Subject: try to keep a straight face
As best I remember 54 years ago.
Place: ORD ramp gate D-8. This is about a senior, no-nonsense, stocky, ethnic Polish mechanic, with a neck size of about 18. I had previously crossed the fellow in the wrong way so I was keeping my mouth shut.
I was seated at the 2/O position talking with Benjamin T. Griggs, the new VP of Flight Operations riding the jumpseat. Mr. Senior Mechanic enters the cockpit and jumps into the F/O seat and sets about replacing the NDB control head. Mr. Griggs asks: “What seems to be the nature of the problem?” [Some of you may recall that Mr. Griggs acquired a private pilot license to better under the airline pilot world.] The mechanic responds: “A bad NDB control head.” With a confident air Griggs says: “We are having a lot of problems with them these days.” Mr. Mechanics asks: “And who the hell are you?” Griggs responded: Benjamin Griggs, VP of Flight Operations.
Here comes the interesting part.
Mr. Senior Mechanic ever so slowly rotates around to the right, looking over his shoulder at me and says: “Oh well, they come and they go.”
Now I must keep a straight face.
Bill Day