The Liberty Gazette
November 23, 2021
Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely
Mike: We were in the bank the other day and our business kept us there til near closing time. There weren’t many people around, and it brought back memories of flying to Blythe, California, back in the days of cancelled checks. In Blythe, I was not only the pilot delivering bank and courier mail to the airport, I also drove into town to drop it off at individual businesses and banks.
In 1985, Blythe was a small farming community. It’s in the middle of the desert that rests on the bank of the Colorado River. During the winter months its population grows nearly three times because of “snowbirds.” There were three banks in Blythe, and I delivered and picked up all their cancelled checks and bank mail and transported it to the processing centers and clearing houses in Los Angeles.
I would fly in from Burbank early in the morning, stopping along the way to hand off bags of bank work to drivers who met me at the Riverside and Twentynine Palms airports. After landing at Blythe, I loaded my remaining cargo into an old Chevy Chevette and made the rounds through town. By then, all the businesses were open and bustling. After my deliveries, I’d wait out the day by the pool at the layover motel, and then trek back through town to pick up anything the banks had going out.
Most days all the businesses were still open in the afternoon. Except on Fridays when the banks closed before I came back through. Therefore, I had the keys to all the banks in Blythe. Seems shocking nowadays, what with the unpatriotic “Patriot Act” and all.
No, back in the day, a man’s integrity meant something. I’d turn off the alarm before unlocking the door and enter the quiet, empty bank lobby. Piled in the middle of the floor was my “loot” – bags which I picked up and stacked in my car. Locking the door behind me and re-arming the alarm, I proceeded to the next bank, and the next, committing the same heist, and finally on to the airport to load my winged get-away.
In the year 2004, the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (“Check 21”) changed the way banks processed checks. Now it’s all done electronically, removing the need for airplanes to transport the paper.
I couldn’t help but tell my story as we stood at the teller’s window, the last customers of the day. I bet she wasn’t even born yet when I was turning off bank alarms every Friday night. You should have seen her face when I got to the part about having the keys. That always surprises people. And I thought about what today’s security measures are like. Background checks, fingerprinting, bio-identification, cameras, and who knows what else.
The days are short this time of year. We left with just a hint of sunlight still on the western horizon, just like it was when I departed Blythe, loaded with bank work, keys, and trust.
ElyAirLines.blogspot.com
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