The closest guess was....a Zamboni driver.
Actually I wanted to be a helicopter pilot. Why you ask? Well I'll tell you.
Many folks don't know that the city of San Diego has a network of canyons that crisscross through portions of the city. From approximately age 2 to age 13, I grew up in a community of San Diego that was bisected by one of these canyons, and, in fact, our house was perched on the edge of this canyon. Since the house was built on the edge of the canyon, instead of a patio on the back of the house we had large balcony that extended out over the canyon. The view of the canyon was spectacular.
One other item to note is that there were power/telephone lines that traversed the canyon. There were poles on one side of the canyon and poles on the opposite side of the canyon and the power/telephone lines ran between them. Another item to note is that this canyon has huge oak trees growing in it that reach up toward the power lines.
One fine summer day, a bored JHAP, was sitting on the balcony, and he hears a noise that is instantly recognizable as a helicopter. He finds the copter on the horizon and watches as the helicopter slowly descends and flies through the small area of air space that is below the afore mentioned power/telephone lines but above the huge canyon oak trees. It's only about 40 or 50 feet between the two obstacles but low and behold the pilot deftly navigates this magnificent machine through this narrow open space and climbs up and out of the canyon and flies off into the distance. A young JHAP was mesmerized. I could only imagine piloting such a wondrous craft, to be able to take off and land almost where ever you wanted, to be able to navigate through obstacles, the possibilities were limitless.
Later that day when JHAP's parents arrived home from work he couldn't wait to tell them about the miraculous helicopter. He proceeds to describe the sight and sound of this epic event. And what do mom and day say? "Jeff, you're seeing things, there is no way a helicopter flew under those telephone lines, they are too low, now go outside and shovel the snow out of the driveway." (ok, I admit that I added the part of the shoveling snow out of the driveway, it just seems to add some realism and physical strife, don't you think?) And so the topic was dropped. I tried for a while to convince them of what I saw, but I finally gave up after being "corrected" on several occasions.
So fast forward about 15 years. Mom and Dad had purchased a new house and kept the one that I grew up in (the house that I described above, you know the one that is on the canyon, the one that I was just talking about, jeez, keep up here) and turned it into a rental property. So I would go over to the rental house and help mom and dad fix it up between tenants. Well one day we are showing the house to prospective tenants. And as part of showing the house we walked the couple out onto the balcony. So picture my mom, my dad, myself and these potential tenants all out on the balcony overlooking the canyon. Upon walking onto the balcony and overlooking the canyon the husband suddenly proclaims "Well I'll be damned, you know years ago I use to work for the helicopter service and we had a contract to inspect power and phone lines, you know I actually few a helicopter right under that power line over there" and he points out to the afore mentioned power lines.
I almost fell off the balcony with joy. I had been redeemed. The truth had be told. My folks burst out laughing and told this guy the story of me witnessing the event and telling them and that they didn't believe my story (which, as you might imagine, not believe everything a young JHAP told you was probably a sign of good judgment). But alas after over a decade the truth was set free and my story was given the good housekeeping seal of approval.
Fast forward to 1979 on the frozen continent of Antarctica, a 21 year old JHAP received his first ride on a helicopter, a Vietnam era surplus Huey Helicopter to be exact. The military needed to shuttle some supplies from one Antarctic outpost to another and I got to go along for the ride. It was magnificent, everything that I had ever hoped for and more. I since have ridden one more helicopter in Hawaii as part of a site seeing trip. In a word, spectacular.
I never pursued becoming a helicopter pilot, so I became a CPA instead.
