Dennis, thanks for posting this. It brings back memories of how I had the truly good fortune to meet Carl Goldberg. It's a bit of a shaggy dog story but I'll get to the good part as quick as I can.
In 1969 I bought my dream car a 1969 GTO Judge on my 21st birthday. It was then and probably is still the only factory black Judge, all others were orange. I had planned to drive to the Nats in Willow Grove with another modeler who ended canceling at the last minute. I was determined to go so I bought a plane ticket on United, the airline of choice modelers traveling to contests. Problem was I had no box for my stunt plane. Undaunted my I loaded my plane, toolbox and small suitcase into my girlfriends car and off we went to LAX. On arrival at the check in counter I was told the obvious. No way was that plane going in the passenger cabin. After lengthy discussions with various United officials a plan emerged to put my plane in the cargo hold as the last item to be loaded and they would use blankets to carefully pack it.
I remember sitting on the plane in a window seat to watch as my stunt ship was carried out and carefully loaded into the cargo hold. No way would anything remotely similar happen today!
Quite an adventure so far but it's only half over! I arrived at Philadelphia International Airport after sweating off 10 lbs (in those days I couldn't afford to lose 10lbs) worrying if my plane would make it in one piece. I was in for 3 big surprises! First, the plane arrived and was hand delivered to me in baggage claim without a scratch. I grabbed a cart for my suitecase and flight box and proceed to the car rental counter holding my shinny stunter in one hand. Surprise #2; I had never rented a car and was told I needed a credit card. As I presented cash and persisted in vain trying to convince the car rental agent that cash was better than plastic, I noticed a man in a suit & tie patiently waiting looking at me and my plane occasionally smiling at my predicament. Realizing I would never ever convince the agent to release a car my expression changed from 'there's gotta be a way to, oh s*#t what do I do now??? Then came the third surprise. The patient man in the suit next to me said "do you need a ride"? I said, are you going to the Nats in Willow Grove? He said yes, I said Wow, I sure do! I said I'm Phil Granderson, he responded, Hi, I'm Carl Goldberg. I said, THE CARL GOLDBERG! He chuckled and said, nice to meet you Phil.
I'm sure we talked during the ride but all I can remember is "I'm riding to the Nats with CARL GOLDBERG! ...yeah, I really am!
P.S. Gave the plane to someone at Nats rather the attempting to get it home, don't recall who.