| |
Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoyed it. I certainly took great joy in writing it. Please leave a review if you'd like.
I’d like to thank Jana DeLeon for creating her wonderful Miss Fortune World, including the delightful town of Sinful and all of its quirky residents. I’d especially like to thank her for allowing us to borrow her town and characters to play around with. I only wish I had some of that cough syrup...
I originally got the idea of fictionalizing the 1971 hijacking case while reading Louisiana Longshot (A Miss Fortune Mystery, Book 1), and stumbled upon the following paragraph:
CIA agents didn’t share their fears, thoughts or dreams— assuming they even had any— and they didn’t have layers to uncover. If they did, they were so well hidden, they were having a beer with D.B. Cooper. Everything at the CIA was about the work, and while the work itself might be complicated, everything surrounding it was black and white. - DeLeon, Jana (2013-12-17). Louisiana Longshot (A Miss Fortune Mystery, Book 1) (pp. 45-46). Jana DeLeon. Kindle Edition.
After chuckling out loud, and reading on to finish the book, that image of D.B. Cooper hiding out somewhere and enjoying a beer stuck with me. That was a name I hadn’t heard mentioned in a good many years. I later took the opportunity and questioned my kids (who are all in their thirties as of this writing) about the case.
Only one of my very worldly and intelligent children even knew who D.B. Cooper was. I imagined millions of people their age who didn’t know that the hijacking of airplanes had ever happened in the United States.
They didn’t realize that Walter Cronkite faithfully appeared on our black and white televisions every week night and told us the news of the day. All of the day’s news in one short half-hour program. Just imagine!
Clearly, a new generation needed to hear about the mysterious case of D.B. Cooper, and a time when smoking was allowed on planes, trains and in automobiles. Smoking was allowed everywhere and everyone smoked, including the doctors. People actually thought it was good for you.
But I digress:
My generation will probably be the last to remember a time when people hesitated to make long-distance phone calls because it was so expensive, and you had to call from your kitchen where your phone was connected to the wall by a cable. At least it never got lost, and a new model didn’t come out every six months.
We’ll also be the last to remember a time when you had to use maps or an atlas if you planned a cross-country trip. You had to be able to read them and use a ruler to figure out the distances between places. And, once in your car, you had to pay strict attention to road signs. You also had to have cash to pay for gas.
Also, it was a time when you needed to dress in your Sunday best to board a plane. You bought a ticket (cash required) at the airport, or weeks ahead of time from a travel agent. Then, you walked onto an airplane from the stairs pushed up to the door, and sat down to enjoy your ride. Back when there were no checkpoints, no I.D required, and no searches, of either your luggage or your body. The airlines transported your luggage for free and fed you a complete meal during your flight.
I had Marge meet her friend Wilma in Seattle at the World’s fair because I was at that fair as a small child and we stayed with my aunt Wilma, who served in WWII, not Vietnam. I didn’t think she’d mind me borrowing her name.
I can still remember some of the amazing exhibits. I’m sorry to say I cried on the elevator ride going to the top of the Space Needle though. I was absolutely terrified of being in the enclosed space for so long. I later found out the trip only took 41 seconds... It was the longest 41 seconds of my life.
When Jana announced her Miss Fortune World was opening for new stories, I knew I had to write the story you’ve just read...
Because where better than Sinful, Louisiana for a mystery of such magnitude to remain hidden all these years? And who better to keep it hidden than the remarkable women of the Sinful Ladies Society?