Daily grist; When planning for one’s posterity it is best to remember that virtue is not hereditary. Thomas Paine, 1776
The other night I got to watching a movie on TV named the “Aviator”. It was about the famous billionaire recluse Howard Hughes. A very interesting movie to say the least, and it dealt with different facets of his life story, but it mostly centered on his fascination and love of aviation and the development of aircraft. It also touched on his involvement in the motion picture industry and the female movie stars he was involved with, a very enlightening story of deviant love if you could call it that. I would venture to say that not only did Mr. Hughes march to a different drummer, he heard the flutes and Piccolo’s as well ! He probably kept an imaginary cage full of cuckoo birds too. As I was watching the movie something in the back of my dim memory kept telling me I know something about that man. Then it dawned on me, about 40 years ago when I lived in Valley Springs California, the proprietor of the local standard filling station and garage was a friend of mine. His name was Larry Smith but everybody called him Smitty. Smitty was changing the oil in my car one day when an elderly gentleman came in to have his car serviced after Smitty was through with mine, so Smitty introduces us and in the course of the conversation he remarked that he was an aviation engineer. Smitty said this guy used to work for Howard Hughes building airplanes and stuff. Really says I, what is your most outstanding memory of Mr. Hughes?
The gentleman thought for a minute, and said that has to be the time that he borrowed my new Ford automobile in the fall of 1950. He said I was working on a project for Mr. Hughes under his direct supervision and about once or twice a month, maybe more often, he would fly into Southern California to the facility there to check on his many projects under development. He told me that he was in the process of building a new huge wind tunnel that would be the most state of art wind tunnel in the world when completed. He said that Mr. Hughes paid no attention to the time of day when he was immersed in a project and it was not uncommon for for him to work for 24 to 36 hours at a time and he expected his employee to be right there with him also. he said Mr. Hughes got there about eight o’clock that morning and they worked on the wind tunnel project about three the next morning. He said Mr. Hughes asked him if he had a car he could use? They were the only ones in the office at the time so he said I gave him the keys my brand-new Ford, he thanked me grabbed his hat and coat and left, so I took a taxi home.
He said I expected Mr. Hughes to return my car the next day or so, and after a week of trying to get a hold of him to no avail, I borrowed my brother-in-law’s old truck to drive back and forth to work. That went on for a month until Mr. Hughes showed up again one morning to work on our project. I asked him if he was still driving my car? He asked me why would he be driving my car? Because I loaned it to you that night when you left, and I haven’t seen it since then. He said Mr. Hughes stopped and thought about for a minute, then asked what kind of car is it? I told him a brand-new 51 Ford four-door sedan, black in color. He said Mr. Hughes thought for a while, and told him I can’t remember it or where it might be, so just tell your secretary to go buy you a new one, if that is okay with you? I agreed and within a week I had a brand-new Ford four-door sedan with all the bells and whistles on it.
But, the story doesn’t end there . He said about a month later a big fancy hotel in Hollywood called him and asked when he was going to remove his car from their parking lot? He said when I got that phone call from a hotel me and a friend of mine that worked with me jumped in my new Ford and went and picked it up. So everything turned out great ! We were the only family on our block that had two cars, one for me and one for my wife, thanks to Howard Hughes and his non-memory.
I just wish I could remember that gentleman’s name that told me this story. I ran into him at Smitty’s garage another time or two over the years and he had some fascinating stories of his time working with Howard Hughes. I sure wish I had a tape recorder to record these for posterity. Fascinating times of years gone by, true story.
