Another flashback!
During my first, and last, job as a gen-u-wine airline pilot (F/O for Atlantis Airlines PLC of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on a Twin Otter) some brainbox came up with the idea of catching the big numbers coming out of Florence early in the morning to Myrtle Beach. This involved a nightstop, of course.
Rather than spend big money on two rooms at a Days Inn or a Motel 6 our management secured the use of a 28-foot trailer or mobile home or whatever it's called. This was a new one to me, not being a son of the South in any way, shape or form.
I had noticed these things parked up dark hollows with the cut-up tractor tire flower bed, the rusty '66 GTO around the side, various hound dogs of dubious parentage standing watch by the side of the road and some creature clad in denim that had seemingly lost its razor glowering as if to say either 'Whar you frum?' 'Whut you lookin' at?' 'You frum Noo Yawk City?' or perhaps all of these. It came to my mind that I had better not stop to pass the time, just in case that was the wife and not the husband I was looking at there. Never in my wildest dreams did it come to mind that I might actually get to spend a night in such a contraption as a mobile home.
So there we were for our first Florence night stop, told that, 'Accomodation has been arranged.' The kid who did the dispatching dumped us in front of this... thing. Jerry Bohon and I just looked at each other, as if to ask who was making a joke here.
It was winter and this contraption must have had cardboard for insulation. The hot-air furnace would noisily run for about five minutes, raising the temperature from zero to about plus twenty C. and then shut off. Ten minutes later it would repeat this cycle, all night long.
When we got up in the morning (notice I did not say 'wake up' since we had been awake all night long listening to the furnace) we turned on the radio to listen to 'The Egg Report.' Well, I guess it made a change from classical music on WQXR, 'The Radio Station of The New York Times.'
The next time we had to do this Jerry and I brought sleeping bags, so that we could turn that furnace off. Of course then we did a little problem with getting up to dress in freezing temperatures but at least we had been able to sleep.
Well, at least I found out why that guy by the side of the road looked so grouchy!