rlfj: Blog

Some interesting comments from readers about Chapter 51. Specifically, did the 9-1-1 system exist in 1978, or do I have an error in the story? I verified my recollections from the time by googling it, and found several sources, not just Wikipedia.

The 911 system actually started in 1968. Coverage was very sparse and spotty in those early days, and nobody really knew what to do with it, but the phone company (Ma Bell) reserved that number for emergency services. The FBI, for instance, wanted no part of it, since they didn’t want to handle the nation’s emergency calls. It started with a few small towns and cities implementing it piecemeal, with phones ringing into police stations and fire houses, and then it grew. It was nothing like the regional systems we have now, that tie together counties and metropolitan areas through emergency dispatch systems. Still, by 1978, the time of the wedding, it was a well-known and understood number.

Writing these stories is always fascinating.

It seems I got 47 & 48 mostly right. Parts of 48 are still messed up in the formatting, but the webmaster and I are working on them.

I got quite a few readers who wrote about their experiences with the Army, mostly along the line that they remembered these things well. The shot line brought back a lot of memories to people, generally not in a good way! A lot of the memories were the type where you look back after twenty to thirty years and laugh, but at the time they were a royal pain in the ass! I think you’ll find that in any field.

I think I have the major errors and screwups in my story corrected, but there will also be some minor items that people will notice. For instance, a number of people said that the Airborne doesn’t say HOO-RAH but says AIRBORNE! I fixed that, along with a reference to an Interstate section that didn’t exist in 1977. Another thing I have seen is that every few years the Army (and the Navy; I hear about it from my son, twenty-plus years in the Navy and Reserve) seems to change things just for the sake of changing things! What was the purpose of changing the Division Readiness Force to the Division Ready Brigade? Same people doing the same things. Well, I’m sure the people who think these things up are much wiser than I am, and they have to be better paid than I am!

I was surprised by the number of readers who recalled Grace Hopper and had either met her or heard her speak. Truly fascinating woman. She really was one of the giants.

Well, we’re taking a break from Grim Reaper and going back to Carl Buckman. I am going to be putting out two chapters every few days. Book 4 is relatively short, fourteen chapters, so it should be up in two or three weeks.

There are some formatting errors in 47 and 48. I am checking with the Webmaster to fix this, and if necessary will repost the chapters with fixes.

Carl is now officially in the Army, which I never was, so I had to find myself some expert editing. Into the breach stepped an airborne trained helo pilot with experience around the time when Carl was supposed to be serving. Another one of my editors happened to be an artillery officer from the 82nd Airborne. These guys were Godsends! They did a great job editing and fixing some of my errors. Some were relatively minor, some were considerably larger, all would have detracted from the story. This has been fascinating in so many ways, and I have really learned a lot about airborne life that I would have never gotten elsewhere. I think I was able to fix everything, but any errors are mine and mine alone!

On a personal note, much of my family history is similar to Carl’s. I was talking to my brother over Thanksgiving (who is nowhere near as nutty as Hamilton) and he is a bit of a family historian and a genius. “Did anybody in our family own slaves?” The answer surprised me to a certain extent. Yes! Between 1750 (when we first arrived in America) and 1846, there were eight wills probated and six enslaved individuals were mentioned as property. That suggests to me that some of these individuals were passed down through more than one generation. They were all house slaves, as opposed to field slaves; as Carl mentioned, north central Maryland is not suitable for the big cash crops that used field slaves. I’m not saying this was a good thing. I consider slavery detestable. On the other hand, I am not here to pass judgment on my ancestors two centuries ago.

Enjoy!

Still lots of disagreement about how Grim should handle his insurance company not paying for the damage to his home. I think I will stick with how I handled it.

For those curious, attempted murder, even of a police officer, is not a capital crime. It only becomes a capital crime (death penalty) if the target actually dies. Therefore, the attempted murders of Little Billy and Grim don’t get the death penalty. However, the deaths of the other six terrorists do qualify for a death penalty (homicides during the commission of a felony; it doesn’t matter who does the killing, bad guys or cops.) Talk about being convoluted!

I am trying to avoid politics in this particular vignette, but some is going to have to intrude. A half-dozen terrorists getting shot up in Georgia is going to guarantee something political is going to happen! Reminder: If I write that a liberal says something liberal, it is a character in a novel! It is not something I particularly believe. Cool your shit down!

In a politically related item, Governor Deal mentions having Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle say something, since he was running for Governor. At the time this occurred in the story, March 2018, that was correct. However, in real life, Mister Cagle lost his primary afterwards. Just thought I would mention it.

As one reader commented, Jack giving Grim money to repair his house could well cause tax ramifications from gifting. Yes, Grim could be hit with IRS problems because his house was shot up by terrorists. I didn’t want to get too technical, so I left that out. Still, it could happen.

For those who are curious, police consultants do exist. They do many of the things described in the story and are paid well for their services. Grim might be small potatoes at the moment, but can anybody believe he wouldn’t do well? We’ll just have to see.

It amazes me how I continue to get complaints about politics in this story. When I wrote A Fresh Start between 2011 and 2014, the main character was a moderate and centrist. Such individuals no longer exist in American politics. I doubt I could write a story like that any longer. American politics is no longer an argument between liberals and conservatives but has devolved into a blood sport. Political parties have become religious cults. We are more fragmented as a people than at any time since the Civil War. I am terribly afraid for our country.

In any case, we will be returning to Grim in a few weeks. In the meantime, we return to Carl Buckman and A Fresh Start. Enjoy!

A huge amount of outrage about Grim not being covered by his homeowner’s insurance. Lots of readers wrote about this. Some of the suggestions (edited for brevity):

“The FBI is not the final adjudicator of what is terrorism or a terrorist event. If the insurer declines coverage, sue them. Local courts will decide, and I doubt six guys and a driver make this ‘terrorism’. It is simply attempted murder of a police officer.” Sorry, I think that if the FBI and Homeland Security declare it terrorism, it will take a judge who likes being overruled to rule in favor of Grim.

“Point out that the story of a faceless insurance corporation screwing a MOH holder who was targeted for murder because of his lifetime of service to his country and community is not going to play well on TV and the Internet.” Very true, but no insurance company will chance a precedent where the next attack could be much, much worse. One reader even told me that his insurance company, hereby known as Brand X, would make such an exception. I checked with my own agent, who also worked for Brand X. He confirmed they wouldn’t pay!

Anyway, enjoy!