made it back from the war and had purchased a couple of Piper Cubs from the military when so many planes were put up for sale as excess inventory. He brought credibility and expertise to Shreverport in the form of the first professionally run flight school.

Many of you know how small a Piper Cub is but for those that don't, it was a tandem seat, single engine, high wing plane that had room enough for one in front and one in back. Linda and I were so little, both of us fit in the back seat. Joe put us in the back with Daddy's assistance, fastened our seat belt and sat in the pilot's seat up front to prepare for flight.

Before we could quit diggin the smells and the look of things inside the Cub, he'd started the engine and was taxing toward the runway for take off. In less time than it takes to tell it, we were circling the field, looking down at the hanger and could see Daddy there, still standing where we had been parked in the Cub.

That clearly marked the first day in my life where I had the yearning to fly. I had no thought at all about helicopters and in stead, thought about fighter planes, bombers and the big four engine airliners of the day. In short, my flying career was the result of a real cool Daddy and a World War II pilot who knew how to introduce children to flight without scaring them to death. It was a wonderful flight.

Joe's picture, complete in his WW II flying suit, is framed and hangs in the first spot among the Hall of Fame at the Downtown Airport in Shreveport. I've had the priveledge to talk to young kids staring at the picture when I told them about Joe and the story above.

That's going to be it for today as I don't want to get ahead of everybody. More coming. Stand by.