Bouncing off of Burl Ives

Many years ago when I was still in flight school for the USAF, I was on a training flight that took off from Homestead AFB and was to fly out to the islands east of Florida, fly another leg to the south and then return to Homestead AFB.  That was the plan, but that is not what happened. 

When we were over-flying the main island in the Bahamas, we lost the use of one of our engines.  We reported it back to base, and were told to land in the Bahamas and wait for further instructions.  We put our plane down without incident and waited for instructions.    The instructions came after about an hour of sitting around.  We were told that the maintenance folks would fly in the next day and fix our engine.  So we were stuck at the airport, with no street clothes and no car.

 Remember, we were young and resourceful.  We got a cab and went downtown in our flight suits.  We found a tourist store that sold loud island shirts, sandals and clam digger pants.  We changed out of our flight suits and into the island duds. We were now dressed and ready to party.  We found a place to store our flight clothes and boots.  The neon lights were calling and we had some money to burn.  A string of lounges were visited and island beverages were sampled.

At the last lounge, I was the last to enter through the swinging doors.  I did not make it.   An extremely large man came bustling through the door and walked right into me.  I must have bounced about four feet backwards from our collision.

 He stopped and profusely apologized, saying, “I am sorry, please, are you hurt?”

 “No”, I replied.  Then I recognized who had just played bumper cars with my body.  This fellow must have stood close to 6 feet and weighed in at a good 300 lbs.  It was Burl Ives, the actor and great folk singer.  I assured him I was not hurt and all was well.  When he was satisfied that I was okay, he turned and walked over to a bright red motor scooter. 

 “Have a good evening”, he said as he sat down on the tiny motor scooter.  With that he started it and then levitated down the street.  At least that was what it looked like from where I was standing.  You could see he was moving and seated, but you could not see the scooter.  His huge frame seemed to be floating down the street in a seated position.  The memory of his extraordinary exit, still brings a smile to my face.