Monday Meanderings - 4.17.2017

Interesting week. Somehow several "way-back" items showed up - things in passing that triggered memories of things way back in my history. Things I had not thought about in many years, and really with little meaning except it was odd that all showed up this week....

There was an article in the paper about Brady, Texas, and the accompanying photo was of the old courthouse, and the Texas monument on the lawn.

 When I was in high school, the band packed up and made a trip to Brady every year for the Heart of Texas Band Festival - a marching and stage band competition. It was a three-day affair, and drew bands (and non-band participants) from all over the state. Think of it as sort of like spring break, but in Brady instead of at the beach.

Apart from the competitions and the big "social" at the high school, there was not much to do in Brady, Texas, so there was a lot of driving around the court house square, and sitting on the lawn, and sitting on the monument. Over the course of several years I spent a good bit of time perched on that State of Texas, waving at people driving by. Not my greatest child-hood memory, but there it was. Again.

And the same newspaper had an article about Mooney Aircraft, in Kerrville, Texas. As far as I knew, Mooney Aircraft had folded its wings years ago, so I was surprised to see the name.

Long story short: the Mooney brothers in Kerrville designed and built a pretty slick airplane back in the day and Mooney had a pretty good reputation in general aviation. They were looking for growth potential and made a deal with the Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation in Japan to assemble a sweet twin turboprop called the MU-2 for the American market. Mooney needed a movie to show to dealers and prospective corporate clients and somehow, the movie company that I worked for in the 60's got the job. We had a lot of fun making that movie.

While the aircraft was nominally successful, Mooney's role was brief and when Mitsubishi pulled out, the company was hard pressed to pay bills, including ours, so our boss sent me and Kent Dial down to Kerrville with instructions to call at the business office, request payment, and don't take no for an answer. The tactic was successful. Kent and I made ourselves comfortable and intimated that we would have no problem with waiting. Today, tomorrow, however long it took. Somehow the check appeared late that afternoon, and just in time - Mooney soon declared bankruptcy and ceased operations altogether.

So I was surprised to see this week that they were still in business, and still in Kerrville. A little research turned up that Mooney has been through at least 5 bankruptcies, multiple owners, and is presently a division of a Chinese corporation. And making airplanes. Again.


And then there was this. This is a photo of an odd bird that my sister sent me in an attempt to see if I could identify it.

I didn't have a clue, so I posted the picture on Facebook and asked the community-at-large what kind of critter this was. Several people responded correctly that it was a Yellow-crowned Night Heron. Thing is, I posted this pic waaay back in May 2009 - and someone made a response to that post just this past week - nearly 8 years later! Proof that we never escape our digital trail.