Let’s see how closely I stick to this idea

When: Monday nite 11/14, 7:30ET (doors open @7 for community hang)

Where: https://youtu.be/3kszn4ErzNw

WHO GETS 10%: https://www.massfallenheroes.org/about/
Combat Veterans committed to memorializing fellow service members who did not return home. Raising funds, created a first-of-its-kind memorial, developed the Veteran’s Edge program to assist Veterans, and created a network of support and programs for MA Gold Star Families.

http://paypal.me/vancevancevance or
https://venmo.com/vancevancevance or
a check to VanceFunder P.O. Box 17,
Arlington, MA 02476 for this web-groovery.
Pay or not, up to you. Let’s stay connected.

This week's pyjamas - doggie bottoms 🐶, ⁇ top!!

NEW ALBUM. Donate any amount = name on the cover. Sure there’s still time. Same links above, note “VanceFunder”. Any amount over $1 works, but $1000 -plus- makes you an exec producer, name in heavy black font.

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BISHOP DALTON, I THINK

So I’m walking down the street with $1000 cash from an ATM because an institution I work for issued me an unmanageable bank pay card manned by apologetic on-line support crew, which is more than can be said for said institution’s staff that professed the card as ”greener” than check mailing even after i sent them a pic of the 13-15 pieces of paper from the card issuer with my letter of discontent, followingly capping their note with how I was on my own for extracting my pay.

I walked into my bank ready to tear off heads and poop down necks.

He was in line in front of me, just done at the teller’s window. I saw the veteran status hat. Vietnam. It’s so automatic for me now - regardless of color, age, sex, whether I get a snarly look or they look through me,
I’m all hand-stretched out and “Thank you for your service”.
This man was Black and thanked me back. His hat further explained that he was Airforce.

“Were you a pilot?”

“Well, no, I was a flight engineer. I wanted to be a pilot, that’s how I came in, but, well it’s a long story.”

I bet it was. Some of the best people on the planet wash out in pilot training. Maybe it was something else. He was on the Lockheed C 134 and in the Boeing B52H Stratofortress. He looked me up and down. My hat, sweatshirt, shirt, all had aircraft stuff on them. That’s a “duh” if you truly know me.

“Are you a pilot?” he beamed at me.

“No sir.” I replied. "Just an amateur aviation historian and model builder”. God, how many times have I said that.

“Wonderful,” says he. “I got out of aviation 45 years ago. Married my wife and became a minister - bishop actually, and my wife and I are so happy and retired that...”
The line for the teller had gotten longer by about 4 people, so I stepped out. I opened my fanny pack, pulled out my 1962 Macdonald Aircraft Recognition Handbook - yes, I always have it handy - and asked him to sign it on page 390 for the B52H.

His mouth fell open: “You want my autograph?”

“Yessir”.

I can’t read his name. I think it says Bishop Henry N. Dalton. A current man of God who formerly served on an aeronautically seductive deadly people killing machine, shaking hands with me, both of us Black, with aviation hats on. And as he left the bank I was instantly grinning at the back of the teller’s line with my vulnerable forgotten $1000, my 4th autograph in that book, beaming at the complexity and wonder of connection.

Happy Veterans Day