Herman: For his 100th birthday, Ernie Columbus wanted to skydive

SALADO — Let me tell you a nice story about something that didn’t happen Saturday just east of Interstate 35 in Salado.

The genesis of it is Al Blaschke, the kind of guy who can make an impression on impressionable younger friends, so much so that he can influence them to do things some of us might consider dangerous.

Like jumping out of the proverbially perfectly good airplane.

Blaschke and his friend Ernie Columbus met up Saturday morning so Columbus could skydive like Blaschke had done three years ago.

“Because he did it,” Columbus said of why he wanted to skydive.

Blaschke is 103. Columbus turned 100 on Saturday and decided to celebrate the milestone birthday at Skydive Temple just as his buddy had when he became a centenarian.

As they sat together, Blaschke had some simple advice for his younger friend.

“Enjoy it. Enjoy the moment. Just keep your eyes open,” Blaschke said, a fun thing for one guy in the Sun City low-vision group to tell another.

Why jump from an airplane?

“What else is there to do?” Columbus said. “My friend here jumped when he was 100 so I thought maybe I ought to do the same thing.”

The short version of Columbus’ long life: Born in Pennsylvania. Twenty-six years of active duty military, including the Army during World War II and the Air Force postwar. No previous parachute experience.

Some more details: Columbus spent a career with the American Institute for Foreign Study placing students in exchange programs. He and late wife Pauline lived in Grand Prairie for many years prior to moving to Lake Whitney and eventually to Sun City in 2004. She passed away in 2006. They’d been married 68 years. He deeply misses her and remembers that on their first date he went to the jukebox and played “You’d Be Nice to Come Home To.” They were married six weeks later.

He has nine grandkids, 21 great-grandkids and two great-great-grandkids. About 80 members of his big family gathered Saturday for the big birthday. They came from Texas, Arizona, California, Michigan, North Carolina, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Arkansas and Tennessee.

“The jump thing might have caused a few of them to show up that wouldn’t ordinarily show up,” Columbus said as he circulated in the crowd and had his photo taken with family members of various ages.

Here’s where I’ve got to tell you the jump didn’t happen. Too cloudy. He’s going to try again on a nicer day.

But here’s where I also get to tell you that the lack of “the jump thing” seemed oddly irrelevant to Columbus’ family. The buzz never died down throughout the morning as relatives caught up with each other.

Tina Henry of Kansas City (the Missouri one) said there’d been a reunion in 2016; it was the first time many of the family members had seen each other in 25 years. So she was thrilled to be here, though still mystified about her uncle’s desire to skydive.

“I’m a flight attendant,” she told me. “I’m not going to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.”

Because I couldn’t resist, I asked her if she’d ever encountered any passengers who she’d wished would jump out of the plane. “I plead the Fifth,” she said, job security on her mind.

Josh Wong, a Hawaii native now living in California and married to one of Columbus’ nieces, said he has a plan for Columbus’ 101st birthday.

“We’re going to have him swim with the sharks in Hawaii so no matter what we’re still warm,” he said on this chilly Central Texas Saturday morning.

Despite the disappointment of not getting to jump, Columbus was all smiles. A family lunch, to be followed by a get-together at church, also were on the schedule.

The clouds did nothing to darken Columbus’ special day. He beamed as everyone gathered for a group photo that’s sure to be a family treasure, perhaps especially for the little ones who, on this day, might have been too young to appreciate this special gathering.

By the way, Blaschke, who stood next to Columbus in the family photo, is not done with skydiving. He’s going to do it again, which, I‘m told, would make him the oldest skydiver ever.

Some things have to fall into place, so, for now, the plans are just where he hopes to soon be again: up in the air.