A rather spry white hair gent and his wife spoke to us as we got up to leave. We walked over to their booth and he said, with a grin, "you folks look to be in about the same age group as us so wondered if you're from around here." I asked first about the age group, turns out he's 95 and wife is 91, married 71 years. He asked if I had served and told him yes...USAF. Oh...did that ever light him up. He flew F-4 Phantoms in Nam, didn't catch what he flew in Korea but Nancy thought it was something with a "6" in it so maybe F-86. He then asked if I was familiar with the BUFF, "oh yes, Big Ugly Flying F" at which point I stopped and he busted out laughing. "Yes, you're familiar with the B-52"...which he transitioned to following Nam duty. He was stationed a couple places were I had been but obviously a few years before me. He had 25 years in the Air Force, retired as a Lt. Col.. We had some good laughs over strictly military stuff, his little wife even added her thoughts at times. What impressed us was the fact both were sharp as a tack mentally, that's encouraging. Especially since I'm a youngster in age compared to him.
After the Air Force, he started a real estate business and apparently it thrived...had three offices here in Central Florida when he sold the business to retire. Most interesting was the fact he collects Ford Model A's...mostly. His name is Hudson so his wife tracked down a 1952 Hudson and helped him restore it. We ended up talking with them for nearly and hour, had a great visit with perfect strangers. He wanted to know what I did in the AF so we found some similar ground there as well since I worked on both the B-52 and B-47. We talked about some of my flying experiences, told him I didn't get to fly until after my time in the service. They didn't ask for and I/we didn't offer information to enable us to keep in touch but sure would have liked to. It turned out to be one of the best evenings we've had in our travels thus far.
