Being a maverick myself, one of my favorite stories that “Uncle Gus” (aka Carl Krupa) told his nephew Dale Christopher and me involved the time when both he and Dale worked at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory.  It seemed Uncle Gus liked to torment the Security detail for some reason, so every so often he would fill ordinary black plastic trash bags with helium and “launch” them from various places from within the lab, to avoid the prank being traced to HIM!

Of course, Carl secured the thick-ply trash bags perfectly, so the “leak rate” would allow the things to rise to an acceptable altitude, then hover over the lab for a considerable period of time- enough to whip everyone into a frenzy!!!

You have to understand, this was an era after the Cold War, before 9/11 and a time when a segment of the population fervently believed in flying saucers and UFOs! So seeing these menacing, black, hovering objects over restricted Federal Nuclear Laboratory airspace really unhinged some of the young Navy guys assigned to Security duty!  I can’t remember clearly, (because I was laughing so hard) but I believe some of the “Krupa balloons” were actually shot down by guards?!?!