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SEARCH and The Comet's "Tale"

by Carol Jackson


I own a 1969 Mercury Comet. My mom bought it in 1976 for $500. A nice, safe little used car in good condition. I bought it a year later for college.

When personal license plates became available in Missouri in 1979, I was among the first to apply, and mine was in the first batch issued. (I applied for "SEARCH.")  The Comet has had them ever since.

In 1987, I read Hugh O'Brian was going to be at a university here with the Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation. I wrote him a letter and taped it to one of the Comet's expired license plates and drove the Comet (by then retired) to the university.

I didn't see him, but some of the adult volunteers saw me hanging around and talked to me. I told them about the licence plate (They asked, "What's SEARCH?") and they said they would get it and the letter to Hugh.

I asked about volunteering. I had known about HOBY since 1972 when I heard him talking about it on The Mike Douglas Show. Well, they DID get the tag to him. A couple of weeks later, I got a hand written note thanking me for the SEARCH plate and telling me how to volunteer!

I became the "gofer" for the Missouri East chairwoman starting April 1988. Also, in August of that year, the International HOBY seminar was going to be held in St. Louis.

The day before the April seminar, I was doing gofer work with a guy who was one of the volunteers. I was making small talk, and asked him what he did with HOBY.  He said he "saw to it things get done." Like what? "Like picking up people from the International at the airport." I said, "Do you think anybody is coming?" He said, "I think Hugh O'Brian is coming." I felt a rush and I tried to be cool. I said, "I could do that for you." He said, "We'll see." Oh, well!

When we got back to the university, we heard screaming all the way down the hall.

From the office of the chairwoman we heard, "But Hugh, they have to know what you look like. No, I do not want you to take a taxi, I will see to it somebody picks you up."

Just then the guy and I walked into the office. He went into her office, I sat in the outer office (I was somewhat afraid of her).

(For those who may not know, Hugh is quite hard of hearing. He explained in a speech to the kids when he was here, that he damaged his hearing when he was doing "Wyatt Earp." That is why the chairwoman was screaming when she was on the phone with him.)

When she got off the phone, she said to the guy, "Whoever picks Hugh up has to know what he looks like." The guy could see me where I was sitting, so I waved at him. He said, "Carol knows what he looks like." She called me into the office and said, "Oh, would you?" I said, "Uh, yeah, I could do that."

The only time in my life where I have been at the right place at the right time! My head was spinning! Then the question arose, which car to take? Really, there was only one choice, it had to be the Comet. I tried to act cool the rest of the day, which was not easy. I could not wait to get to a phone so I could tell my mom.

The next day, everything went well. I did recognize him, of course, and took him to the hotel. Not much to tell because I quickly discovered conversation was
impossible due to his hearing loss. However, that is not the end of the story.

Hugh made a fascinating speech to the kids about Albert Schweitzer and his inspiration for HOBY that night. It is interesting to hear how his mind works. He
really is a neat guy. I think us SEARCH fans are lucky one of our heroes really is a neat guy.

Anyway, the next day the whole group was walking to the location for the group picture. I was walking with the Vice Chairman, a nice guy. I asked him if Hugh had a ride back to the airport. He said, "I think so, but hang around." After the group picture, he ran up to me and said, "Hang around with Hugh and the chairwoman, you are his ride to the airport!" Cool!

Hugh kept saying he was in a hurry, but he was hungry and ate a big breakfast at the hotel. He and the chairwoman discussed the upcoming International seminar in August 1988. Bought me breakfast too!

He did not like the location for the group picture and wanted to see some other locations on the way to the airport. After breakfast, he told me to get the car while the bellboy brought his bags. When I put them in the trunk, I told the chairwoman I did not know my way around downtown, and asked if she would go with us, which she did.

She directed me to the places Hugh wanted to see, then we got on the highway. Hugh asked me, "What (speed) are you doing?" I said "60" (this was back when the expressway speeds were lower). He said, "Do 70."

I have always been protective of the Comet because the mechanic and I knew there was something wrong with it. It was scheduled for an engine rebuild in four days anyway, so I floored it. We got him to the airport in plenty of time. The Comet performed flawlessly. I was never more proud of my car.

As I got his bags out of the trunk, I tried to point out the SEARCH license plate on the Comet to Hugh, but I guess he could not hear me. The chairwoman somehow realized it was important to me and she pointed it out to him. He hugged me, then he took off for his plane.

I thought it was kind of neat because, at the time, "Get out of My Dreams and into My Car" was a big song on the radio then. Later, when the mechanic took the engine apart, he found all the valves were burned and two of them would not work at all. I asked how did it perform as well as it did? He said that with an eight-cylinder engine, you could shut two of them down and it would still run okay. The Comet is in tip top shape today.

The photo was taken on March 13, 2004.



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