PAL Part II - Captain Harper is Smitten
In the 1960's there was a great R&B song by Percy Sledge entitled "When a Man Loves a Woman". Some of the lyrics are these:
When a man loves a woman
Can't keep his mind on nothing else
He'll trade the world
For the good thing he's found...
When a man loves a woman
Spend his very last dime
Tryin' to hold on to what he needs
He'd give up all his comfort
Sleep out in the rain
If she said that's the way it ought to be
This could have been Jim Harper's theme song for the next phase of his life.
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Jim had his eye on her. True, he was a ladies man and he knew how to treat them well. And, Jim was prone to acts of chivalry like sending flowers and candy to his flight attendants after each of the long runs thanking them for a wonderful trip. But, this one young attendant named Sally was something special to him. For every European loop that Jim flew, he made sure Sally was on the crew list. But, as Jim started to put the full court press on Sally he began to understand that he perhaps had met his match with her because she, in no way, was impressed with this suave captain of the air as a potential mate. As a perfect example of this - Sally tells of a time in Amsterdam when they were having drinks post-flight. Jim told her he could read her fortune from the palm of her hand and it is lost what he said except for one thing. Sally's stewardess friend came by and said that it was time to dress for dinner and since Jim was not invited she stood to excuse herself to leave. Jim said there was one other thing about her future that he had not told her - that she was going to marry Jim Harper. Sally responded - "Look, I'm brown and you're white, I'm Catholic and you're not - I would never marry you" and she then went on her way. It would be expected that Jim probably felt that the whole scene had not played out as desired.
As the time went on Jim pressed forward undeterred even though Sally was doing everything she could to avoid him. He would call, drop by to see her, fill her PAL mailbox with telegrams and she would not take the calls or come to the door or respond to the messages. A moment came, however, when Sally offered a challenge, and while not really meaning it, a challenge none the less. She hoped she could get through to him once and for all that she was not interested. The challenge was - if Jim loved her that much then why didn't he quit Douglas Aircraft and stay with PAL where she was? Well, this one backfired on Sally because Jim did exactly that. He resigned a major, tenured position with Douglas Aircraft - a place where he could basically write his own ticket and globe trot the world in style - in favor of ..... well, a woman. And not just a woman - the woman. Captain Jim Harper was smitten. Just like Percy sang - He'd give up all his comfort Jim's inner feeling about this can be seen in the February 12, 1949 entry -
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Sally was, well, shocked that Jim would do anything so stupid (Douglas must have thought he was goofy too). But, on top of this, Jim finally showed her his considerable backbone and read Sally the riot act informing her that she was nothing but a spoiled child and in response challenged her to grow up. Sally was suprised and moved to see this side of Jim come forward and she made a promise to him that if he would give her some time and patience - well, who knows what may happen.
So, everything was on track and happiness abounded.
Not exactly.
Upon Jim's resigination from Douglas and his joining of PAL, he had to start at the bottom of the seniority list and was assigned to sitting in the co-pilot's seat flying DC-3's hopping around the islands of the Philippines. Most of the captains flying these milk runs were fellows Jim had trained and now they were in charge. Typical schedules were like those entered in Jim's log for the end of March 1949.
