The book got generally good reviews in the first round of class chatter - I even got to tell my Chuck Yeager story.
Chuck Yeager about the time he broke the sound barrier
A much older Chuck Yeager
I had just taken over as editor of The Union newspaper in Grass Valley in 1980 - after a particularly bruising time in the newsroom with a rebellious staff. I came back from lunch to find a grinning Chuck Yeager, sitting in my editor's chair with his cowboy boots on the deck, heels digging into some papers I had left there.
I went straight for the desk and told Yeager to get his $^%&#&* boots off my desk, embarrassing the then-chair of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors, Eric Rood, who had brought Yeager in to show him off.
He and Yeager had served in the US Air Force together.
I had no idea who Yeager was, and in hindsight all these years later, I probably still would have told him to get his $^%&#&* boots off my desk had I known that the cocky guy sitting in my chair was the legendary Chuck Yeager.
Yeager and I met a few times after that at Nevada County social functions and laughed (sort of) at that incident.
