Norm Cates:  

My Story...hmmm...my life's been a real trip! And, as I say to my friends around here in the ATL....every day's another trip to Paradise! Haha...I say that because for 14 years I've been going down to the river daily to hike a minimum of 3.2 miles. (Sometimes I do 6.4 and sometimes 9.6) During that time I've logged over 12,000 miles and each day truly is another day in Paradise for me because I love to be by the water and moving. Plus, it's so beautiful down there and there are lots of lovely and bountiful creatures traveling this same trail when I'm there. But, I'm still a big boy...with a larger body than I really need now...a body left over from my college football and long hours of weight lifting days...at N.C. State on a full scholarship. I was blessed and truly honored by my best friend Russell Joseph Marchione, and his Mom and Dad, Loretta and Dominick, taking me in to live in their home since my Dad's company, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, had transferred him to North Carolina at the end of my Junior Year. I was also honored to be elected Co-Captain of our 1963 RFA Football Team. After graduating from RFA I went to N.C. State on a full football scholarship. I was honored to have been elected Co-Captain of my N.C. State Freshman Team and went on in my Senior year to be named to the 1st Team All Atlantic Coast Conference Team and Honorable Mention All American Teams as an Offensive Guard. I also played in the East/West All Star Shrine Bowl Game and the 1967 Liberty Bowl, where we beat the University of Georgia. Our team finished 9-2 and ranked #17 in the USA at seasons end. But, at one point, we were ranked #3 in the USA when we were 8 and 0...we had the highest ranking for any N.C. State Team in history. In 2012 I organized our '67 Team Reunion and will be organizing our 50th Anniversary Reunion in 2017. Immediately after Graduating from N.C. State, I went to the U.S. Air Force 53-week Undergraduate Pilot Training School at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia. I finished 7th out of class of 72 student pilots and upon graduation I was good enough at flying jets that they put me back into the same school as a jet instructor pilot. I was glad to get that job because the alternative was to go to Vietnam and I had no interest in that at all. In 1972 I was selected by the U.S. Air Force Academy to become an athletic instructor teaching weight lifting, racquetball and tennis, all things I'd become pretty good at over the years. However, not long after I was chosen for that job the airlines started hiring pilots in Atlanta. So, I got out of the Air Force on January 6, 1973 and moved to Atlanta. When I got my applications into all of the hiring airlines I learned that it was pretty competitive to get an airline pilot job. But, lucky me, I was one of 40 pilots hired for two new pilot classes of 20 each...and get this... they said they had interviewed 1,200 prospective pilots to pick that 40! Whoa! Must have been some LUCK for me there. But, six months after I was hired I got a letter in the mail from my airline telling me that they were going to have to furlough a bunch of pilots, that same 40 to be exact, due to schedule cutbacks caused by the Arab Fuel Embargo. I was furloughed for four years. Drat!!! I thought when I got that furlough letter. As it turned out, being furloughed by the airline for 4 years was the luckiest and greatest thing that ever happened to me in my life. That was because while I was furloughed, I partnered up with 3 other guys and we built a health and sportsclub chain with 9 locations called Courtsouth. ...Expand for more