It’s a Wonderful Life

 

(Roswell Edition)

 

 

My “other” job is that of a working musician. One sunny Saturday in June my band was booked to play a private party. The occasion of the party was a couple’s 50th wedding anniversary. With all the members of the band being 50-ish like me, the music we play draws heavily on the 70’s and earlier. An acoustic trio, our repertoire is decidedly mellow and easy on the ears volume-wise.

 

When we arrived and checked out the scene, I was dumbfounded to see and hear so many references to Roswell, NM. I considered for a moment that somebody was playing a joke on me. But no, this family and this celebration really did have a Roswell connection. My curiosity was really piqued now.

 

Among the decorations setup for the party was a collage of photographs that depicted the happy couple’s many years of marriage, all the places they’d lived, children, grand children and so on. It turns out that the couple met, and was married in Roswell, NM in 1956. The gentleman, who I will call “Dan”, was stationed in Roswell, NM from 1954 to about 1957 as a member of the Air Force. He had just returned from a tour of duty in Korea. Eventually, because of his military career, they lived all over the world including Alaska, Saudi Arabia, Iceland, and so on.

 

To make matters even more interesting, in casual conversation with Dan I learned that his role while in the Air Force was that of radar technician. Not an operator per se, but the guy who kept all the communications gear functioning. He also occasionally provided some training to “newbie” operators. He knew all about radar from the

nuts-and-bolts to theory.

 

Although I never served in the military, I am a licensed pilot and have held a lifelong fascination with airplanes. I also spent some time in the American Southwest in the 1960s – including New Mexico. I have an older sister who, at the time was married to an Air Force guy who was stationed in Alamogordo. I stayed with them for several weeks. I fell in love with New Mexico – the desert, the mountains.

 

Since I knew a thing or two about historical aircraft and New Mexico, Dan and I struck up a conversation about 1950’s jet aircraft – the F-86, the B-47, the B-52, etc. I always thought that those 1st generation, 1950’s jets were so cool looking and apparently, Dan did too. Dan had done a tour of duty in Korea too before being stationed in New Mexico. This was just brief, small talk.

 

Dan and his wife have lots of kids, grand kids and even great-grand children. They touched many lives and made many, many friends. Some of their children also went on to serve their country. Because of a long, productive and colorful life, the attendance at their 50th wedding anniversary party was large and diverse. There were about a hundred people from all walks of life, from many races and from all over the world. It looked like the United Nations.

 

Dan likes flags and he had many on display. Some of the children they raised in Alaska stayed there and began lives and families there and still live there. Therefore, Dan proudly displays the flag of the state of Alaska. He naturally has the American flag as well as flags representing where his children are living now and flags that remind him of all the places they had lived at one time. Most interesting of all, one of the flags flying was the flag of the city of Roswell, NM! I didn’t even know they had one.

 

Now, nothing about this party or the brief conversation that time permitted had anything to do with UFOs. Roswell, New Mexico is a place where people live, work, get married, raise families, die and get buried and so on. In other words, not everyone in Roswell or everything that happens in Roswell is about flying saucers.

 

My wonderment about all of this was tempered by the fact that there was no way for me to spend any appreciable time talking to this gentleman. First of all, I was “hired help” – not part of his family or one of his lifelong friends. My job was to entertain the guests via my music and that’s all. When we do these kinds of events you are always on your best behavior. You don’t make a fuss. You don’t bother anybody. My status at this event was on a par with the caterers. We are simply part of the ambience. We facilitate and enable and hopefully enhance their party experience.

 

It would have been wholly inappropriate for me take up any amount of this man’s time on such a special day. I’m sure that whenever he mentions his Roswell background somebody, somewhere asks him a dumb UFO related question. If I was he, I’m sure it would be getting “old” by now. I didn’t want to just blurt out some stock question about UFOs or flying saucers. I pondered how I might break the ice, get him to talk about anything unusual he might have seen or heard of.

 

I’m afraid this little story ends up as a missed opportunity. I am dying to have a long conversation with this guy. I have the intuitive feeling that he may have had direct experience, or knew someone who had an experience, or at a minimum, would have had to have some anecdotal evidence to share. Not only did the opportunity to do so not materialize, nor did I have a camera with me to record some of the images from their lives (as depicted in the collage) or to get a picture of that Roswell flag!

 

The party was a huge success. Dan and his wife are just incredibly nice people who not only managed to stay married for 50 years they also touched many lives for the better all over the world. Their children were successful and their grand children plentiful. Compared to many families nowadays, this family scene was like something from a Disney movie, a Norman Rockwell painting come to life.

 

As the band was packing up and leaving he came over to thank us and say “good bye”. I told him that if a man’s wealth was measured in terms of the number of friends and people who loved him, then he was a very wealthy man indeed. He got a little tear in his eye and seemed genuinely touched.

 

Hopefully, I’ll get back to see him some day and pick up where we left off. I think he could tell me a thing or two about Roswell and more importantly – life.

 

 

“Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.”

 

-         Clarence the Angel in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” 1946