Chapter eight
Mason McNabb
Mason was born in Alaska before it was a state. His family were pioneers and were able to stake a homestead in the Matanuska Valley in the 30's. They farmed the land in the long daylight of an Alaskan summer. Mason and his four siblings learned the art of subsistence. They were schooled not only to survive in the harsh wilderness but to thrive.
At times when McNabb was young, things were really tough. In the bitter winter of 58 when he was quite young, he lost a sister who wandered off in a blizzard and they found her body a week later frozen in a nearby creek bed.
Life in Alaska can be bittersweet. Mason was an avid hunter and the family survived from the meat he and his brothers brought in from the wilderness. His sisters dressed and prepared the meat even in the dead of winter.
Most households in the Alaskan frontier were not able to send their children to college. If they were lucky enough the families either home schooled their kids or sent them to the one room schoolhouse in the nearest large town.
Mason attended a majority of his schooling including most of high school in a one room school. He didn’t' go to college but he learned plenty from his parents about running a small business and survival in extreme circumstances.
Shortly after he graduated from Palmer High School in the 60’s, he enlisted in the Air Force and became a pilot. Mason was able to avoid Vietnam because he flew mostly cargo planes. He used this experience later in his business delivering cargo to the bush of Alaska.
Mason was in the service for four years and brought his skills back to the Great Land. He and a friend, George, bought a single engine, four passenger airplane and began a small business of shuttling missionaries and supplies to many villages in the interior of the state. Throughout the 70’s they flew almost daily to the bush. Their company was well known all the way to the lower forth-eight.
As he grew older as a single man he missed his family back in Palmer and the old farm that the McNabb’s had owned since the 30’s. He visited them very rarely. His older brother took over the ranch and his parents were able to retire with a pretty good income coming in each month.
When Mason’s parents became feeble and ill, the pilot decided he’d better spend more time with his elderly mom and dad. Weekly he would fly his little plane into the small airport at Palmer and his brother would pick him up and they both would visit with his parents in a senior home in Wasilla.
Both of the pilot’s parents passed away within a few months of each other. This was really hard on Mason who had spent so many years away from them when they were strong. His small business suffered tremendously until something incredible happened.
Many years before at Palmer High, Mason met Julie Jennings. In those days McNabb was not interested in girls because he and his siblings worked night and day keeping the farm productive especially in the long Alaskan summers. Julie had eyes for Mason but he ignored it and she left Alaska for a while.
When Julie returned in the 90’s she was still a single woman, but she came back as certified public accountant. In fact she did the books for Mason and his partner, George Gear, who was also a pilot, in their chartering business.
After a short courtship, Julie and Mason were married and they decided to expand their business into larger cargo planes like the ones Mason flew in the Air Force. It was an expensive step for the little business that George and Mason started many years before. Julie added a tremendous amount of clout and experience to the business and profits went through the roof.
Twenty-five years and three grown children later, the McNabbs were expanding again. They were purchasing two cargo jets from Hunter and Palmer based in New Jersey and manufactured in Los Angeles. His first new plan, an Antonov AN-26 light cargo jet, was waiting in LA for pickup. Mason and Julie with their pilot, George Gear, were preparing to pick their plane up.
The same day ........................Anchorage, AK
Mason and Julie walked hand in hand toward gate 24. George was already waiting for them at the gate. They were running late and it took them a while to get through the TSA check point. Julie spotted George first and waved. Their plane was boarding.
Julie spoke first, “George, I’m glad you got here in a hurry. We had to see the grandchild before we left and we…I didn’t want to give here back to her mom.”
Mason quipped, “I’m glad you said, I….I knew we would….”
“No, we aren’t late, yet….We are boarding, now…So we are not late.”
George inserted, “Let’s go…We have first class and they are boarding right now.”
The three friends hurried down the walkway toward the Alaska Airline’s Boeing 737. They boarded and in a few minutes they were heading for LAX.
Later in the flight, the pilot reported that there was some weather in Los Angeles but nothing that he and his co-pilots couldn’t handle. He told them to sit back and relax and have a great flight.
Chapter nine
Joan and Nick Castrol
The Castrols both were raised in states in the north. Joan is from Fargo, North Dakota and her family still leaves in Jamestown on the James River east of Fargo. Her dad at one time was a state Senator and was very popular throughout the state.
Joan traveled to Minnesota after high school to attend the University of Minnesota just to get away from home. She was convinced by a girl friend to move with her to the college in the twin cities. Mrs. Castrol quit school after she met Nick and they got engaged.
The only job that Joan could find after she quit school was house cleaning. Eventually she was hired as a waitress in the Denny’s restaurants in Minneapolis. Mom and dad wanted her to come back to North Dakota but she refused.
Nick attended all his schooling in the twin city area. His parents moved almost yearly. Ha attended ten different schools in his thirteen years of early education. He wanted to go to college and barely passed the test to attend the University of Minnesota.
Castrol enrolled in the twin city campus of UM and didn’t really have a declared major. When he and Joan met, he left school and applied for a job working on cars in a garage in St Paul. He didn’t like the life as a mechanic but he made good money because he was very good at what he did.
Joan and Nick were engaged for two years before they married. They had a dream of traveling to Victoria, British Columbia for their honeymoon and they were saving money toward the trip.
The Castrols were married and had a simple wedding in a small church near their home. Shortly after their incredible trip to Canada, Nick decided to look for a different profession. He applied for almost every kind of job in the city. He eventually chose to be a car salesman when that was a very popular vocation.
Nick did very well at the beginning, but this job became discouraging to him after a while. He decided to move to a larger car dealership and he started making good money again. Secretly he saved a large amount of money for a special occasion. He wanted to be able to vacation with his wife in Los Angeles.
For years he saved and they were never able to go on a decent vacation. They had children and the savings began to dwindle. Even though Nick wasn’t excited about his job he was good at it and he and his family thrived.
One day the Castrols were offered an opportunity to start their own business promoting leadership material around the world. He wasn’t sure if he could do something like that even though he was a born salesman. Joan encouraged him to do what his heart told him to do. The Castrols decided they would take their vacation and then give this new profession a shot.
Joan began planning their vacation a year in advance. She was a perfectionist and wanted everything on the trip to run smoothly. Nick was a laid back kind of salesman and he let her do all the planning.
Joan decided that the family would travel first to Dallas and leave the children there, and then on to LA and spend a week just as a couple. They would fly back to Dallas. Before they went home she planned for them to fly to Fargo and visit her parents in Jamestown, ND.
The children were wondering why they were being left in Dallas when mom and dad were going to the very city where Disneyland was located. Mom promised them that their grandparents in Dallas would take them to Great America. That satisfied the two youngsters of the moment.
The same day ........................Dallas, Texas
Joan asked Nick, “How’s your mom, Nick?”
“She acts like she never had a heart attack but according to the doctor at the hospital she did.”
“Well, dear, we need to get the kids ready…She’s going to be alright without us here? Can your dad handle it tell we get back?”
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just get ready. We don’t want to be late.”
Joan hustled the children to pack their things. Nick loaded the rental and they all got in the car and drove toward the airport.
Joan wanted to check the weather in LA so she took her phone out and found the weather channel. She punched in ‘Los Angeles,’ and then she said, “Oh, my, Nick it’s going to rain in LA. Oh, well, that won’t dampen our great time there. Kids, I scheduled Disney for Thursday. It should be dry by then. Everything should be perfect. After all, it’s called ‘sunny California.’”
