Sky King’s Final Landing Place

“From out of the clear blue of the western sky comes Sky King.”

One of the great things about virtual geocaches is that many of them (and particularly the originals) take us to places we might not have seen.  I don’t believe it’s disrespectful to include a grave as part of the game or to write something a bit quirky about it.  The grave of Kirby Grant, the actor known for Sky King, almost invites us to visit.  Kirby has no issues with it.

I had to stop when we traveled through Missoula. It was Sky King, after all. Yes, I know that Kirby was an actor and not the character he played.  I also knew that the television show with Kirby was not the same as the radio show without him, which ended up playing an uncredited part in my log.  And it really did not matter that I was never a fan of the show and that it had nothing to do with the Kris Kristopherson song of the same name.  Of course we stopped.

It is a voice from the past at a time when even a few years ago seems like ancient history.  How many people come here who are not cachers?

My Log

Kirby Grant may have passed, but as long as people tell tales of the pilot in the West who helped those in need, Sky King will live. As long as there is a sound of a plane and the need to foil spies, Sky King will be there. As long as there are hikers who are lost in the desert or stuck in a completely improbable situation, they might hear the Songbird’s Cessna engine and hope they are not hallucinating. And as long as there are annoying nieces and nephews who constantly need someone to fly out . . . Sky King’s lives!

I have vague memories of Sky on the repeat channels, but cannot not remember exactly what he did to help. I don’t know whether I missed his syndicated heyday or I thought western heroes should ride horses instead of fly planes — Wyatt Earp or Paladin never needed to go up in the air. It seemed he was almost a Lone Ranger of the sky, without the silver bullet or quick draw. And by the time he landed, wouldn’t the bad guys have gotten away?  Maybe he gave them buzz cuts.

From what I understand, his niece Penny was sometimes in danger from bank robbers. Perhaps I would have tuned in if she had understood that bankers were the real outlaws and that the robbers were simply trying to redistribute the wealth. Or if instead of going after commie spies, Sky uncovered Republican plots.

So the show came down to fly the plane, stop the bad guys without doing them serious harm, check in with the family, and eat the sponsor’s peanut butter.

Perhaps the older promotions would have helped. Everyone had decider rings but his Signalscope included a glow-in-the-dark signaling device, whistle, magnifying glass, and Sky King’s private code. You could even use it to see around corners and trees.  

Has anyone done a geocache puzzle based on Sky’s Spy Detecto Writer, which had a cipher disk? With all the included functions, there was a TOTT for any situation. Signal the caching frog should at least have a decoder ring so people could leave messages secret wherever we may go.  It could be a new promotion, buy three packages of Jeremy Jam and send in a box top. . . .

It was good to be able to pay our respects, although I was disappointed that Kirby’s gravestone did not feature a Cessna.

(8/27/2019)