Delusional People

The first time in my life that I had some introduction to delusional people....I was around 13 years old.  My dad had a vehicle with serious transmission issues, and had decided that he'd take it to his mechanic (local guy, someone that done several mechanical projects for my dad).  So we left the vehicle for four days, and returned on a Saturday...hoping to pick it up.  You have to remember, this is rural Alabama, in the early 1970s.

In four days time, the guy had done absolutely nothing with the car.  So this big 'chat' occurs, and I'm standing there eyeballing this guy with my dad.  The guy is mid-30s and I'd met him on at least two other occasions.

He couldn't get to the car issue because of all the UFO's flying over his house.  Yes, a 8-minute conversation is carried on.....mostly with my dad responding 'uh huh'.  It wasn't a positive 'uh huh' or a negative 'uh huh'.  It was just to acknowledge that the guy could carry onto the next part of the story.

For me, I was quiet entertained and astonished at the level of UFO traffic over his remote farm (it was about four miles from our farm), and kept wondering why I didn't didn't see these UFOs if they were in such abundance.

At some point, my dad responded that we'd take the truck, and maybe return in a couple of weeks.  Then he told me to take the car and he'd return in the transmission-issue truck.  I responded that I was only 13 and I'd have to travel on the county road, and the cops might stop me.  He assured me....this just wasn't a problem.

I settled back into the LTD.  If you've never sat in a LTD.....it's made for four folks to sit side-by-side in the front seat, and a seven-foot tall guy could easily lay out in the seat.  It was my first real 'on-the-road' experience.  Luckily, this was mostly a chirt or dirt road, and I didn't cruise more than 40 mph. If you've never done a dirt road at 40 mph in a LTD...let me assure you....there's a fair-sized dust trail that is achieved. 

Upon my dad's arrival back at the house, and after his phone call to find another mechanic, I engaged in the UFO conversation.  He used the word 'delusional' but with his southern drawl.....it came out something like 'de-lucy-nel' (sounding almost French).  I took the 15-pound dictionary that we had in the house later, and spent at least 15 minutes paging through out it to arrive at a meaning.  The word 'paranoid' really didn't make any sense to me (that's what they wanted you to grasp).  But then it came to imaginary and I began to understand the whole thing.

Throughout my Air Force years, I came across three or four people....who were figured out to be delusional. Some got onto drugs of some type, and that helped them to think various things.  Some just fell apart at some point, maybe through some breakdown, and went to this delusional sequence.

Over the weekend, I was watching some German cop movie, and in the midst of this.....they had the script arranged so that two delusional people met and both were engaging in each others fantasy world.  Yeah, it was a great script, I have to admit.  But I sat and thought over the story as a kid....over the UFO mechanic.

In some way, I would have stood there for a good hour listening to the guy and been impressed by his description.  Luckily, my dad saw through this fairly quickly.