Blogs by Rep Bob Lynn

TOOTING MY OWN HORN

Today I “tooted my own horn” (not so unusual for a politician) – but the horn I tooted was my big antique Buffet baritone saxophone with the Anchorage Community Concert Band at the Saturday Market. We’ll play the Saturday Market again in August, and do our Winter Concert in December. The wonderful thing for me is that there is no “political agenda” when I play in the band. I “mellow out,” and put politics aside. Most of us in the band are “has been” high school or military band musicians, and if we had to make a living making music, we’d starve. But that’s not the point. The point is: music, especially “making music,” can be its own reward.

I thank my parents for those first music lessons when I was about ten years old, and I thank my boyhood schools for the gift of music. I’m a strong advocate of schools teaching the “basics” of reading, writing, and arithmetic. But I’m also an advocate for music in the schools. In the legislature I will always support school music.

I think learning to read words in a book, and learning to read music reinforce each other. Learning about how 16th, 8th, and quarter notes add up to one to make a musical measure reinforces learning fractions. Following the directions of the conductor relates to following directions from the classroom teacher. And I submit that learning the teamwork of a band or orchestra is no less demanding than teamwork lessons of football and basketball (without the bruises). The anxietyof first solo you play in a band is not much different than overcoming the anxiety of the first public speech Music also teaches history, ethnic cultures, but most of all music is great fun – and more fun would make the world a better place!

My first school music experience started in the 6th Grade Orchestra at 4th Avenue School in East Los Angeles (that was a long time ago, but don’t believe the rumor that Mozart played in the same orchestra). During my high school years I played in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Boy’s Band (I marched in the very long Pasadena Rose Parade six times – one time playing the bass drum (probably what’s wrong with my back today), the East Los Angeles Junior Lions Club Band, the Elks 99 Band. In those days, almost every community had one or more community youth bands (which kept a lot of out of trouble so that later we could get in trouble in a legislature).

At the infamous Garfield High in East Los Angeles (of “Stand and deliver” movie fame) I was a member of the Bulldog Marching Band and Junior ROTC Band., as well as Orchestra, and Advanced Ensemble (even played bassoon – badly-for a while). My first Air Force military experience as a member of the 541st Air Force Band at the now defunct Williams Air Force Base at Chandler, Arizona.

When I left the military band in 1952 for Aviation Cadet flying school and officer training, I put the saxophone down and didn’t play again until 1988 – when I joined the American-Bavarian Brass Band in southern California. This was 25 piece German “oom papa” band playing schmaltzy “cry-in-your-beer” waltzes, stirring European marches, the “Chicken Dance,” and of course polka, polka, polka! .On my lederhosen outfit I wore a button that proclaimed, “Polka till you puke” ( I probably shouldn’t have shared that). I must confess, this is the kind of music I most enjoy playing. The only – the ONLY - thing I miss from California is that great German band.

If you have kids, get them into music. – and support music in our schools.

MY MINNIE PEARL ACT, PICNICS, AND HORN TOOTING

A busy Saturday:

MINNIE PEARL ACT: First stop was routine personal business at my bank across the street from the Dimond Mall. A kindly lady in line with me asked if she could help me – to remove the price tag hanging from a new shirt I bought yesterday!! She asked if I was related to Minnie Pearl (the old time country comedian famous for the price tag hanging from her hat). I thanked the lady for her help and advised her that, "no" Minnie Pearl isn’t on my family tree and, despite the price tag, this politician isn’t for sale! I can rationalize the whole embarrassment by thinking that, for every politician with a price tag hanging from their shirt, there’s a voter out there someplace with a price tag hanging from their shirt.

PICNICS AND AWARDS: Dropped by to say hello to folks at the Alaska State Employees Association (ASEA) picnic on the grounds of my American Legion Post on Brayton Road in Anchorage. Good food and camaraderie. Next stop was the Anchorage Senior Center to attend the Alaska Assisted Living Association award gathering and picnic (as both my schedule and my scale will attest, I like picnics). At the picnic, Rep. Sharon Cissna was recognized for her good work on assisted living issues. And thank you Sharon, for your nice words about me - I was so impressed that I might even vote for myself!!

TOOTING MY HORN: Played a gig this afternoon with the Anchorage Community Concert Band, of which I’m a ten year member, at the Anchorage Saturday Market. It’s conducted by Neil Haglund, also a resident of District 31, and a music teacher with the Anchorage School District.

I play an antique Buffet Baritone Sax. The instrument weighs a ton, and when I lug it around, I wish I’d taken up piccolo in its place. But the bari sax is “me,” and I love playing it. Music (and photography) is how I unwind from politics and other business of the day.

Most of us in the band are amateur musicians, and we couldn’t make a living at it if we tried. We come from a variety of musical backgrounds. I started playing sax in the fifth grade. As a kid, I played in the Los Angeles Sheriffs’ Boys Band (marched in the Pasadena (California) Rose Parade six times with that band), the East Los Angeles Lions Club Band, and the Elks Junior 99 Band. In those halcyon days, almost every community had a kid band, ands the community was better for it. At my alma mater Garfield High School, I played in the Bulldog Football Band (also Drum Major and baton twirler), the school orchestra, the swing band, and the advanced ensemble (played bassoon in that group).

When I enlisted in the Air force, my first assignment was the 541st Air Force Band, at Williams Air Force Base, Chandler, Arizona (the base is now defunct - but not because of the band). One day the Band First Sergeant called me into his office, and explained to me that while I was doing OK as a musician, that I should put down my horn, join Aviation Cadets, learn to fly, and get an officer’s commission – which I did.

Thirty-six years later in California, I took up my horn again (Buescher 400 alto sax - paid for by income as a bit actor in "State of the Union') and joined the American Bavarian Brass Band, known affectionately as the “Pass Gassers” – playing oompah pa pa Bavarian polkas, cry-in-your-beer schmaltzy waltzes, and stirring German marches. We played all the Okterberfests, attired in lederhosen, stutzen socks, embroidered shirts, and edelweiss ties. I was also the “chicken dance” instructor, and led the “Grand Marsch” with a big baton which I traded at the end of the march for a twirling baton for a short baton twirling act. I didn’t do the twirling as well as I did in high school, of course, but folks didn’t notice because they were surprised to see a fat old man twirl a baton, regardless of his current skill! I love Oktoberfest music – and, in fact, all types of music including country, classical, and big band swing. . .

The point of all this is, music has a place in the school curriculum. It teaches more than just tooting your horn. It teaches teamwork, discipline, counting, and among many other things, an appreciation for music. .

THE ROSE PARADE AND SHERIFF’S BOYS BAND

The 123^rd annual Rose Parade today in Pasadena, California brings multiple memories. I marched in that five and a half mile parade six times with the then-well-known Sheriff’s Boy’s Band. Played the Buesher 400 alto saxophone – the same sax I play (though not often) today. One Rose Parade, however, I lugged and beat a big bass drum. That likely explains what’s wrong with my back today. In addition, I’ve several times attended the Rose Parade. I love a parade! I think my daughter Debra may have attended the parade today.

It’s sad that some four hundred rag-tag “Occupy” protesters thought it appropriate to follow behind the parade on Colorado Blvd. I can’t imagine how they think such stuff can benefit their “cause,” if they even know what their cause is. Whatever, this is America, and freedom of speech and freedom of assembly is a good thing.

I’m amazed the 2012 parade is today Monday, the 2^nd of January – because New Year’s Day fell on Sunday. Doesn’t seem quite right (I’m a traditionalist). Whatever, I hope one day our State of Alaska can join with other states with a rose covered float in the parade.

Photos show me in Sheriff’s Boy’s Band with Katherine Hepburn during filming of “State of the Union,” the whole band with badges and patch, and little young me when I first joined the band. The insert shows some band members with famed Los Angeles County Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz, who was my Grandfather (Deputy Sheriff) John Lynn’s boss.

Sheriff’s Boy’s Band Director Colonel Vesey Walker, and my sax instructor, later became the first bandmaster of Disneyland in California. Last time I saw Col. Walker was when I was a teacher and I worked a summer job at the photo shop at Disneyland. His son Tommy Walker was my baton-twilling instructor. Also known as “Tommy the Toe,” he was the USC Drum Major who – when necessary – changed from band to football uniform to become a placekicking celebrity. He also composed the well-known USC trumpet charge "Da da da DUT da DUH"! Tommy later directed the opening and closing ceremonies for three World Olympic Games. Colonel Walker and Tommy Walker, like the Sheriff Boy’s band, were a big influence during my teens.

I LOVE MUSIC AND ALASKA FOLK FESTIVALS

I love music. Music you can tap your toes to. Fun music. When I was young, that kind of good music played daily on every radio station. In those days I played baritone sax in my high school swing band at the infamous Garfield High in East Los Angeles –“big band” music. Every time we could, the “band kids” went out to the Hollywood Palladium Ballroom to gather ‘round the bandstand and listen close up to the musical greats – and even talk with them: Harry James, Freddy Martin, Les Brown, the Dorsey’s, and others! We knew these guys were “great” – but didn’t know they would become legends. What a memory!

I was very active in high school music – especially the marching band. My first US Air Force assignment, before going on to flying school, was the 541st AF Band at Williams AFB, Arizona. Alas, base bands now are a thing of the past (replaced for cost efficiency with regional military bands). But I do enjoy military music – nothing beats a rousing John Phillip Sousa or Carl Teike march.

Military music is also a kind of distant cousin to “oompah band” Oktoberfest music. For many years, before immigrating to Alaska, I played sax in the big “American Bavarian Brass Band” in California (known affectionately as the “Pass Gassers”). In addition to blowing sax in that band, I was also Chicken Dance Demonstrator at band performances. Don’t tell anyone. I want to be re-elected!

All of this (unnecessary, but pleasingly nostalgic) preamble brings me to the great annual Alaska Folk Festival in Juneau that – praise be – comes to town in April, during the time I’m in Juneau for the legislative session. The folk musicians come at their own expense from every nook and cranny of Alaska to perform to an enthusiastic audience. And it’s all free – which appeals to my fiscal conservatism.

A different Festival group performs every fifteen minutes. So, if you don’t like one group, it’ll quickly be replaced by another. Almost without exception, performers are highly talented. When I see these kinds of local talent performing, I can’t believe they’re not major performing artists making millions of bucks (I guess they’re not lucky enough to be in the right place, at the right time. Somehow, it doesn’t seem fair). The wonderful performers at the Folk Festival come from every walk of life in Alaska. They love performing. I love listening!

The most common performance at the Alaska Folk Festival is Bluegrass Music. It’s a high energy, foot-stomping, and technically challenging variety of acoustic string music (guitar, banjo, mandolin, string bass) with improvised solos. The cultural ancestor of bluegrass music is Celtic, and Northern Ireland – especially the everyday music of Scotch Protestants who were settled by the British in a “plantation” in Ulster Province as a counterforce to indigenous Irish Catholics. We refer to them today as the “Scotch-Irish.” Interestingly, I’m Catholic, but most of my genealogy is Scotch-Irish Protestant, not Irish Catholic (obviously, another mark of non-conformity).

In years preceding the American Revolution and the 1776 Declaration of Independence, hundreds of thousands of Scotch-Irish left Ulster and emigrated to America. My ancestors were among them. A large number of Scotch-Irish settled in remote and isolated vallies of the Appalachian Mountains. They brought their ancestral music with them. In “mountain music,” as this genre of music is sometimes termed, hear the old chord progressions, close harmonies, and vocalistic styles of its ancient Scotch-Irish musical heritage. Mountain music is the common ancestor of country western, and especially Bluegrass. It’s a derivation of the music that came across the ocean from Northern Ireland and, before that, Celtic homelands in Europe.

I really enjoy the Juneau Folk Festival. Good music. Good people. My favorite performers at this year's Alaska Folk Festival were “Belly Meat” from Sitka, "Barefoot Bluegrass" from Anchorage, and especially “Bluegrass 101” from Juneau.

ROAD MUSIC TO THE FERRY TO JUNEAU

Accommodations would be difficult to find in Juneau during the Special Session on the gas pipeline capital city. It’s the height of the tourist season in Juneau, plus some kind of Native Alaskan celebration is going on there. So I brought my “portable home” with me - my 22 foot travel trailer. I left home in Anchorage Friday at 7:15 PM for the special session driving solo, dragging my trailer behind my gas guzzling Chevy Suburban. I pulled into Glennallen just before midnight Friday, arrived at Destruction Bay by Kluane Lake in the Yukon Saturday evening, and made it into Haines Sunday afternoon to catch the ferry to Juneau Monday at 9:00AM. Driving across the Haines Summit is like being on another planet.

It’s a long, albeit exceedingly beautiful, trip. This being the Alaska, thirty minutes would sometimes elapse before seeing another vehicle going in either direction. Pulling a trailer, while dealing with highway frost heaves (“whoop-de-doos), plus road construction (Alaska has two seasons: winter, construction) made for some slow going. I don’t mind solo driving (thank heavens for coffee in a can), and road music is a great compa

nion. Here’s a partial list of the music CDs my ears consumed enroute to special session (make of it what you will):

The Rat Pack: a joking around music session by Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin. I’ve seen both Sinatra and the Sammy Davis shows. Where have all the great entertainers gone?

Eddy Arnold’s Greatest Songs: old time smooth country balladeer who passed away this year.

Jimmy Dorsey’s Greatest Hits: virtuoso big band saxophonist. I used to dance to his band at the Hollywood Palladium. Nowadays I play sax better than Dorsey. That’s because he’s dead.

The Best of Polka: I like polka music, and I like dancing to it. I used to get my kicks playing my sax in an Oktoberfest band in California. I also wore a button that proclaimed “Polka till you puke” (if that isn’t class, I don’t know what is).

Operatic Arias by Luciano Pavarotti: what a voice did God give this man! Anyone who doesn’t appreciate this man’s singing should check their pulse.

The Best of Mozart: I visited his birthplace in Austria during the 1980s. Amazing what he accomplished in his short life. Makes me realize how little I’ve accomplished in my own life. When Mozart was seventy-five, he’d been dead for forty years.

Don Ho Greatest Hits: A Hawaiian music legend, a heartthrob of the older ladies, and the one show you “had” to see when visiting the Islands. He passed away last year. Another musical legend gone.

Country Legend Glen Campbell: He’s my wife’s 1st cousin once removed. Marlene’s Aunt Lois’s granddaughter Kim Woollen married Glen. My mother-in-law attended their wedding. I got to visit Glen at his home when he lived in Phoenix.

Barefoot Bluegrass: Jason Norris, a member of this talented Anchorage group, is a constituent. Outstanding talent.

Tchaikovsky Favorites: nothing excels his classic melodies.

Roy Clark’s Greatest Hits: outstanding string picker. An expressive singer easy on the ears.

Ernst Mosch Egerlander Musikanten: probably the best band of the Bohemian genre. Egerland was the area in western Czechoslovakia where many Germans once lived. Mosch, along with my German Military Marches CD, is great music for driving the Alaska Highway - or the autobahn. I’m a former sax man in both an Air Force band and the oompah band, and that’s another reason I like this stuff.

Segovia Classical Guitar: I wonder if hard rockers who abuse guitars can comprehend the beauty of a guitar played well – if they have any regard for beauty at all.

Classic Patsy Cline: this woman’s voice is what country singing is supposed to be. Likewise, the Johnny Cash CD I played. I got to see Cash in concert some years ago.

Classical Music for Relaxation: unfortunately, this CD was too relaxing, a dangerous antidote to my stay-awake-coffee. After my first yawn I ejected the CD.

Rafael Mendez (1906-1981): this trumpet virtuoso was previously a cornetist for Pancho Villa. No one surpasses Mendez’s trumpet genius. When he played “Flight of the Bumblebee,” he didn’t slur the notes, he tongued them! I saw him in concert during the sixties.

The Best of Harry James: another outstanding trumpet player (but not as good as Mendez). During high school I danced to the Harry James Band at the Hollywood Palladium. All the kids in my high school band crowded around the Harry James bandstand, and he was kind enough to have conversations with all of us.

Speeches that Changed the World: obviously not a music CD, but certainly “music of oratory.” My favorites were the speeches of Winston Churchill, General Douglas McArthur, John Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. It’s said, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” I could add that speech can surpass the pen.

When the Special Session ends (who knows when), and I drag my trailer back to Anchorage, I’ll enjoy another batch of good music.

GOLDENVIEW MAKES MUSIC

Goldenview has a great music program, and I know what I’m talking about.

I was initiated to school music playing saxophone in the 6th grade. I played in the Garfield High School football band, ROTC Band, orchestra, advanced ensemble, and swing band. Later, in 1951, I played in the 541st Air Force Band at Williams AFB, Arizona – until I entered Air Force flying school as an Aviation Cadet. About 1988, I returned to music playing sax in the 25 piece “oompah” group “The American-Bavarian Brass Band” (I was also the official chicken dance demonstrator and twirled baton during the Grand Marsche – but that’s another story). Today, when legislative duty permits, I play bari sax in the Anchorage Community Concert Band.

Translated, all this means I love music (some genre excepted –but that’s not music). Coming up through the school music program has been the source of a continuing source of education and enjoyment, and I recommend it.

Tonight I attended the “Musical Collage” concert at Goldenview Middle School. The band, orchestra, and choir all performed with excellence before a packed house of proud parents and friends – I arrived twenty minutes early, and couldn’t find a seat!

The concert music selections, during the middle of the Christmas Season, were: Winner’s Circle March, Bashana Haba’ah, Kassation, Images of Ireland, Bafufalow, This Little Babe, Hanukkah Holiday, Le Froid De L’Hiver, Carol of the Bells, The Nutcracker, Lean on Me, African Bell Carol, StarGazer, Once Upon a December, Dance of the Tumblers. So much for tradition!

Congratulations to all the great school musicians and singers, and the parents and friends who support them. And Merry Christmas!

WHAT REAGAN AND I HAVE IN COMMON

What did Ronald Reagan and Bob Lynn have in common? The secret’s out. We were both in the movies! Reagan was a movie star. I was - well - a movie “extra.”

Here’s how it happened. I grew up in East Los Angeles, far on the “other side of the tracks” from Hollywood – but I played sax in the Sheriff’s Boys Band directed by Colonel Vesey Walker (later the Disneyland Band leader). He had contacts with the moviemakers. When a child extra was needed for a movie that included a youth band, Colonel Walker was called. As a result, I got parts in three movies - and even got paid.

My first work in a Hollywood movie was in “Junior Army” released in 1942 by Columbia Pictures. The movie starred previous members of the “Dead End Kids,” Freddie Bartholomew, and others. If you’ve never heard of the Dead End Kids, that’s because you’re not an old geezer.

My second movie was “Smokey” released in 1946, starring Fred McMurray, Anne Baxter, and Burl Ives. I was in band that marched down the street.

My third and last movie was in 1947. I had a part in State of the Union” directed by Fred Capra, and starring Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Adolphe Menjou, and Angela Lansbury. The movie was nominated for an Academy Award but didn’t make it (it wasn’t my fault).

This movie was actually my first exposure to "politics." In the movie, Spencer Tracey plays an aircraft tycoon who is coerced into seeking the Republican Presidential nomination. Tracy, corrupted by the Washington power brokers, publicly

compromises his values in order to get votes. During his election eve speech to the nation from his home, Spencer Tracey's conscience returns, he confesses what he has done, and apologizes on the radio to the nation (he wins, the presidency, of course). I’m in the kid band playing in Spencer Tracey’s living room, just before his speech (and you can actually see me). For many years, this State of the Union movie was played on black and white TV every four years during the presidential election cycle.

During the making of State of the Union, I was in the movie studio daily for two weeks. We went to school on the set in a corner of the studio under a tent (and the teaching, by the way, wa

s quite good). We met all the stars, and we baked a cake we give to Katherine Hepburn on her birthday – I’ll post the photo when I find it. She was a gracious lady.

During breaks in shooting the movie, and going to school on the set, I wandered all over the studio grounds and met some of the biggest stars of that era, including the dancer Fred Astair and Elizabeth Taylor. I was paid $22.50 a day (a large sum in 1947), and with it bought the saxophone I still play today. I’ll bet you didn’t know your representative was in the movies!

I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT! (Only kidding)

According to Yahoo News, Scientists have uncovered

the first concrete evidence that playing music can significantly enhance the brain . . . Furthermore, an article in the April issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience claims, "We think music engages higher level functions in the cortex that actually tune the brainstem." I don’t make stuff up.

As a matter of full legislative disclosure I took saxophone lessons beginning in the 5th grade, played in my Garfield High East Los Angeles Bulldog Band, my first military assignment was as a bandsman with the base band at Williams AFB, Arizona, and played in an “oompah-pah” band as well as the Anchorage Concert Band not very long ago. I rest my case.

However, whatever the connect between music and the brain, I’m advised to keep my day job.

SPECIAL TO ME: FEBRUARY 28, 1951

February 28th, 1951. Fifty-nine years ago today. Five days past my 18th birthday. A day that changed my life. The day I enlisted in the United States Air Force. Place: Mesa, Arizona.

Seven months past graduation from Garfield High School in tough environs of East Los Angeles, California. Dropped out of Pasadena City College. Not ready. Mail Clerk Coast Federal Savings and Loan, downtown Los Angeles. Going no where. Joined Air Force. Smart move.

Took the train to Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas. 1951 Military enlistees didn’t fly to basic training. Was a proud “private.” Soon thereafter, rank of private re-named “Airman Basic” - as it is today. Service was evolving from “Air Corps” to “Air Force.” Then acquired two downward sloping stripes of a “corporal.” Then Air Force corporal rank ensignia changed to two upward sloping stripes of “Airman Second Class” (equivalent rank today is “Airman First Class”). Pay about $76 bucks a month, plus cot in open bay barracks plus good food at chow hall ( extra pay, evening janitor at the base theater ). In 1951 Air Force vintage, brown shoes were optional to black shoes. Ergo, I’m was a member of the “Brown Shoe Air Force” (and I’m proud of it), ‘Taint many of us left.

First assignment after basic training: “apprentice bassoonist,” 541st Air Force Band, Williams AFB, Chandler, Arizona. My bassoon sounds were stopped by popular demand. Returned to playing sax like I did in Garfield High Bulldog Band.

Then up the scale to Band Drum Major. (I think) only baton twirling drum major in all the military bands. Still twirl a baton - only out of public sight. Because I want to be re-elected!

1952: Applied for, accepted by, Air Force Aviation Cadets flying school (staff sergeant pay). 1953: age twenty, high school diploma, silver jet pilot wings, gold bars (“butter bars”) of second lieutenant. December 1976: Retired as Major. Proud of that? Yeah!

Recommend military career to almost anyone. Opportunity, new horizons, came possible when I enlisted February 28th, 1951.

“AMEN BROTHER”

I'm a Vietnam military veteran, and damn proud of it! Today I was one of the guests at the American Veterans’ Day and the Canada’s Remembrance Day celebration at the Alaska National Guard Armory on Ft. Richardson at the 11th hour of the 11th day, of the 11th month. It was also a “welcome home” for soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 297th Infantry, who came home last night from Iraq (They were met at the airport by Governor-Elect Sarah Palin). There are about 70,000 veterans and 26,000 in the reserves, National Guard, active duty or Canadian forces in Alaska.

When the Air Force Band of the Pacific played a medley of service songs, each veteran in the audience of that service in the stood up. It was my turn to stand tall when the band played the Air Force Song “Off we go into the wild blue yonder.” An excellent Keynote Address was delivered by Major General Craig Campbell.

I was moved by the Invocation delivered by Alaska Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club’s Chaplain Bob Lupo, and asked him for a copy of it. Following are some excerpts of his remarks,

“There are some who are opposed to war. I don’t doubt they are good people, albeit somewhat naïve. No sane person encourages war – but some things like tyranny, threats to national security, and the protection of freedom are proper exceptions to justify it. I am reminded of a short poem, pertinent for anti-war pacifists to ponder: ‘. . . those who cry appease, appease – are hanged by those they tried to please’ We pray that ignorance will be rectified by reality, and we pray for peace . . . We pray for the safety of our military, especially those in harm’s way. God, keep them in the palm of your hand and lead them safely home!”

Amen Brother!!

Some thoughts about the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King. He was born in 1929, making him four years my elder. That places me at an age that recalls the magnificent crusade led by King to end government sponsored racial segregation and its evils, and a tiny bit of personal experience.

In 1951 when I was a one-stripe eighteen-year-old airman stationed at Williams AFB in Arizona (I played in the base band), my two best buddies were a Filipino trumpet player and a black guy who played French horn (“peck horn”). We tried to enter a café together in uniform in nearby Chandler. “Get out,” shouted the proprietor, “We don’t serve niggers and don’t serve nigger lovers.” So much for lunch. And Arizona was a so-called “non-segregated” state.

When King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, I had advanced to age 22, and was two years out of Air Force flying school flying the F94C. Martin Luther King’s actions in Montgomery inspired me to join the NAACP (not radical like today) when I was stationed at Langley AFB in the southern city of Hampton, Virginia.

In 1962, I was a captain attending radar controller school at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi, and living off base. The course was tough, so some of us organized an evening study group that included a fellow student who happened to be a negro captain (“negro” was the respectful term then – not “black” or “Afro-American”). The only way we could get the captain to and from our home with safely, and without getting arrested, was to keep him out of sight in the back seat of our car. Amazing.

I myself almost got arrested one Sunday morning after church in Gulfport. Mississippi when I sat on a bus bench labeled “colored” (I didn’t see the sign). When the bus came, the bus driver told me I would have to move to the “white” bench before he would pick me up. I told him snarkily that I was ON the white bench (it being painted white). At this point, he threatened to call the cops. I left. He left. And I found another way back to Biloxi.

In1963, the year of Kings iconic “I have a Dream” oratory from the Lincoln Memorial in DC I was 30. I listened to him live on the radio. It’s the most magnificent speech I’ve ever heard. Period.

When King was assassinated In 1968 in Memphis, I was thirty-five years old and attending the Air University Education with Industry Program at the Boeing Company in Seattle. We were devastated.

Martin Luther King was an imperfect man (as are we all) who did marvelous things for the soul of our nation. We’ve come a long, long ways. But where are the great leaders for equality and fairness today? With some of the stuff that’s going on, Martin Luther King must be turning over in his grave.

55 YEARS AND LIFE IS GOOD

Marlene and I celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary here in Anchorage August 30th. In case you’re wondering, when we married in 1953 she was 19 and I was 20. We were married in Valdosta, Georgia where I was attending Air Force Advanced Instrument training, and checking out in the F94C Starfire interceptor at Moody Air Force Base. I soloed the F94C the morning after our marriage.

I met Marlene (Wagner) on a blind date (she was “blind” date – I wasn’t) in 1952, when I was an Aviation Cadet at Malden Air Base, Missouri. My roommate Cadet Don Carter had a date in Dexter, Missouri – 12 miles north of Malden. He didn’t have wheels. I did: a 1941 Oldsmobile Club Coupe. Marlene and I, Don and his date Betty, drove to East Cape Girardeau, Illinois for dinner and dancing to big band music at the Purple Crackle, a fine supper club in those days.

When I graduated in June 1953 from Aviation Cadets at Webb AFB, Big Springs, Texas, Marlene and I became engaged. She pinned my Air Force wings and second lieutenant’s bars at the Cadet graduation ceremony. We’re now the proud parents of six kids, grandparents of 19, and great-grandparent on one. Life is good!