[AAC Cadet Leader]

This morning, while I was typing my story about working in Ray Stits' paint factory, I looked him up on the internet, phoned his EAA Chapter #1 and left a message on the secretary’s answering machine, asking if they could give my phone number to him. He called back! I just hung up a minute ago after having a fantasic hour-long phone conversation with him.

Ray sounded no different at his current age of 86 than when I last saw him at Flabob in 1989. He is still as sharp as a tack, told me all kinds of things that he remembered about me and my time at Flabob in 1989. He said, "I remember you arriving at Flabob in your old, broken down motorhome, blowing smoke, and parking next to Bill Turner's hangar, and that you had a boyfriend that came out and fixed it and got it running again."

"Wow, you remember that? Ha! Ray did you know that I wound up marrying that guy and had two kids with him...and those kids are teenagers now?"

"No, I didn't. Well I'm glad to know you have a life partner," he said.

"Well, not anymore, Ray... our marriage kinda fell apart in 1999 and I've been on my own with the kids since then..."

As our conversation continued, he relayed one of funnier moments from my journey that I had nearly forgotten. He said, "I remember you telling me about the airport manager in Oklahoma whose office couch you slept on and how when the guy came in to work in the morning, he was startled by seeing you sleeping there, and told you to wake up and get out! I thought that was no kind of way to treat you. The least the guy could've done was to have driven you to a hotel and gotten you a room."

He assured me that my old control tower was still at Flabob and said that it now has steel steps and is being used as somebody's law office. Then he reminded me that the ladder I used to climb up in my tower, I had borrowed from him.

He caught me up quickly on all the changes and new flourishing activity at Flabob, and then sad news - that two of my friends had recently passed away - Ed Marquardt, who restored antique aeroplanes and Bill Turner, the air racer builder who had given me the free motorhome camping spot, next to his "Repeat Aircraft" hangar.

I told him how the Pancho Barnes' prediction he had saddled me with back then about my life and her's was still bothering me, now more than ever. "Like Pancho's old station wagon, I still own that old motorhome that you remember, Ray - and if things don't improve soon, my kids and I may be moving back into it!" I said this in jest. The reality is that this idea is starting to take shape as our viable back-up plan.

"Do you have any dogs?" he asked, sarcastically pressing his Pancho Barnes comparison.

I fell on the floor laughing.

"No Ray - my kids are my dogs!"

Then I read to him what I had written about him so far and that "marvelous" job he gave me. I was relieved when he laughed at my intended humor in it. He did respond emphatically, "Martha, I was just trying to feed you by giving you a job, and $5 an hour was a lot of money in 1989. And those paint cans you labeled went all over the world!"

"Right... I recall you telling me that every time you came around to see if I was gluing them fast enough, Ray."

I asked him what he's doing with his days now since selling his company. He answered that he is enjoying his retirement, loves to garden and work around his home with his forever wife, Lori, who is his age, and he spoke proudly that he is very busy taking kids up for airplane rides in the EAA Young Eagles program. He has so far given rides to 1714 kids, with a recent record of 38 kids in one day - straps three of them in the back seat at a time with a waiver from the FAA to do so.

He added that his life-long friend, Paul Poberezny, (the founder of the EAA) who is also 86 years old, had just called him the other day and played a little trick on his wife when she answered, changing his voice, pretending to be some local guy asking if he could mow Ray's lawn or earn a few bucks pulling rocks out of the grass by the runway at Flabob. And then that Paul's wife, Audrey took the phone away from him and told Lori that he was playing a joke on her."

Before we hung up, I told Ray that I am determined to finish the book and reformat my slide show by the springtime of next year so I can take my presentation back on tour. To this he gave me one closing bit of advice: "Martha, take a good look at your checking account deposit slip - it says 'cash and checks.' There are no lines anywhere on it that say 'fame.' 'Fame' you can't put in the bank!"