When The Planets Align

When The Planets Align was Originally Posted on April 24, 2013 by lavarock

I was going to add this as a comment to my last post, however it deserves its own posting.

I have been watching reruns of Quantum Leap (the TV show) where a character “leaps” into someone elses past life to “put right what was once wrong”.

So, I’m watching past episodes of Quantum Leap tonight and Samuel Beckett (not the novelist) leaps into the persona of (drum roll) a DJ.

To make it a bit more strange, the episode a few back involved Sam jumping into the life of a NY Policeman, who is married to Senators daughter. Sam is encouraged to have his wife tell her dad tocancel the U2 flight that will take place in 2 days. As you may know, the U2 flight was Francis Gary Powers being shot down in his spy plane over Russia and the ensuing lengthy Cold War that came of it.

So, how was *I* involved in the U2 episode you ask? Did you even see that coming?

In the 70’s I was in college at a branch of the University of Virginia, in the coal field area of Southwest Virginia and Southeast Kentucky. I was also about to start working at the radio station seen in a recent Lavarock T-Blog episode see on this page.

I was living at a trailer park across from the college, a park owned by a DJ at said station, which was just over the state line past Pound Virginia.

Now, Francis Gary Powers, the military U2 pilot was born in the same town as the radio station, Jenkins Kentucky many years prior. He then moved to Pound, the town between Jenkins and Wise.

When his plane was shot down, a local lawyer traveled to Russia as an advisor to help get Powers release from prison. He was in prison, accused of being a spy.

Years later at this trailer park, a resident was threatened with a gun. A couple of us were called as witnesses and I was called to the stand and asked 2 questions by, you guessed it, Carl McAfee.

Now I hasten to add, that if you were expecting some spy thriller of a story here, some exciting bit of facts that would bring a shiver to you or cause yo to remember this episode for weeks or months, then you just don’t read my blog close enough, do you?