Bank Robbery

Bank Robbery

Noel Laflin

10-12-18

I saw a bank robbery once.

It happened when three guys in black ski masks and gloves, with guns drawn, raced out of the credit union that shared a common parking lot with our laboratory. The getaway driver had the car parked directly in front of its entrance. He too wore a black ski mask. Black gloves gripped the steering wheel.

The only other two businesses in our complex were a sweatshop that produced cheap women's apparel, and a flooring store. I never had reason to enter the sweatshop, but I did buy wall-to-wall carpet once from Abdul. Our one unifying factor was that we all did business with the credit union. In fact, I had just deposited my paycheck there that very morning.

So there we were, four of us from the lab, standing about gabbing, smack dab in the middle of the parking lot when the thieves barreled out of the credit union, hopped into the waiting car and sped our way in order to make a U-Turn and exit onto Harbor Boulevard.

That's when the passenger's back door swung open and a sack of money spilled out. Banded stacks of hundreds landed our way. There must have been fifty thousand dollars scattered about our feet. The car kept going.

Within seconds, the credit union manager and every teller rushed out the doors, each one standing by a stack of bills. They must have trained for just such a scenario.

We later learned that the robbers switched cars nearby but were apprehended a short time later.

I, for one, was happy, as I figured that some of that loot was mine.

Giving Thanks to the Ladies

Giving Thanks to the Ladies

Noel Laflin

10-7-18

I was not aware of the fire that destroyed Seattle back in 1889 until today.

The only person with enough funds to lend to the city father's for the rebuilding was a madame who ran a popular brothel.

I have been to three other great cities where fire destroyed the town: London, Chicago, and San Francisco, but this rebuilding story is the one I'm most likely to remember.

Alaska At Last

Alaska At Last

Noel Laflin

Oct. 6, 2018

As I mentioned to a friend who recently asked if I'd ever been to Alaska before, I said, 'No, but it's been on my bucket list since it was a territory' - and long before I even knew what a bucket list was.

As a kid, I would stare at a giant map of our forty-eight states. The colossal map covered nearly the entire length of one of the walls in my bedroom. And in the bottom left corner were smaller inserts of two U.S. territories, Hawaii and Alaska.

As it turned out, every state west of the Mississippi was eventually visited by the time I left home for good. Hawaii was explored, not long after. But touching upon Alaskan soil just had to wait several decades.

And so it was, with long-awaited anticipation, that David and I finally set sail last Sunday for the Inside Passage. Every call at port was a last for the season, as ours was the final ship to see the likes of Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, and Ketchikan till next May. Turned out it was the Pearl's last trip to Alaska as well.

And though we expected rain and gray skies, we were rewarded with sun as well as sunny human dispositions everywhere we went.

And in that week I learned much. I witnessed much. I marveled much.

But finally touching upon Alaskan soil was the finest much of all.