I first met Ina in February 1968 at our place in Sands Point, NY...I was eight, and entranced by this lovely woman; While my parents were entertaining the guests that had been invited to dinner with Ina, we snuck off for her to teach me how to faint, Hollywood style.
Next time was that Summer in Bermuda; Life Magazine was doing a cover of her after the success of the Anthony Quinn & Sophia Loren movie "The Black Orchid", Ina plalying Quinn's daughter. What we knew from her stay with us in Tucke'sr Town was that she was his mistress, and suffering from that status.
One night, suddenly while dining al fresco on our long terrace high over the ocean, Like Tiberius's Villa Jovis in Capri, Ina pushes her chair back and runs to the long black iron railing,
My Father, the youngest Navy Lieutenant during WWII leading one of the first Frog Men Demolition teams & the youngest Fortune 500 CEO's, my Mother, the island's premier hostess and I follow as we tracked with our eyes three silvery saucer shaped objects straight out in front of us.
Mother grabs the phone and calls Kennedy's new Space Tracking Station, the top guy one of her frequent guests. "Well, Rita, as usual the Ruskie's pointing to us we're saying it's them, you know, the old malarky, so enjoy the show...Looking forward to meeting your Movie Star this Sunday."
The "show" lasted about four minutes, but seemed an eternity, with my parents telling Ina after they'd vanished that this was not unusual, frankly they were used to it coming home late at night after a party...They had not, though, seen them at dusk.
The three had stayed in tight formation, pausing after each extraordinary move...to the left, then center, to the right, up, down...then back to center with a longer pause till just zip back towards the fading silver horizon and just gone...where to?, asked my 8-year old mind.
As first timers, Ina and I weren't afraid, there'd been a playful vibe, if you can believe it...
Ina murmured in her actress voice only to me
"They made the sign of the cross"
which is how I choose to remember it.
With Duke on the Beach Where It All Went Down