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It really is a small world. I have found that if you talk to someone long enough that you will find a common friend, relative or place. I thought I would relate a few incidents that happen to me over the years in relation to LHS and LaGrange. I have had many other similar incidents with my work and navy years but thought the LaGrange related incidents would be more interesting to this group.

When I finished electronics school, I was assigned to the USS Ajax that was in Sasebo, Japan. I departed San Francisco by commercial airline and then flew a military C 54 from Barbers Point, Hawaii to Atsugi, Japan with many stops in between. Here I was a nineteen year old homesick with no immediate friends in Japan. I was worried how things would work out and what was ahead of me. When the battleship gray school bus pulled up to take me to Yokosuka Naval Base, I looked up and it was a Blue Bird bus made in Warner Robins, Georgia. As we rounded the mountains I again saw something familiar, kudzu growing on the mountain. After that, I knew everything was going to be all right.

While stationed in Hawaii later, I was downtown Honolulu with some friends on a Saturday afternoon. We were going to Waikiki beach to enjoy the afternoon. We were in civilian clothes as we were stationed there and as we passed some sailors in uniform, I heard my name called. I looked and it was Elzie Bretherick who was on liberty from a ship in the harbor. Elzie had graduated in our class and this was all a chance meeting.

I had been working for Delta a few days and the shop foreman said I had a visitor. I looked up and it was Gene Gay also from our graduating class. Gene was working in the Delta plating shop and the word on the grapevine had spread that someone from LaGrange was working in the radio shop. We had a nice visit and I did see Gene occasionally after that.

I was assigned to Line Maintenance to service the aircraft on the flight line. We had to make a service check on each terminating flight and walk around on through flights. I was checking an aircraft one day and again I heard my name called out. It was Austin Simmons who was one of the pilots on the flight. I would see Austin several times later and also I saw him in Dallas one time after I had been assigned to Ground Radio. I was installing a radio in the Dallas Crew Scheduling office and in walked Austin to check in for an outbound flight.

This was not a classmate story, but when my mother died I was in LaGrange at her home and was opening one of the windows in the house when the rope holding the weights broke and the window fell on my thumb. My thumb throbbed all night long and the next morning, I called a surgeon and got an appointment to have him drill the nail. I was filling out the insurance papers and listed Delta as my employer. One of the nurses said that since I worked for Delta then I must know Mr. Bushay. Now remember Delta had about 15000 employees at that time and Mr. Bushay worked in the Marketing Department. I was far removed from marketing since I was in the maintenance area. But yes I did know Mr. Bushay, not because he worked at Delta, but because he was the neighbor behind me.

Just recently, Glenda McInnis who worked with my wife Peggy for over 30 years took a trip to Turkey. When she got back, she was telling Peggy about a nice couple from LaGrange that she met on the trip and wanted to know if we knew them. She had met Louis Lester and his wife.