I know he wanted to get away, that’s obvious. It seems that his past, whatever that is, is catching up to him and he’s on the run. And yet, it’s hard for me to conceive that he’s running from anyone, especially after that time he outsmarted the Secret Service when he was invited to the oval office —unfortunately, that bought him a few days in jail in Washington, DC. The interesting thing is Ollie told me after that, the President said they would drop all charges and in fact, invited him back —but he refuses to return to the slithering muck of the Washington swamp. He says he’s 103, and at that age, you’d think he would take the easy road in life and avoid trouble, so maybe that’s what he’s doing—catching up on some quiet time for himself
But quiet time for him, the best I can tell, is somewhere on a beach, where there is cold Guinness nearby at a bar when he’s thirsty. I do remember a while back though, he ended up in Torrance California, rented a small Cessna and flew about 25 miles over the ocean to Santa Catalina Island, landed, ate a bison burger at the restaurant at the airport, drank some iced tea and told me a little about the memories he brought back about the woman he once loved. So maybe, he doesn’t gravitate to beaches as much as I thought, when he needed quiet time. The thing that is bothering me though, is that he said something about things are happening and he needed to be in position to preserve what is good in the world. I have no idea what he meant, as usual, but it did have something to do with November fifth.
He likes to communicate through the bartender, and usually through code, or perhaps riddles. I’m not sure why, but seems he knows I will find him, like the time I found him in Nashville, dancing with the girls at a Honky Tonk on Broadway. In his letter, he mentioned the Shockers love it when I visit, and they let me take her up for a spin. Then he writes, later at the Brickyard, I may pound down a few Guinness before I call it a night.
Well, I know Ollie pretty well, and he knows it and he wants me to find him. It’s pretty obvious to me that the Brickyard must be a bar, and I looked it up and there are a forest full of Brickyard bars in the United States, and probably more if we looked in Europe. I don’t know. What struck me on this riddle that was classic Ollie, is that they let him take her up for a spin. The only thing you take UP for a spin is an airplane, or perhaps a remote-control glider, or maybe a kite. Ollie is not a kite flyer and I doubt that he would go near a remote- control airplane. He figured that was child’s play. This riddle was about airplanes, I am sure. This is because he flew to Catalina Island on an outdated FAA pilot’s license and for some reason Beechcraft Bonanzas would find him on the beach occasionally and tip their wings. Aviation was a connection and clearly it was something to do with the Bonanza plane itself. But this Shocker thing. Well, I suppose shocker could mean a surprise event of some type, like perhaps a very close sports game that went into overtime before the underdog won a nail-biter. But he obviously capitalized the “S” in Shockers for a reason. It was a Proper name.
Shockers had to be the name of something. I looked it up on google of course and the only capitalized name of the word Shocker was the mascot Shockers of Kansas State University. Turns out, the mascot for the college is a muscular bundle of wheat, reflecting their farm heritage of harvesting wheat. So, Kansas State is in Wichita Kansas. Not only that, the Beechcraft bonanza is manufactured in Wichita, and finally, although there are Brickyard bars in Salt Lake City, Charlotte NC, Knoxville Tennessee as well as NYC among others, I know he didn’t like NYC, but he did like the south, so Charlotte and Knoxville would be possible. However, the only city that puts it all together: Shockers, taking her up for a spin (the Beechcraft Bonanza that seems to find him), and The Brickyard has to be in Wichita Kansas which is far from the beach but that is exactly where Ollie must be.
I’m off to Wichita Kansas on another Ollie adventure.
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