The Reading.....

 

    It's chapter eight from Tales Unleashed.....

    What could be more fun than to have your fortune read at the county fair.

For Jim and Cathy, a brief stop along the midway in a dark and mysterious

tent would make great changes in their lives.  Dont' be afraid....after all....

 it's just a story.  

The Reading

Jim and Cathy hadn’t planned to go to the county fair that day. Jim’s mom was a bit under the weather, and being the man of the house, Jim felt he should be nearby if she needed anything. His dad has passed away several years before. At twenty three and single, his job at the auto parts store and some other part time work helped to pay the bills and put some food on the table.

Cathy had graduated with Jim just six years prior. She didn’t want to go to college and had been Jim’s steady since the tenth grade. They had often talked about tying the knot but circumstances seemed to be against them both . . . so they went on day to day, week to week, trying to look down the road for brighter days.

The county fair was in action, just five miles to the east, and Cathy had asked for two weeks solid if they could go on that first Friday night. Jim hesitated, but his mom pushed him into it.

“It’ll do you and Cathy both good,” she advised. “Go have some fun. I’ll be just fine here.” His mom was confined to a wheelchair, had breathing difficulties, and suffered from a plethora of other problems which seem to get worse yearly.

Jim took her advice and picked up Cathy at 7:00 the night of the fair. They drove in his Chevy pickup, contemplating what was ahead for them at the fair. It was the event of the year with lots of food, entertainment, a midway, and just bushels of excitement to experience. As they walked by the fortune teller’s tent, Cathy grabbed Jim’s left arm and asked, “Hon, let’s go in. I’ve never had my fortune told. It’ll be great. it’s only five dollars . . . can we?”

Jim tried to pull away, but Cathy pushed him into the tent opening which led into a very small enclosed canvass room, no bigger than ten feet square. Dimly lit, they could see the room was appointed with wall hangings touting the great mind-reading powers of Belinda, who they assumed to be an older woman. To their great surprise, a sheet was swept aside and out walked a very attractive woman, probably in her thirties, dressed in a white fluffy blouse tucked into a deep purple floor-length skirt.

“Please sit down,” Belinda commanded, as she pointed to the two chairs in front of the small card table. On the table were just two items: a six-inch white candle which was lit and producing just a whisper of smoke, and the crystal ball, approximately ten inches in diameter and cradled in an ornately carved gold base.

Her eyes met Jim’s and she gave a smile of approval. “Why haven’t you married this fine-looking man?” she asked Cathy.

“Well, maybe someday,” Cathy replied. Before she could say more, Belinda had put a finger to her own lips, asking for quiet.

After being seated, Belinda surrounded the crystal with both hands turned up, almost in a position of accepting a gift. The room was quiet, the only sounds were those of others passing by on the midway and the carnival music drifting in slightly through the gaps in the tent.

There was no movement in the closed room, only the light grey smoke from the candle, which started to envelope the crystal, making for quite an eerie presentation.

“You two will be married in March of next year,” Belinda said. Do whatever you have to in order to make that happen.” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and reached for Jim’s hand. “Soon after you marry, you will be taking your mother for a long ride. It will be out of state. Now I must go.”

With that, the mysterious woman got up and quickly departed the same way in which she had appeared.

“That certainly was strange,” Cathy said.

“Indeed it was,” replied Jim. “But eight months from now, you and I will be one!”

The pair stood, gave each other a huge hug and headed for the midway which awaited their discovery.

The courting of the two continued for the next several months, through the holidays and on into winter. Not wanting to jinx the reading they had received, Jim and Cathy planned a wedding in Jim’s house with his mom and a few close friends . . . and their dreams would soon be true. A March wedding was a bit different, but the two were deeply in love, and no matter the financial circumstances, they would make it happen.

Two weeks after the couple exchanged vows, Jim’s mother took a turn for the worse. With pneumonia complicated by heart problems, she quietly passed away one evening while sitting in her favorite chair, doing her entertaining crosswords.

Upon making the final arrangements for his mom, Jim found out she had already attended to such, and had most of the expenses in advance. The big surprise was discovering she was to be buried in her home town of Bethlehem, PA. That was over one hundred miles away. But it was what she wanted, so Jim was not one to change plans that had been set in advance.

Jim and Cathy followed the hearse the day of the funeral. Under some small maple trees on a beautiful mid-April afternoon, they said goodbye to this sweet lady who had done so much for them. As they motored their way back home, Jim and Cathy talked about the day they had been at the county fair—specifically, their encounter with Belinda in the tent, the marriage in March, and taking his mother for a long ride. A visit to a county fair fortune teller had produced the two opposite ends of life itself: a wedding and a funeral. Joy and grief.

As they continued North along the interstate, Jim pointed at a billboard just before they made their exit. It advertised the 85^th Annual Broome County Fair.

“Maybe we’ll pass the fair up this year,” Jim chuckled. Within the hour, the pair had arrived home.

Two years passed and Cathy, seven months pregnant, wanted to go back to talk with the lady at the fair to see if she could tell them if it were to be a boy or a girl. But Jim would have no part of it. “One trip in a lifetime to a fortune teller is more than enough,” he warned. Their daughter was born two months later. They named her Belinda, after the ravishing black-haired beauty who had foretold their marriage.

And perhaps another trip to the county fair?            Maybe next year.

The Loss of Buddy Holly.....part five

 

This is part five, and the last installment on that horrific crash on Feb.
3rd, 1959. If you missed any of the parts in this series, you can simply
scroll down to view them.  I hope you enjoyed the read....the events
are part of rock and roll history....and each year they continue to fade
into the fabric of time itself.

conclusions on the crash…

Before the NTSB, there was the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB).  They were the official

agency in charge of investigating the who, what and why of the Holly plane crash.

The post crash investigation at the scene came to no immediate conclusions. The

instrumentation all appeared normal with gauges and readings in their acceptable

parameters.  The engine gave no clues to mechanical failure or loss of power, the

propeller hub upon inspection proved the engine was performing normally at the

point of impact.

There was no part or parts of the wing, or moveable control surfaces

 found far away from the aircraft that might indicate an early departure from the fuselage  before the crash. Upon reviewing the autopsy report of pilot Roger Peterson, nothing remarkable was found that would indicate a medical emergency that would affect his flying senses or motor functions.

His injuries as the other victims were of mass trauma including the head and brain.

The young pilot Peterson was certified to operate under visual flight rules; i.e.

you need to be able to SEE where you are going. On that particular night, the lack of

a good horizon, low clouds, minimal amount of ground lights in the little populated area

would all make for poor visual flying.  To my knowledge the CAB never attempted

 to calculate the final weight of the aircraft with its’ passengers,

fuel and luggage.. if the aircraft was overloaded and the center of gravity was

compromised the plane would be severely challenged to fly correctly.

The CAB in Sept. of 1959 said the following about the crash, quote:

‘At night, with an overcast sky, snow falling, no definite horizon and a proposed

flight over a sparsely settled area with an absence of ground lights, a requirement

for control of the aircraft solely by reference to flight instruments can be

predicted with virtual certainty. The board concludes that Pilot Peterson was

confronted with this situation. Because of fluctuation of the rate instruments

caused by gusty winds he would have been forced to concentrate and rely

greatly on the attitude gyro, an instrument with which he was not completely

familiar. The pitch display of this instrument is the reverse of the instrument

he was accustomed to; therefore, he could have been confused and thought

that he was making a climbing turn when in reality he was making a

descending turn. The weather briefing supplied to the pilot was seriously

inadequate in that it failed to even mention adverse flying conditions which

should have been highlighted.’

 In 2015, the NTSB, who succeeded the CAB had considered re-opening the crash investigation. That was proposed by a pilot L.J. Coon, who felt the first conclusions were not correct.

He thought a possible right rudder failure, fuel readings and that improper weight

distribution as mentioned above could be involved. Coon also thought that Peterson

may have tried to land the aircraft, a distinct possibility, and that his efforts should

be noted in the official record. The NTSB in 2016 considered re-opening the

investigation into the crash, but it never happened. And there you have it.

 There are rumors the plane still exists…..and that the Dwyer family has at

least part of it hidden away.

Within the past two years I tried to contact Mrs. Dwyer to ask about the location of

the remains of the airplane, but I never received any answer from her or

her family. (Jerry and Barb Dwyer, were the owners of the airplane.)

Jerry Dwyer passed away in Clear Lake in January 2016. He was writing a book

about the whole affair…his wife has stated she will continue and eventually

finish the book in his memory and honor.

February 3^rd, 1959, a date forever etched in rock and roll history.