Elsa... August 11, 2009 12:28 AM

Yes, losing everything in Nicaragua, overnight, was rough-- very rough!  But we
were still young then... and you know how it goes, "that which doesn't kill you,
makes you stronger"!  And that was the way we approached it.

We flew out in our own plane... a Beechcraft Bonanza, and sold it to start our
life here.  Unfortunately, if you remember-- 1979 was when Carter was in office,
and the US was going through an oil shortage... No one was buying airplanes...
so it took a long time to sell, and when it finally did, we only got
$85,000.00!!!  But with that, we started our new life here, in New Orleans.  The
only other thing we were able to get out was my Mercedes... our 'chofer' drove
it to Guatemala. Unfortunately, John's Ferrari was being repaired at the
Mercedes Benz dealership... they had taken it apart... and didn't know how to
put it together again... so they were flying in a guy from Italy when all this
happened...  The Ferrari dealership in Houston told us that they would have
bought our car for an inordinate amount of money, in pieces as it was...  But
ces't la vie... there was no time, we had to save our 'hides', as they had
broadcasted over the radio to "exterminate" us!  It was a Ferrari 2+2 GT4
Pininfarina.

That's why seeking and getting political asylum in the States was easy for us...
we just had to show the Immigration officials a transcript of what the half hour
radio broadcast that said why we (the Spencers) should be exterminated... which
gave us the required "well-founded fear of being executed upon returning to
Nicaragua", required by immigration here to be granted political asylum.

I totally remember seeing Mike in school... but being in a much lower grade, we
never communicated.. To upperclassmen we were babies.. with the exception of
exceptionally attractive girls like Miss Bonnie Coverston... :) !!!

I'll ask Alex to check his earthlink mail... and will ask him re: Freddy Janer..
I think it was Janer rather than Hanner!

I have stories that
would blow your mind! Like our leaving practically on the last plane out... and
even more so my Dad and Alex, who decided to stay till it was obvious that they
wouldn't make it if they stayed... By then, my brother Edmundo, who was the one
that flew my father's plane (an Aero Commander) was in the States with his wife
Gabi-- so Alex, who had only notions of flying, no formal training or flying
license-- called Edmundo and told him.. "Please tell me as clearly as possible,
how I will fly this thing out of here.  I have paper and pencil...  So he wrote
the instructions of how to take off... and miraculously made it to El Salvador--
where they had foam all over the runway... and all kinds of emergency
equipment... as he had radioed-in to the control tower, calmly saying: "Tengo
poco conocimiento de la aeronave, favor tener equipo de emergencia en la
pista"... It was so bad, somebody else taxied the plane off the runway.  They
kissed the ground... and caught a commercial flight to New Orleans... It was on
the radio, and in the evening news that day.  I think my mother's prayers saved
their butts!