85-year-old takes to the skies
By Warner M. Montgomery Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

Col. Carroll Furman

Col. Carroll Furman, an 85-year-old retired lawyer who has a pacemaker and a defibrillator embedded in his chest, recently boarded a small Cessna plane in Chester, and when it reached 12,000 feet, he jumped out. When asked why, he later replied, "Because the door was open."

Jumping out of planes is nothing new to Furman. He holds a record of sorts by jumping over 100 times in 19 countries. He began jumping out of perfectly good airplanes in 1948 and has even jumped using Russian parachutes. His jump in November - "It is my last," he says. - was made to celebrate his promotion to full member of The Explorers Club.

His last jump was also his first tandem jump, the kind where one fool is fastened to another more-experienced fool, and they free fall together. To provide proof of the jump, Furman hired a photographer to record the event.

As he was tied to his jump master, Furman's arthritic knees began to ache. The strap across his chest restricted his breathing, and he hesitated...too late...he was rolled out of the door and into space at 125 miles per hour.

The free fall eased his aching knees, and the rushing air filled his lungs, but he had no recollection of rolling that was captured by the video. They fell a full mile before the chute opened, and they glided to earth.

Furman has been awarded the Order of the Palmetto and is in the US Army Officers Candidate School Hall of Fame. Since his retirement, he has become a writing machine, publishing five books in five years. The latest is Let a Sleeping Dog Lie! (Kirkover, Camden, 2007).

Let a Sleeping Dog Lie! is a collection of Southern expressions. It is irreverent, blasphemous, shocking, but honest. It is how Southerners talk.

For example:

• She's so ugly her mama had to borrow a baby to carry to church.

• He's so ugly he's plumb bat eyed.

• She's as nervous as a whore in church.

• I got the miseries.

• She's about to pitch a hissy fit.

• I'm feeling fair to middling.

New Southerners, those who moved here from Up North less than 30 years ago, can use Furman's book to find out:

• How to find a meat and three.

• Why you shouldn't walk in high grass.

• What to do when someone wants to pick a bone with you.

•Or why I'm gonna crawfish outta here.