[GH85Carrera]

Way way back in the days when I was first working, and still a High School student, I still lived at home at Maxwell AFB. Dad was just a lowly Lt Col. so we lived in the barracks type condo-houses. The full bird Col and generals each had a NICE Spanish style two story houses and grounds. Most of those houses were decorated for Christmas. Row after row of nice colorful lights, and then one house with 4 foot tall letters, that spelled out Bah, Humbug, and no lights at all. Since I had my camera with me almost all the time, I took a picture of it and submitted it to my editor at the Birmingham News, and they published it with my by line. The local Montgomery paper picked it up on the AP wire and they ran it also. I have no idea how many other papers ran it.

The next day my dad got a call, and he took me the base commander's office. It is against the rules to take any pictures for publication on base, without prior permission. I was just a dumb kid, I did not know that. I apologized and promised it would never happen again. Then the Base Commander said in a stern voice, make sure it doesn't. Then winked, smiled, and said off the record, we all loved it. The officer in that house is a jerk, and we all loved ribbing him about it, but if you repeat that I will have your camera equipment confiscated if you bring it on this base.

I told him it would never be a problem.

It was not long after that some of the convicted Watergate folks came to Maxwell for a nice stay in the minimum security federal prison. I was hired by Time magazine to shoot photos of the prison, and particularly the dorm room like beds. I had full press pass, and a authorization by that same base commander to take photos of ONLY the prison.