King's Corner: To Pay the Piper

King's Corner column for May 2, 2025

‘Heinold’s First and Last Chance’ is a waterfront saloon opened by Johnny Heinold in 1883 on Jack London Square in Oakland, California. Built from the remnants of an old whaling ship, its name “First and Last Chance” refers to the time in which, for many sailors, it was the first and last chance to drink before or after a long voyage. For those going to sea, often from northern Nevada, it was a popular stop.

Many of those sailors inspired observant young author Jack London. He included Henold’s in scenes from his novels Call of the Wild and The Sea Wolf.   My dad, Mark King, loved its adventurous reputation. He worked there as The Singing Bartender. Patrons would write requests on pieces of paper, Mark would check if the pianist knew them, and then would lead the evening’s round of lively entertainment.

Upon receiving one piece of paper from a young nurse, he asked what it was as he didn’t recognize it. “It’s my phone number” said Norma-Jean. They were married soon after. They began to travel together, not by boat but by Mark’s Piper Cherokee single-prop airplane, as far back east as visiting her tiny hometown on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota.

God works in the details when we least expect it.

When flying south to go to Disneyland, Mark and Norma-Jean followed the main highway. Just south of Bakersfield he could see that fuel was low, so when he saw a landing strip he came in to refuel. They pulled up to a building with fuel pumps on the outside, and walked in to find someone. As a man came out to greet them, soldiers surrounded their plane with raised rifles. They’d landed at a restricted air force site.

Their unknown host was the head of the fire station they were in. He reminded the security troops to remain behind the painted line that marked the entrance to ‘his turf’, as they were eager to rush in and take over. He sat Mark and Norma-Jean down and gave them coffee.

He let them know they’d have to repeat some of their answers to security officers when they arrived to handcuff them. He advised that the last time this happened those visitors were held for several months, and the pieces of their disassembled plane were dumped just outside the base entrance. But first he wanted to hear their story.

This would be the point where many a man or woman would be quietly saying, “Oh, God”, and seeking the right words to say.

Seems the road they’d been following to Los Angeles went right, and they’d gone left. Anyone entering this confidential area was assumed to be spying. As they sipped coffee and answered their host’s polite but pointed questions, it emerged that the tiny town of Wahpeton, North Dakota, where she was from was also his home town. They talked about families and places they both knew, and caught up on the latest gossip. Mark, meantime, knew to let them do the talking.

Eventually security arrived, and they all went to another building where Mark and Norma-Jean sat in handcuffs on the cold floor while others debated their fate.

Sometimes we can get ourselves into serious trouble. It might start as a misunderstanding, or come from neglecting what needed attention. It could be we’ve crossed a line. We’ve all made mistakes, and sometimes you might suddenly pay dearly for them. What do you do when your failings catch up with you? When it’s time – to use an old expression – “to pay the piper”.

One of the truths of life is that you never really get away with anything. At some point, often an unforseen moment, the truths of our lives will emerge for all to see. Your life can take a twist and go terribly wrong, and it may take you a while to think back to that moment where a lie or an action set something in motion.

We all come to these choice points where you ‘meet the devil at the crossroads’. Sometimes you chose to go left – say downhill – when you should have gone right and uphill, and now you’re paying the price for that.

Telling the truth is one of the hardest challenges of life. Sometimes you need to ask God to help you do it, and to trust that whatever happens when you do is better than whatever else might have happened. When you do tell the truth, and then someone takes a close look, your integrity may be the deciding factor in what happens next.

That afternoon Mark and Norma-Jean had their entire lives examined in detail. They had violated National Security in a very sensitive area, and it had to be assumed they had ulterior motives. But quietly, there were also phone calls being made to Wahpeton ND to people who remembered meeting Mark recently and could tell many stories of Norma-Jean growing up. Mark and Norma-Jean’s lives, their truthfulness, and how they treated people in a tiny obscure town suddenly mattered.

The military chose to let them return to their Piper Cherokee. Mark then asked for fuel but got a look of, “don’t press your luck”. Mark asked if he should radio the tower to request take-off and was told to let them do it so that he wasn’t shot down when leaving. Remarkably, they safely flew away.

Ask God for the strength and guidance to tell the truth, make the right choices, and to live so that sudden – sometimes self-inflicted – surprises can have the best possible results.