A couple years ago when invited to speak to a military officer’s association (MOAA) in Florida about my Navy flying experiences, an attractive lady (about my age) had been introduced before the meeting as the widow of an Air Force General. She was sitting in the front row during my presentation and I could see she was enjoying my talk. When I told the story of how my patrol plane was jumped by Russian MiGs following the Cuban Missile Crisis, she became noticeably animated. We were saved in that incident by two Air Force Phantom jet fighters flying out of Key West that screamed past us and then joined up on each wing tip, giving us a smart salute letting us know—and the MiGs–that the playing field had just been leveled. The MiGs turned tail and departed in haste. When I told that story, the widow was silently clapping her hands.

After my talk, the lady purchased three of my books. “I noticed,” I said, “you seemed to enjoy the Cuban Missile story.”

“Yes,” she said, “My husband was flying Phantoms out of Key West during that period.”

Wow, how cool is that?

Another time I was signing books at an air show in Terre Haute, Indiana. One of the difficulties at these events as a one-man show, is greeting visitors, making change, getting the spelling of the person’s name correctly, and signing the book. It becomes something of a diplomatic challenge when you have several people waiting in line, money in hand, and somebody at the head of the line wants to tell you their life story. That happened in Terre Haute that day. A fellow wanted to tell me all about his beautiful Airstream trailer … and just went on and on.

Finally, I interrupted him with a rather rude question, “Excuse me but are you wanting to buy a book?”

“Oh, no,” he said, “I’m dyslexic and have difficulty reading.”

Ever quick on my feet, I said, “Okay, next time your camping near Bloomington in that Airstream of yours, give me a call. I’ll come down to the campground, sell you a book, and read it to you.”

Guess what? Three weeks later I got a call. He was in a nearby campground and had ten other campers that wanted to her my story. No problem. I have a Power Point presentation about my book on my laptop computer, so just grabbed my PC and did my dog and pony show around a campfire that night.

And sold eight books!

What fun!