Come Fly With Me
March  4^th Lone Star Flight Museum   – GalvestonTexas

    A large, warm, crimson and orange sun slowly slides down to the bottom of the Galveston horizon. Matthew and Lee are loading in the hanger of the Lone Star Flight Museum. They marvel as the fiery sunlight ricochets off two majestic planes on the runway . George is running later than he'd like to be this evening (due to getting lost again) and has not yet arrived. The trio has been hired to play for supplier of subsea oil drilling equipment. The company is FMC Technologies, and tonight they are hosting a client appreciation dinner. FMC holds the title of Fortune magazine's 2008 most admired oil and gas services company in America.     

     They have chosen the Lone Star Flight Museum for the site of the evening's event. Situated between Moody Gardens and Schlitterbahn waterpark, the museum houses original aircraft from Post WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War eras. The museum's collection is rare because most of the aircraft are still flyable .  They even have an airstrip behind the museum that can even accommodate the massive Thunderbird Boeing B-17G that they have on display. It's this runway that George is driving next to at the moment. He goes through the security gate check in, and finds Matthew and Lee finishing up inside.

     George's breath is taken away as he moves through the large bay doors. The band is to perform in front of a beautifully restored Supermarine Spitfire fighter . The fighter is a relatively small WWII plane capable of speeds of over 375 mph. There are less than 50 of these majestic machines that are airworthy in the whole world, and the band is within arms reach of one tonight .

     The band sound checks and is finished setting up early (despite George's tardiness). As they wait, the three ponder on the remarkable caliber of the men that flew the planes in this hanger. The conversation soon leads to "What does FMC Technologies do anyway?" Upon learning about the subsea oil drilling niche that FMC has, Matthew and George realize a missed opportunity to have worked up the song WHALE OF A TIME from the movie HELLO DOWN THERE.

     In the 1969 movie, Tony Randall plays an inventor who develops a futuristic home 90 feet below the surface of the ocean. In order not to be fired by his boss, the mean T.R. Hollister - played by Jim Backus (Thurston Howell III himself), Randall convinces his family to live in the underwater house for 30 days. His wife played by Janet Leigh, who in the span of ten years made both HELLO DOWN THERE and PSYCHO (HELLO DOWN THERE being her scariest role) eventually relents and moves their kids, along with the kids' rock band, 'Harold and the Hang-ups' - featuring Richard Dreyfuss (some would later argue that this role made him welcome the idea of being eaten by a shark just a little over 5 years later in JAWS). While under the sea Randall and family fight off sharks, frolic with dolphins, and cruise around in a submarine—all in some of the least convincing underwater photography ever brought to the screen. The movie's 'crown jewel' is the syrupy soundtrack. One of the featured tunes (lip-synched by Dreyfuss himself) is WHALE OF A TIME.  Catch the song footage on YouTube here: WHALE OF A TIME. George considers this film the very best Tony Randall-futuristic-underwater-living pop band movie of all time. Jabber Jaw comes close, but it is... after all, a cartoon (and the lip synch of the cartoon characters in the band match better).

     It's 7:00PM, and the band starts off by playing an instrumental arrangement that George has written to the tune COME FLY WITH ME. An appropriate song considering the decor of planes all around . The music instantly 'warms the room'. There are brief outbursts of dancing during the set. A gentleman named Stephan requests the song MISTY for wife Lydia. Matthew and George happily comply (this is a song the two used to play as a duo). At the song's close, Stephan thanks the group. Matthew questions his accent, and learns that he is from Norway. "In fact there are many Norwegians involved in subsea drilling here tonight."  Lee is impressed: "Who knew that Tony Randall was so big in the Netherlands."

     At the conclusion of the first set, the guys take a break and head outside to the airstrip behind the museum. The air is cooler out here now. The three walk up and down the dormant runway getting a closer look at these flying metal behemoths. As they stroll, Lee becomes very somber. He speaks of how he saw singer/guitar player Buck Owens the night of his death (Owens not Lee's). And even though this took place nearly two years ago, Lee seems pretty worked up. He goes on about seeing him in Bakersfield at the Crystal Palace..."and then, just like that, he was dead (Owens again, not Lee) George whispers to Matthew "Is he about to make a confession to us, or something." Matthew whispers back: "I don't know... but I'm ready for anything..." The two decide to leave him to his thoughts (actually, they head back in to partake of the catering and Lee stays behind jingling the keys in his pockets ).

     The food inside is spectacular (even by Norwegian standards). The trio has smelled it all night, but the agreement with their hostess, Tabitha, was to let the guests go through the buffet line first then the band could feast. And feast they do! Matthew and George are consuming unknown meats on skewers. "Everything seems to taste better when it has a wooden stick shoved through it!" Lee has made his way back into the hanger, and has set up camp at the chocolate fountain at the end of the line . Matthew and George join him. They spend WAY TOO MUCH TIME at this fountain. Even so, the chocolate shows no signs of slowing or stopping. George returns to the band stand, soon followed by Matthew. After a few minutes of waiting for Lee, they start back up without him. The first song they play that is not off the night's set list is a song by Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan called ICE CREAM. The main lyrics of the song are "You're love is better than chocolate...better than anything else that I've tried..." Matthew promptly dedicates it to the chocolate fountain while George declares the fountain to be the MVP of the evening.

     A few songs later, the two realize that Lee is still MIA. "Should we go look for him?" "I think we should go back to the fountain...I mean I think I should look for him at the fountain." "Yeah. Me too!"  But before they do, some of the guests approach the duo and want some upbeat music to dance to. "Always happy to oblige." Meanwhile Lee is taking a tour of the museum with a tour guide .  The guide continues on : "The DC-3 was first flown on the 32^nd anniversary of the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty hawk in 1935 blah... blah... blah..." But Lee is not listening, he is daydreaming about Hee-Haw.

     Lee returns to the bandstand to George and Matthew swinging in full force. The three play the final set to a scattering of dancers. The event coordinator, Tabitha is pleased, thanks the trio. As an expression of gratitude, she gives each of them one of the plant table decorations to take home to their wives. Matthew clumsily  knocks over the band's marquee sign in a move that Chevy Chase would envy. "Smooth Matthew." Tabitha is looks confused; she hands the check to George then acts as if she quickly sees some clients on the opposite side of the hanger that she must 'tend' to. (But Lee knows better).

     15 minutes later, all of the band's gear is stowed in the cases and bags and ready to go. It's just about then that Lee realizes his keys are missing. Matthew and George help him search through his drum equipment cases. Nothing...they move to searching the other cases - still nada. Lee looks in the men's room. George looks around and under Lee's van. Matthew heads over to the chocolate fountain corner - but the fountain's gone (oh...and ...uh... no keys). Eventually the three reconvene near the pile of their equipment. "Do you think you left them on the runway?" Three heads simultaneously turn slowly to the open bay door into the darkness.

     On the airstrip, the three wander back and forth like unenthused zombies, retracing the steps they took a few hours ago. George starts laughing at the absurdity of being in the middle of a runway 75 miles from home at midnight (a reaction due to sleep depravation, no doubt).  He has a 5:30 wake up call and wonders if they'll ever get out of here. He looks across the darkness to see Matthew looking for the keys by the light of his cell phone.

     After what seems like an eternity, Lee yells out "I've got 'em!" George and Matthew rally around him. "Where'd you find them?" "Uh...in my pocket." What??? In your POCKET???" "Not pants - In my jacket pocket." "What difference does that make???" "I thought I checked there." (George is laughing again) "Let's get out of here."

     The three load up and head out. George and Matthew contemplate strangling Lee and leaving his body in the bay, but they're too tired. The band is due to play at a grand opening for a land title company day after tomorrow. They'll strangle him then - when they're fully awake (so they'll enjoy it more). As for now, it's nearly 2:00 AM - the flow of Interstate 45 pushes their vehicles back towards the city. Back to their slumbering families. Back to... home


 

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