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“A KISS IS JUST A KISS”                 or is it?                         “ As time Goes By”                     2023

923 BRAVO, this is 84 Whiskey do you copy? Roger, …….do you have any oil on board? My gauge says I am losing oil. I’m flying a 500B Shrike so I ‘m ahead of you about 20 minutes in your twin Beech 95 Travelair, Are you willing to land on the beach behind me and give me oil?  Then you can land on Providenciales and I have fuel for you. I heard you calling Georgetown, (they aren’t giving fuel to private planes). They told you keep flying then you said I am out of fuel….. Oh! You meant I need to switch to the other tank. Dec. 30, 1973.  There was an oil embargo and cars lined up for gas.

Back track mid Aug. 1973 and completion of my 6000 plus square foot ballet school was literally less than 30 days away. I had been in NYC studying and the contractor was most upset with me being gone 2 weeks prior to opening deadline.  The hard wood flooring was detained and now the tractor-trailer load had arrived.  Arriving from the red eye flight, I hit the ground running to catch up to a 2-week backlog of work, now the contractor wants to meet me on the job site at 6PM. I was late, exhausted and anxious for this most important installation of a studio.  The dance floor, yes it is different than laying regular hardwood flooring. The contractor helps me up to the tractor-trailer….. fuming and fusing the entire time because I was late and he had a dinner date. To break the aggravating noise, I flippantly said, “ Instead of fussing at me you should be glad I am home, and give me a welcome home kiss.”  That didn’t happen and we kept unwrapping and inspecting the bundles of T&G maple flooring.  Hardwood looks great and we are ready to leave. Contractor says did you really mean it ……kiss you?  I said, “heck no.”  He suddenly “kissed me.” He quickly departs for his date. I get back to work. Now 6AM the next morning on the construction site the question was, “what now?”  We had worked together for 7 months and there was never any suggestion that either of us had interest in the other.  He wore a diamond on his pinky… Flowers thrill me more than diamonds but you couldn’t help noticing this diamond. I did comment, it was a pretty diamond.  He said, “marry me and it can be yours.” That was so insane that is like saying we will meet on the moon.  Lots of people commented on how well we worked together…. No big deal we had a major construction project with many specifics so the easiest way to make progress is to work together.  Not like the transplanted NY electrical inspector that wrongly ordered me to stop the concrete trucks from pouring the driveway.  I didn’t because there was no electric where we were pouring concrete. He failed the job plus got the headlines in the local paper, “Dance Studio Fails Electrical Inspection.” Probably could have been avoided if green would have crossed his palm. After hiring an outside electrical engineer the report states the job was done to code plus exceeded code. Guess how big the paper printed the retraction?  You got it. One little column lost on a back page.  Naturally, no headlines of the inaccurate accusation.

Our first date was Thanksgiving weekend and we planned to marry Dec. 29^th, which was also my parent’s anniversary.  Obviously I did not read the small print that said. “You had to marry the contractor”

Dec. 23^rd, Mario said, “I bought you the pear.”  Mario really knows diamonds and I knew he wasn’t overly thrilled with the pear. I said “Oh no you didn’t!” I’m thinking to myself. (We shouldn’t be spending on something not necessary like a large diamond.)  He thinks (I am saying it is not good enough for me.) He returns the diamond. We had ordered our wedding bands…. At the time my ring size was a 3.5. So we knew our wedding bands would not be in. Christmas day Mario says to my Mom whom we called Mamzi… “Do you have some adhesive tape” She gets it. He takes off his diamond wraps tape around it and gives it to me. Much more meaningful than any diamond he could have purchased. He loves “Bling” naturally he’s Italian.

Sunday Dec. 30^th just as we were ready to leave a call comes in and someone who owed Mario a lot of money was coming by to pay. Maybe in a strong economy you would have collected later but the economy was very shaky so we waited.  Departing later than planned, we landed in Palm Beach, fueled & filed our flight plan (accepted without comments) and took off for our destination Haiti with a refuel stop at Grand Turk.

Only 9 days off the shortest day of the year, the Flight was going well.  Then the weather starts deteriorating; we come down in altitude to the point it felt like the waves were lapping on the plane’s bottom. 84 Whiskey radios, “turning final, runway in site.” “The car lights are on the runway for you to land.”  Roger.  Meanwhile we are wrapped in total pitch-blackness. Like total not able to see anything.  Mario keeps radioing Grand Turk …. No response.  He tells me to look at charts and see if there is another frequency. I said the only one I see is 121.5. He says… we don’t need that that is “May Day.” We keep piercing through the darkness. Looking for car lights to spot the runway.  The only thing visible is black… twenty minutes pass and we should have been there. Now I hear,  “121.5 ….121.5” More time passes as we are cocooned in total black silence. Shattering and ear piercing the radio screams 923Bravo….. Do you copy? Do you know if 84 Whiskey – Dick DuPont landed? Roger, assume “yes.”  Last communication was turning final. 923 Bravo Grand Turk isn’t answering because they close on Sundays but you can land with us.  Who are you? South Cacaos.  Frantically checking the maps to see our location and where is South Cacaos? Found, looks like due 90 degrees east, but we aren’t cleared to land. It’s a different country. We are going anyway. Still encompassed in darkness then, a pinhead of light, we turn towards it.  We land in what appears to be a rice patty.  I say, “ Are we going to sleep in the plane?”  Then in the distance we see two huge black men approaching.  They say, ”Welcome to South Cacaos, we are glad you are hear.”  Whew, We have been listening to you and Dick all afternoon and knew you were in trouble so we waited for you.  There is an Inn on the Island, would you like us to take you there? We graciously accept…. Not sure what is next, certainly they couldn’t be all bad, since they waited to make sure we had safely landed when we didn’t know we were in trouble. Bouncing in the jeep, we arrive at the Inn; a beautiful black model looking girl greets us and asks if we wish to stay?  Mario says. “Yes and we are on our honeymoon.”   She leaves and we wait for a good while and then a nice looking man comes out and says…. Did she tell you?  No, what? We have no rooms but you can sleep in our room someone else is already doing so, and hurry up, we are just serving dinner.  All communications to the island is turned off at 6 so no calling home to let them know we are safe. The “salad “ was the best lobster tail we ever had… and that was the salad with the main meal following. The conversation was the shot up Cuban gunboat on the beach.  The place was full of divers from Tampa. We retire to our single cot with an open fencing as a wall that you can see through and a stranger on the other side plus the owners.  We awake and head for the plane and here that 84 Whiskey is landing and the pilot asked us to wait to meet him. It was Dick DuPont.  He tells us to stop and stay at his cousin Kip’s place on Cap Haitian, then stop by Provo on your way home. Sunning at Kip’s hotel pool, Mario says, “there is the guy we slept with the other night.”  Of course we need to meet him.  He was the meat salesman for the Islands.  Why Haiti, because Mario had prepackaged his buildings in combination with Rotary to help with their industrial business.  He had been to Haiti to help with the construction. We saw extreme beauty and we saw extreme poverty. Aware of how Blessed we are. Returning we stopped at Provo. The first thing I saw on landing was orchid plants bulldozed up because they were starting to develop the island. Much to the disgust of our host, Mr. DuPont our plane was searched because of the Cuban crisis.

Well that will be 50 years ago Dec. 29^th. We have lots of memories of sharing celebrations with my parents. They celebrated 60 years. Celebrating still continues but now we share the date with our nephew, Brian Horvath and wife Hollie. I was 30 so that means this year it is 80.  To celebrate these big zero’s, we went to the Holy Lands this March. We renewed our wedding vows at Cana. As we did our 35^th in Rome. We have always had great Faith but it is even greater now.  Hard to believe we walked where he walked. Just thinking about it keeps us in ahhhhh,  complete with goose bumps.

We Live & Love spontaneously (maybe planning should be in there) but why? We have always had God as our Pilot.  Truly Blessed just as each of you are to us Bountiful Blessings So many life memories we have shared. We wish to continue celebrating with visits and shared time with you. It’s happening…visits 2023 Dr. Cathy, Trish Ramsby, Cousins Pam & Dave, Sandy & Barrow, Great Niece Kristin & Poncho (also celebrated 20), Great Great Nieces Crimson, Lily & Fisher, Student Dottie (Conklin) & husband Tracy Whiting, Niece Hollie, Nephew Graham, Brothers: Sam & John, Niece Regina, All our dealer friends at Scott’s that shared my 80^th. We’re celebrating for a year! So plan a visit to NC, catch us at a show or on the way to one. We would love to see you!

The adventures are never ending and who knows is this a draft of the first chapter,…………. or the book?

God knows!

With Blessings & Love,             Mario & Joanne