A Moving Story

By Mark W. Danielson

There are two times when everything you’ve stashed over your lifetime is reviewed.  First, when you are attempting to reduce the clutter when moving to another destination.  Second, when loved ones sort through your items when you’ve departed.  Currently, Lyne and I have been completing the first stage as we prepare to leave Colorado for Texas. 

Six years ago, when we combined our households, we each had volumes of collectables and kid things.  At the time, we both sorted through things, deciding what was important and what we could part with.  Even so, we still had enough to fill every storage area.  Now that we are moving, it was time to re-evaluate everything.  No doubt we still have more than we need, but we both gave up plenty to make our downsizing manageable.

Over the years, I have written numerous novels that I have never attempted to publish.  I knew some of them were in hard copy and it was nice discovering them again.  Perhaps one day I will give them a re-look to decide whether I want to publish them, but for now they will remain locked away.  Thankfully, these manuscripts were still fresh with no mice markings or chewed edges.  I also found manuscripts on a variety of storage devices including gigantic 860 floppy disks, next generation floppy disks, CDs, and flash drives.  The problem is I found so many that I’m not sure which ones were “final” versions.  Thankfully, my cataloging has improved since then.

At times my eyes welled as I came across certain personal effects.  An angel ornament of my former dog, kid photos destroyed by a water spill, old Father’s Day cards, drawings and stories from my daughters all brought vivid memories, and as good as it was to re-live this journey through the past, it’s time to move forward.

On June first, Lyne and I will be moving into a rental house where we will stay until the house we’ve been designing for the past two years is built.  We have owned land near Fort Worth for several years, so it will be nice to finally live on it.  Texas will be a fresh start for us.  We will meet new friends and stay in touch with old ones.  Even so, it won’t be easy watching our Colorado home shrink in our rear-view mirror. 

I was living in Lubbock, Texas, in the late ’70’s when Mac Davis sang, “Happiness is Lubbock Texas in my rear view mirror.”  I shared his sentiments when I left Lubbock for California, and felt the same way when I left Beeville, Texas, for California a second time.  Oddly, I never felt that when I left Arlington, Texas, for Colorado.  I’ve lived all over Texas, and my kids spent their formative years in the Fort Worth area, so for me, moving to Granbury is like coming home.  Lyne has never lived there, but is the most adaptable person I know.  Our new house is surrounded by water and backs up to a runway so when it’s completed, we will be able to drop our boat in the water in minutes, or open the hangar door and take off without having to drive anywhere.  We’ll be surrounded by horses and cattle, yet only be thirty minutes from downtown Fort Worth.  While it can be hotter than hell in the summer, the odds of shoveling snow in the winter are minimal.  Lyne has a variety of projects in work and I will be retiring in three years, so we are both looking forward to this lifestyle change.

My current Maxx Watts detective series is set in Fort Worth for good reason.  Not only does this city suit his character, Fort Worth offers plenty of inspiration.  Like Maxx, Lyne and I look forward to adventure what the area has to offer.  Hopefully, our lives will be quieter than Maxx and his partner.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

By Mark W. Danielson

It was a hot summer night and sleep eluded me. To be truthful, I had gone without blissful sleep for weeks. In my job, getting five solid hours is a blessing, but since I had been home a while, my unrest was inexcusable. After flipping non-stop like a fish out of water, I rolled out of bed to toil on mycomputer. An hour later and utterly exhausted, I lumbered to the basement bedroom so I wouldn’t disturb anyone. Lying on my back, my dog at my feet, I once again stared into the darkness with eyes wide open.

Busy minds keep bodies awake, and in my case, it was like I consumed sixteen Mountain Dews. Silently counting backwards from one hundred normally drains my brain, but tonight, it merely challenged me to reach zero. I then went through my stress exercises of tightening and relaxing every muscle, but my mind fought back with a vengeance. Then suddenly, miraculously, a new plot came to me about a man so drunk on sleep that he communicates with a spirit. Ah, the perfect sequel to Writer’s Block! At the time, I knew nothing about the real haunting at Fort Worth’s Scott Theater. I learned about that the next day while conducting research, but since my protagonist is a Fort Worth homicide detective, the Scott Theater haunting nicely fits into my story.

Smiling now, I settled into the pillow and closed my eyes, letting my mind drift with the plot. The sequel that I had already begun could wait, for this new story must go forth. After all, who knows sleep deprivation better than an international airline pilot?

Fate has crept into my life in many ways, and I have no better way of explaining this revelation. It wasn’t the first time I received subliminal messages, but I never recalled any being as vivid. So now the fun begins, banging on keys while my subconscious writes this story. I love this stage because nothing has to be perfect. While I have definite ideas on where the story will go, I look forward to my characters taking me there. Months will pass before this story sees its first edit, but that’s not a problem since Writer’s Block won’t be released until this fall. In this regard, perhaps there is some value in sleepless nights. Then again, it would be nice waking up feeling refreshed.

Don't Mess With Texas

By Mark W. Danielson

I love Texas for its attitude as well as its landscapes. Texas is “The Lone Star State” because it was once the Republic of Texas. Paris, France, still commemorates the Ambassade Du Texas, 1842-1843, as shown in the photo. Interestingly, the Republic of Texas’ relationship with France was strong enough to warrant naming one of its towns after the City of Light. Love it or leave it, Texas is one unique state.

I spent many years living in Texas, and from its panhandle to the Gulf, Texans are full of pride. The “Don’t Mess With Texas” signs that dot its highways warn outsiders of its no-littering policy, but truthfully, this slogan is also an anthem. Where else but Texas would you find a semi-automatic pistol mailbox? ’Nuff said.

Writers love creating Texas characters because of their distinctive qualities. Movies and TV shows love to portray oil barons as rotund, boozing, loud-mouthed middle-aged men who wear cowboy boots, cowboy hats, and drive Caddies with bull horns on their hoods, and while I’ve seen plenty of Texas businessmen in boots and hats with their suits, I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a bull-horned Cadillac on the street. Now gun-toting pickups are a whole different animal, and they’re certainly not on the endangered list.

Because of its stereotypes, people may not realize that Texas has as much geographical variety as California, and along with its topography, its dialects can vary by city. Even towns that are physically close like Fort Worth and Dallas have completely different feels, so if you’re going to write Texas characters into your stories, you had better know what you’re talking about. You’ll find Dallas is as cosmopolitan as Chicago while Fort Worth rivals any cow town. I suspect that Fort Worth’s “Billy Bob’s” is where the country group Alabama realized that “if you’re gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band.” Of course, some might compare Houston to Nashville because it’s turned out so many country musicians.

The point to all of this is that researching characters is as important as researching locations. Sometimes stereotypes are suitable, but most of the time they’re not, and thinking that Hollywood has done its homework is simply naïve. For example, when some Navy friends of mine spoke to the director of the movie Topgun about its inaccuracies, the director replied, “We’re not making a documentary.” While it’s true that fiction writers make up their stories, unless you’re writing fantasy, it’s best to keep your characters and locations believable. Doing so makes it easier for the reader to put themselves in the setting and become emotionally attached to your characters.

Oops

By Mark W. Danielson

My last two years in the Navy were spent serving as the project officer in charge of re-opening Carswell Air Force Base as a Navy-sponsored joint reserve base. Since no one told me how they wanted it done, I “winged it”; displaying museum aircraft from all service branches throughout the base. With NAS Dallas closing, the three airplanes on display there needed to be moved to Fort Worth. Having had some experience in airlifting aircraft before, I asked the Army National Guard in Dallas if their heavy-lift Chinook helicopters could do the job. After resolving some funding issues, the Guard gladly accepted my request.

NAS Dallas only had one Navy aircraft to relocate, so I felt this A-4 should be the first to fly. After all, there were still plenty of A-4s, should anything go wrong, but the Air National Guard’s Korean War vintage F-80 and F-86 were irreplaceable. Once the A-4 was safely delivered, I gave the go-ahead to transport the other aircraft.

One thing about inter-service cooperation is you must trust everyone to do their jobs, so when the Air National Guard said their F-80 was ready to go, no one doubted them. Things began spiraling when the Chinook’s landing gear smashed through the F-80’s canopy while hovering to connect the sling, but then disaster struck when the F-80 jackknifed seconds after lifting off the ground. At this point, the helicopter crew released their line, plopping the jet on the ground. The F-80 successfully landed on its gear, but its tail section was now resting vertically against its fuselage. But wait, there’s more. After all, why leave the jet this way when you can blow its tail section clear across the parking lot while you land to retrieve your sling? You guessed it -- that’s exactly what happened. Ouch!

I missed out on all this because I was standing on the Carswell ramp awaiting the F-80’s arrival. Suddenly, word came that there was a problem, and that the F-80 wouldn’t be coming. My jaw dropped when I later reviewed the video. The problem stemmed from the Air Guard’s not installing the correct bolts in the F-80’s fuselage. Like many fighters, this aircraft was designed so the entire tail section could be removed to perform an engine change, so when the weak bolts sheered, the helicopter’s sling popped the F-80’s tail like a Coke lid. Thankfully this happened close to the ground or we would have completely lost the aircraft.

Later that day, members of the Air National Guard, Navy Reserve, and Air Force Reserve began repairing the F-80. Incredibly, within two weeks, this aircraft was pieced together, airlifted to Carswell, and put on display, and a year or so later, outtakes from this calamity were shown on America’s Funniest Videos. Personally, I had no problem with this. After all, laughing is better than crying, right? But the important thing is this F-80 continues to serve as a testament to the concept of joint operations. As they say, all’s well that ends well.

Our museum had grown to fourteen aircraft by the time NAS Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth was commissioned in October, 1994. Today, this base continues to thrive with active fighter, tanker, and transport aircraft from the Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, and Navy Reserve, and since it was designed to minimize duplication of effort, this base is saving taxpayer dollars. I was proud to have played a small role in establishing it and preserving our aviation history with its museum.