There was only one problem. When I called my travel agent I was informed that on Wednesday there were no seats available in any class that would get me to LA.
That included such wild things as flying all night to Hong Kong and back to LA.
I was in a real quandary. I had accepted the role and didn’t want to go back on my word.
I came up with a solution. It was a bad solution. I chartered a jet. A 707. I would lose several thousand dollars on this appearance. So much for worrying about getting my worth. At least I would keep my commitment.
I decided that I wouldn’t even mention it to anyone but Jim Williamson to pass on to my tax accountants so I could at least salvage some tax money from it.
Now it seemed absolutely stupid to have that large of a plane to myself. I thought about how I could give some people a free ride. I could hardly stand outside Heathrow with a sign, though it would be interesting.
I thought of the military students at Oxford. They had a phone tree that could get the word out. I would have to make certain that they understood it would be a one-way ride as I wouldn’t be chartering a flight back.
I made the call, stating that they would have to be at the Oxford airport at eight am for an eight-thirty departure.
The next morning to my surprise there were thirty people waiting for me at the airport. There were no late arrivals. The nice thing about the Military is if you aren’t there fifteen minutes early you are late.
The thirty people were from seven different families, they had all been waitlisted for two weeks on MATS flights back to the States. The MATS flights were full and it was almost impossible for a group of three people to travel together so a family of four or more had little chance.
They had been going to the airport every day for two weeks trying to get home and were always turned away because of higher priority people. They were getting desperate so my flight was a godsend.
Most of them were trying to get to the east coast but were ready to take any flight that would get them back to the US. The student member of the family had graduated and was trying to get home for their next posting. They had thirty days leave and had burned up half of it waiting for a MATS flight.
Since it was my charter I held it up for a few. I made a phone call from the private aviation lounge to my travel agent. I had each family head tell my travel agent what their final destination would be.
She would be booking their flights while we were in transit. I got back on the line after she had all their information and told her to charge everything to my account. I could afford it and these people had suffered enough.
The flight itself was uneventful. There was enough room that the little kids could actually run around and play in the back of the plane. It was certainly more comfortable than a C130 would have been.
The crew even invited me upfront and I was able to log a couple of more hours in a 707. That was more of a vanity thing for me as I had no intention of being an airline pilot.
When we landed in LA there was a list of all the connecting flights, times, and tickets waiting for us. I think a couple of children might be named after me.
It was early evening so I was anxious to get home. Mum had arranged for one of our limos to pick me up. At home, I got a big welcome as though I had been gone forever.
I was updated on family projects. Mum was really into the charity scene in the LA area. She had a party of one sort or another at Jackson House almost weekly. Dad had set himself up as Chairman of the Board of his business and was trying to step back from running the daily CEO operations.
His plan was to look into expanding his growing media empire into other countries. He would do this by buying existing outlets. Right now Australia was looking like a good place to start. It was a growing market with little consolidation going on.
Denny’s photography business was going well. The studio was getting a name for successful portfolios, so much that the Ford Agency was starting to subcontract some of their work to them.
Eddie and Mary were in the doghouse. They had been caught calling stores and asking if the had Prince Albert in a can, and if so let him out.
I had to snicker at that, as Denny and I had never gotten caught. That gave me a thought. In private I asked Denny if he remembered calling homes and asking if their refrigerator was running. When the homeowner said yes, we would tell them they had better catch it.
I knew that by reminding him of that he would mention it to Eddie who would tell Mary who would have to do it. I owed her a few. It also gave me an opportunity to practice my spycraft by using a cutout.
It wasn’t as though the kids would get in much trouble. Right now they had to help with dishes. A little humility wouldn’t hurt Mary at all.
As a fail-safe, I told Dad about my nefarious plan. I knew that he would be okay with it. Mum not so much. He thought it would be funny as he did things like that when he was a kid. Though their refrigerator was an icebox and didn’t run.
Mum
