Reeves Flying Service - The guy who had the local agricultural flying service decided to go out of business,
offered to sell me his Super Cub and spray equipment and said I could take
over his business, for free. I bought the deal but didn't think I could afford
to quit PHI to be a spray pilot, so hired a guy to fly for me. I made
a little money over the next couple of years, but learned the money comes a
lot slower in the small fields in the hills than in the thousand acre plus fields
in the delta where I had flow years before. I kept the business for almost
3 years but had trouble keeping pilots. I would train them, they'd fly
for a season, get some experience, then move on to greener pastures, elsewhere. An interesting mishap.
Another time, I was spraying a field near the end of the season when my pilot
was off. The engine started to cut out and I landed in the farmers pasture
and called the mechanic. He found the problem and got it running, but
hooked things up wrong, so when I took off I could not get full power.
The plane settled into the cotton field, flipped up on it's nose and sustained
quite a bit of damage, though I was unhurt (except my pride, of course).
That ended the flying for that season and, by the time I got the plane rebuilt,
it looked so pretty, I didn't want to put the spray tank back on it.
I advertised it in Trade-A-Plane and a guy from Louisana called, came over and
bought it along with the spray equipment. Kill-A-Pest Exterminating Service Plantland Nursery Multi-level Marketing The years 1977 and 1978 were (so far) the worst years of our lives. Sue had a hysterectomy in 1977. Our daughter, Nita had been diagnosed with Khrone's disease and had to have surgery to remove a section of her intestines in 1978. In October 1978, on the day I was to return to work at PHI, I was on my way into Carthage. I was in a Volkswagen Beetle, I had bought from a friend of my daughter, because she had financial problems. I had fixed it up and was going to drive it to work at PHI. I headed through a green light when a house mover's truck made a left turn in front of me. My memory of the accident is still a blank, but I apparently jammed the VW under the front bumper of the truck. A guy on the rescue squad later told me the front gas tank on the VW had ruptured and there was gas everywhere. Had it ignited, I would not be writing this. My right wrist was shattered, my right knee broken and my left arm broken. I also had a concussion that kept me unconscious for a couple of days. I was left with a stiff knee and a stiff right wrist and was laid up for 8 weeks. The owner of the truck had insurance with State Farm and they ended up paying my medical bills, lost salary and gave me a settlement of $65,000. This was indirectly responsible for me getting into - - Forest Discount Furniture Go to Next Page |
Business Ventures during the 70s. Mishaps and mayhem. Other things we did during the 70s to try to make our fortune, and mishaps along the way. |