Arthur Godfrey used to delight in pestering airfield authorities or so it would seem, for more than once you would hear of his taking liberties while flying his own plane. One such incident happened here in Owego and involved Fritz Rudin, who is well known by most everyone in this locality and is our son-in-law.

Fritz had worked at Mr. Godfrey's ranch in Virginia for seven years at various things. For instance, two different years Mr. Godfrey rode his famous horse Goldie, and Fritz rode an Arabian stallion in competition in Madison Square Garden.

For personal reasons, Fritz had decided to leave, but Mr. Godfrey wanted him to reconsider. Fritz had had some cartilage removed from his knee and was in Owego when Mr. Godfrey sent his pilot to fly to Broome County and pick Fritz up and bring him back to the ranch so that maybe he could change Fritz's mind.

As he often did, Mr. Godfrey had entertained the whole troupe over the weekend at the ranch so when they started to fly back to New York, he decided to make a little detour and bring Fritz back to Owego. His DC3, which Fritz said had been modified some, had, besides Mr. Godfrey, Fritz and the pilot, Pat Boone, Julius La Rosa, Frank the other male singer, the Maguire Sisters, Ms. Davis, and the Hawaiian girl, Haleoke on board.

When they got in the vicinity of Owego, Mr. Godfrey began questioning Fritz where would be a good place to land? Obviously he didn't want to land at a regular port so he flew over the Rudin home farm on Gaskill Road. But no fields were level enough so Fritz told him of the old air strip down by the river. He said it hadn't been used for some time and would be overgrown with weeds and tall grass. Mr Godfrey flew over it and thought it would be safe enough.

After he'd made a good landing, he asked Fritz how he was going to get home from there as Fritz was wearing a walking cast. He told Mr. Godfrey about a little place called The Airways Motel which was nearby. With three sisters and four brothers not far away, he could surely get a ride home. After Mr. Godfrey had taken off alright, Fritz walked to the little motel. There was his brother Ernie who had been called out on a septic system job and had stopped in for a little refreshment. Of course Ernie was surprised and wanted to know where Fritz had come from. He said when he told him, he acted as though he thought I might be kidding.

When Fritz first told me this story, I asked him, "Hasn't anyone ever written this up?" He said, "No, I don't think Ernie even believed me until he drove down to the landing strip and saw the marks where the plane had landed and then taken off."