Gary Goetsch and I have been friends since about 1954, which is approaching a 60-year friendship now. Our initial mutual interest: ham radio and the Tube and Shutter Club at Cresco High School. This was managed, and I use that term very loosely, by Bud Weatherford who taught at LSHS before my time. They were kind enough to allow me to crash their club. It’s a good thing, because that gave me access to others who could help me with my radio problems.
Gary Goetsch
A few years later, both Gary and I were in the USAF. Gary was a “lifer” and served our country over twenty years as an Air Traffic Controller. I like to believe I am just as patriotic but found four years of service sufficient for me. And I never even got to talk to an airplane, much less touch one!
In 1961, I believe it was, we were both stationed at Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, AL. Those days, the city parks in Montgomery were closed to all. The city fathers felt that was a far better option than sharing the parks with all citizens.
All of this is simply to introduce Gary. More recently, I’ve visited Gary and Mary in Minnesota and Texas and we email back and forth. Every once in awhile, he writes something which I feel would be of interest to readers of The Lime Springs Page. This is one of those times.
He sent me an interesting picture. It showed the tops of the fabulous buildings in Dubai sticking out above the fog or low clouds. That prompted these comments from Gary:
“I have never been to Dubai however I saw a similar sight many years ago. I was in the control tower at Sculthorpe RAF Base one morning in 1958 when we had one of the famous English ground fogs. As the sun came up that morning the only thing we could see was the tail sections of the B-29 & B-50’s parked below us on the ramp.
There was always a story about the fog in England was so thick that you could not see your hand in front of your face. I can attest to that. One morning on the way to work I met a person on the sidewalk and could not tell if it was a man or a woman! By the way, we did not have GPS in 1958 but I still found my way to the Control Tower.”
I’d be willing to bet Gary will have some more interesting comments to share with us. One can’t travel the world for over 20 years and have nothing interesting to contribute!
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