Grayscale – Wildcat blues on the Dark Star, Manhattan & Moro,
Aggieville

Geoffrey Alan Lane (Academic) All-Ivy future, majoring in minor blues. Drives that ‘Vette, rides a Triumph and looks the part; plays a MEAN guitar; dangerous when the hockey gloves drop. Cheerleaders surprisingly in his future. Watch out, world, unlimited potential but causes earthquakes. Heartbreaker for all who try to get close. “Roll Model” Rebel in a unique orbit. Unclassifiable.

That promotional entry in the 1967 Camp Hill High School yearbook described the context as much or more than who I actually was or might become. Missing was mention of even a single realistically achievable goal, but then my comfort zone lay in simpler objectives artfully positioned within the bounds of defensibly lawful, albeit not necessarily honorable, behavior. At the forefront were to advance as a musician, and hook up with a great (and, it goes without saying, duly grateful) woman.

In August 1989, Herb Kelleher and I appeared on the cover of US-Style, the popular weekly magazine. “Upstart Lane’s AirExpress rocks legendary game-changer Kelleher’s Southwest!” Given the sustained growth of our startup, peaking financial health of the aviation business sector, and relentless hyping by the media, everything was falling into place for a strong IPO rain of ducats. “Make LUV, not war!” the cover exhorted, “Unfriendly Skies, Friendly Competition!” Bringing attitude and claiming privilege, musing about the enigmatic rock star on the splashy cover, a surprising number of women, upper percentile in the ways scoring points and otherwise resolute in their priorities, may from time to time loosen the reins to consider, perhaps even “get to know” that extra-shot corporate opportunist or wind-up cowboy, before, exceptional or not, throwing him back into the unforgiving currents of the everyday.

Fate, frontman for the arbitrary (“It came from out of nowhere!”), has no interest in hype, musical expertise, or espresso, however; each of us “Born Under a Bad Sign” is but a game piece tossed into a losing fray, in my case over West Africa on a C130 aircraft, two engines ablaze. Buckle up, y’all, this over-achiever’s long climb to cruising altitude is about to be yanked back by gravity in a dead-stick plunge toward certain impact.

Grayscale, copyright 2021 by Craig V. McConnell, author of From Dulce and Cafe Whyoming
Published by Big Lake-Niman Books, Tijeras, NM
biglake-nimanbooks.com
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020909288
ISBN-13: 978-0-9726171-2-3
High-quality, perfect-bound trade paperback
Printed on coated paper; UV-resistant matte, cardstock cover
First edition – 695 copies
6 x 9 x 2.1 in.
1,391 pages; 191 color and black & white illustrations interior to the volume