Chapter Thirty-Eight
Grandkids
After our return from our trip to Poland and Great Britain we started settling into growing our family. Like most modern day families the road down which our family traveled took many a twist and turn. In Eric’s senior year of high school due to a stressful situation with some of his schoolmates, he decided he would be better off moving to San Diego with his father Michael. Since all parties were agreeable, Eric finished high school in San Diego. During that time he met Kiesha and as their relationship grew they decided to get married. Not too long after they both graduated from high school our first grandchild came upon the scene. Britney was born in Septemeber of 1990. When Britney was still a toddler, Eric and Kiesha both decided to enlist in the army. Due to medical reasons Eric was not accepted but Kiesha was. I don’t remember if it was Kiesha’s first assignment after basic training or not but she got assigned to Ft. Huachuca just outside Sierra Vista, Arizona. We had already begun to lose contact with our new granddaughter, but issues began to arise between Kiesha and Eric and they divorced. Kiesha was reassigned to the East Coast and later remarried. Her new husband adopted Britney and we have lost all contact with her.
Two months after Britney was born Jennisha gave birth to Jazzlyn. I guess Jennisha felt real good about the birth of her baby because she gave her four names Jazzlyn Breonna Nichole Gatlin. However, when she was still in the crib we gave her another name, Boote. Jazz would go to sleep on her stomach with her booty up in the air. They had an arrangement at Muir High school for young mothers in which they could bring their child to school and put them in a nursery. The mother would spend part of the school day in class and the other part taking their turn working in the nursery. Being a young mother still in high school was difficult. Jennisha had to grow up while being a mother.
Meanwhile back in Sierra Vista after Eric and Kiesha split up, Eric and Angie got together. Marriage and four boys have been the fruitage of that relationship. Jason, the oldest, was born a couple of years after Jazzlyn, and then the other three boys followed at about two year intervals. So after Jason came Michael, after Michael came Andrew and finally Joseph (Joey). Each boy has their own distinct personality. Somewhere about the time of Michael, Jennisha gave birth to Jerron.
Even though Eric’s family lives in the Southeast corner of Arizona, about once a year we make a trip there for a visit. Most of the time Ann and I are joined by Jazzlyn, Jerron, sometimes Jennisha and even Eddie once or twice in making the trip.
On the other side of the Brady Bunch, Brad worked at Disney in Feature Animation for about fifteen years. He met Tina at work and it didn’t take too long for them to see that they were made for each other. Brad outlasted his father who didn’t get married until he (that’s me) was thirty years old. Brad beat me by a few months. In January of 2004 Tina gave birth to Aidan and about a year and a half later along came Tristan. Again they each have their own distinct personalities.
I can fortunately say that all the grandkids are good kids and healthy. Oh, they’re kids so they have their problems but they’re family.
I’ve been writing this for the grandkids and now we’ve gotten to the point that they each have their own translation and view on what goes into the chapters of our lives. Thanks for sticking with me and going down this lane of memories. I hope maybe you enjoyed some of the first hand looks at different eras especially in the earlier chapters.
Grandpa Brooks
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Chapter Thirty-Seven The British Isles
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The British Isles
Several of the friends that were in our tour group in Poland also took the tour through Great Britain. We got into London too late to do much of anything but go with a few of the friends across the street from the hotel to a nice little family own restaurant. The next morning we had a free day and with Gary and Ruby Hughes, a couple from our tour group, rode the Underground (think subway) to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. A lot of people showed up for the event. It was impressive but didn’t knock my socks off. What we enjoyed more was going a couple of blocks away from Buckingham to some kind of military establishment where they had a group undergoing a morning inspection. It was pretty interesting.
From Buckingham we rode the Underground again to the location of the British Museum. But before going to the museum we went to “The Plough” a pub. To my surprise a pub is not just a bar but serves food as well. So, we had lunch before going to the museum. At the museum we saw several things including the Cyrus Cylinder, the Nabonidus Chronicles and the Rosetta Stone. We really didn’t even scratch the surface of what’s there. You could easily spend days in the museum.
Ann wanted to go to Herrod’s the famous store in London, but we needed to get back to the hotel to see if the concierge was able to get us tickets to see “Cats”. The concierge had left for the day, but he had made arrangements for us and tickets were waiting for us. Unfortunately, being my first time working with a concierge I didn’t think to leave him a tip. (Oh well, next time). The show was great and the seats were first class. The theatre was a ¾ in the round with four or five rows next to the stage before there was an aisle separating the seating. We were in those front row seats by the stage. Some of the actors during the show roam through the audience and at one time Rum Digger (the alley cat) was moving around the aisle in back of us. Much to my surprise from in back of me he leaned over and kissed the top of my bald head. That was quite a memorable day for us.
The next morning we loaded on to the buses and started heading out West from London. We saw many things, more than I want to list here. The first stop on this list was Stratford on Avon. We saw the cottage of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife, and several monuments and statues to Shakespeare. As we were walking the streets we saw this lady with a McDonald’s soda. We asked her where she had gotten it. She directed us to the oasis, after all we had been eating European food for two weeks. The McDonald’s in Stratford was interesting. It didn’t have golden arches but it did have a small black iron version of the arches over the door. I guess they had to keep in the style of Stratford. Also, it was located on three floors, but once you were inside, it was typical McDonald’s.
One memorable stop was at Bath in the Southwest of England where we toured the remains of a great Roman bath. Our farthest point West was Llangollen, Wales which was beautiful country but unfortunately I got sick and missed having diner with the friends at the hotel. The hotel staff was nice enough to fix something for me which Ann brought back with her from diner.
From Wales we headed North stopping in Windermere in the Lake District where Beatrix Potter the author of the Peter Rabbit books use to live. A sister which had toured Poland with us was from the Windermere area and her family lived there who we telephoned just to say “hello”.
We continued North to Carlisle which is just South of the border with Scotland. We visited the castle there at Carlisle in which Scottish prisoners were held during the war between Scotland and England. One of several legends has it, that the ballad “Ye Take the High Road” is about two of Bonnie Prince Charlie's men, captured and left behind in Carlisle after the failed rising of 1745. The song appears to be written by one young soldier to his sweetheart. He was to be executed, the other released. The Spirit of the dead soldier traveling by the 'low road' would reach Scotland before his comrade, struggling along the actual road over high, rugged country.
From Carlisle we headed up into Scotland where we stayed over in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. We saw where Robert Louis Stevenson lived and the tavern whose owner being a town official by day and a scoundrel at night is said to be inspiration for Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde”. I think our highlight of the visit to Edinburgh was our tour of the royal castle. Robbie Robertson was our guide who was a Scotsman with his plaids, kilt and the legendary dagger in his calf-length stockings. We had just barely started the tour of the castle and Robbie is telling us about the number of gates we would be passing through on our climb up to the castle grounds and Ann asks, "Are there elevators?” Robbie stops, looks at Ann and says, “Madame, where are you from?” To which Ann replies, “California”. He says, “I might have known!” Ann then got a good deal of attention from Robbie for the rest of the tour.
From Edinburgh we headed back down South into England seeing Hadrian’s Wall, stopping in York which still had its city wall still pretty much in tack. Farther South we stopped in Oxford/Cambridge home of the world famous universities. The city was an interesting mix of ancient and modern architecture. Finally we arrived back in London with very little free time left before flying back to the States the following morning.
It was a beautiful trip and we were glad to be back home. We were fortunate enough in 2003 to be accepted as delegates to an International Convention in Honolulu, Hawaii. That was really nice and we were able to visit Kauai and Maui also on that trip. We were accepted as delegates for the 2009 International Convention in Berlin, Germany, but due to the economic nosedive, we had to cancel.
Next chapter I’ll get into the arrival of the grandkids
Editor's Note: In Chapter Thirty-Five I mentioned having a "Chevie Civic". My wife pointed out to me that Chevrolet did not make "Civic". It was suppose to be "Chevie Citation".
The British Isles
Several of the friends that were in our tour group in Poland also took the tour through Great Britain. We got into London too late to do much of anything but go with a few of the friends across the street from the hotel to a nice little family own restaurant. The next morning we had a free day and with Gary and Ruby Hughes, a couple from our tour group, rode the Underground (think subway) to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. A lot of people showed up for the event. It was impressive but didn’t knock my socks off. What we enjoyed more was going a couple of blocks away from Buckingham to some kind of military establishment where they had a group undergoing a morning inspection. It was pretty interesting.
From Buckingham we rode the Underground again to the location of the British Museum. But before going to the museum we went to “The Plough” a pub. To my surprise a pub is not just a bar but serves food as well. So, we had lunch before going to the museum. At the museum we saw several things including the Cyrus Cylinder, the Nabonidus Chronicles and the Rosetta Stone. We really didn’t even scratch the surface of what’s there. You could easily spend days in the museum.
Ann wanted to go to Herrod’s the famous store in London, but we needed to get back to the hotel to see if the concierge was able to get us tickets to see “Cats”. The concierge had left for the day, but he had made arrangements for us and tickets were waiting for us. Unfortunately, being my first time working with a concierge I didn’t think to leave him a tip. (Oh well, next time). The show was great and the seats were first class. The theatre was a ¾ in the round with four or five rows next to the stage before there was an aisle separating the seating. We were in those front row seats by the stage. Some of the actors during the show roam through the audience and at one time Rum Digger (the alley cat) was moving around the aisle in back of us. Much to my surprise from in back of me he leaned over and kissed the top of my bald head. That was quite a memorable day for us.
The next morning we loaded on to the buses and started heading out West from London. We saw many things, more than I want to list here. The first stop on this list was Stratford on Avon. We saw the cottage of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife, and several monuments and statues to Shakespeare. As we were walking the streets we saw this lady with a McDonald’s soda. We asked her where she had gotten it. She directed us to the oasis, after all we had been eating European food for two weeks. The McDonald’s in Stratford was interesting. It didn’t have golden arches but it did have a small black iron version of the arches over the door. I guess they had to keep in the style of Stratford. Also, it was located on three floors, but once you were inside, it was typical McDonald’s.
One memorable stop was at Bath in the Southwest of England where we toured the remains of a great Roman bath. Our farthest point West was Llangollen, Wales which was beautiful country but unfortunately I got sick and missed having diner with the friends at the hotel. The hotel staff was nice enough to fix something for me which Ann brought back with her from diner.
From Wales we headed North stopping in Windermere in the Lake District where Beatrix Potter the author of the Peter Rabbit books use to live. A sister which had toured Poland with us was from the Windermere area and her family lived there who we telephoned just to say “hello”.
We continued North to Carlisle which is just South of the border with Scotland. We visited the castle there at Carlisle in which Scottish prisoners were held during the war between Scotland and England. One of several legends has it, that the ballad “Ye Take the High Road” is about two of Bonnie Prince Charlie's men, captured and left behind in Carlisle after the failed rising of 1745. The song appears to be written by one young soldier to his sweetheart. He was to be executed, the other released. The Spirit of the dead soldier traveling by the 'low road' would reach Scotland before his comrade, struggling along the actual road over high, rugged country.
From Carlisle we headed up into Scotland where we stayed over in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. We saw where Robert Louis Stevenson lived and the tavern whose owner being a town official by day and a scoundrel at night is said to be inspiration for Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde”. I think our highlight of the visit to Edinburgh was our tour of the royal castle. Robbie Robertson was our guide who was a Scotsman with his plaids, kilt and the legendary dagger in his calf-length stockings. We had just barely started the tour of the castle and Robbie is telling us about the number of gates we would be passing through on our climb up to the castle grounds and Ann asks, "Are there elevators?” Robbie stops, looks at Ann and says, “Madame, where are you from?” To which Ann replies, “California”. He says, “I might have known!” Ann then got a good deal of attention from Robbie for the rest of the tour.
From Edinburgh we headed back down South into England seeing Hadrian’s Wall, stopping in York which still had its city wall still pretty much in tack. Farther South we stopped in Oxford/Cambridge home of the world famous universities. The city was an interesting mix of ancient and modern architecture. Finally we arrived back in London with very little free time left before flying back to the States the following morning.
It was a beautiful trip and we were glad to be back home. We were fortunate enough in 2003 to be accepted as delegates to an International Convention in Honolulu, Hawaii. That was really nice and we were able to visit Kauai and Maui also on that trip. We were accepted as delegates for the 2009 International Convention in Berlin, Germany, but due to the economic nosedive, we had to cancel.
Next chapter I’ll get into the arrival of the grandkids
Editor's Note: In Chapter Thirty-Five I mentioned having a "Chevie Civic". My wife pointed out to me that Chevrolet did not make "Civic". It was suppose to be "Chevie Citation".
Friday, July 10, 2009
Chapter Thirty-Six Poland
Chapter Thirty-Six
Poland
We spent the rest of the day of arrival in Warsaw mostly resting up from the long flight. The next day we started off on a five-day pre-convention tour of Poland by having an interesting breakfast. The hotel served us a sweet roll, roll & jelly, cold ham and coke in a glass bottle. After breakfast our four bus tour group of Witnesses headed for Lublin a town in the southeast of Poland. On the day of our arrival about four or five young local boys met our buses and were selling picture post cards and sold quite a few to our group. The next morning the group of boys selling post cards more than doubled. The evening of our first day in Lublin we had a nice diner in a local restaurant with a couple we knew from the Pasadena area. We had found out the day before when we were loading on to the buses that they were on the same tour with us. After our diner we had free time to walk around in Lublin. Many Polish people just stared at Ann. They were not used to seeing African-Americans. Once we were back at the hotel we had coffee and dessert. For two cups of coffee and two torts including tip it costs us thirty to forty cents. When we exchanged our currency for the local Polish zloty we felt like the rich and famous. In fact early on following the suggested guidelines we were tipping the usual 10% to 15%, but later were told not to tip so much because that was as much as many would make in a week and they weren’t coming back to work the next day.
The second day in Lublin we went just outside the town to Mydanek which had been a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Our first look at Mydanek was of a green meadow like area, very serene and peaceful. It was difficult to imagine the atrocities and horror that went on there. We found out that over 360,000 people of 15 nationalities had been confined there and many executed in the gas chambers. The prisoners living quarters no longer exist, but the military quarters, the gas chambers and the crematorium are still there as reminders. Walking through the room where the masses took showers which calmed the hysteria to some degree is a haunting experience. And then to walk into the actual gas chambers and sense the pain and suffering that occurred there was even more disturbing. We found out that originally they did not use Zyklon B pellets but rather built wood fires, exhausting the smoke and monoxide gas into the rooms which must have been a slow and painful death. The military barracks have been turned into museums and in one they have on display a large number of leather shoes, boots, suitcases and briefcases collected from the prisoners. What was on display is a very small percent of the total collected and recycled for German use. Many of the suitcases had names and dates marked on them. It’s an image you don’t forget.
Before leaving Lublin we visited the local Kingdom Hall where a group of the younger sisters had prepared punch and pastries for us. Even though we had a language barrier with the aid of our hands we were able to communicate and have a delightful time. Before going into the hall Ann and I were standing outside greeting the local brothers and sisters. One sister came up to Ann and excitedly exclaimed “Afrika”. Unfortunately, we had to dampen her excitement by telling her we were from California.
On our way from Lublin to Krakow we stopped in Sandomerz for lunch. A nice smaller town with a town hall built in the 14th century. In Krakow we found out our hotel had overbooked and there was no room for us. While waiting in the lobby we met a group of Americans that turned out to be the choir from the Lake Ave. Congregational church in Pasadena. They were on an European tour. Since we could not stay at the hotel they were able to put us in the dormitories of a local university which was closed for the summer. The accommodations were simple but nice; however, since the university had closed for the summer the boilers had been turned off and we didn’t have any hot water. Cold showers are stimulating but you don’t stay in them very long. While on our way to dinner on campus we met a group of French brothers and sisters as well as a group of Italians who had been at an earlier convention in Poznan.
While in Krakow we went to the Old Town Market square. Most of Old Town had been built in the 13th Century. There was a group of musicians playing in the square and when they saw us they started playing “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. I guess American tourists are easily identifiable. We also went to the castle on Wawel Hill where the former kings lived and were crowned at the cathedral located with the castle. The former Pope John Paul II served as a cardinal at the cathedral. Catholicism is not only the predominant religion but most Poles are catholic.
On our way from Krakow to Katowice we went to Zakopane a mountain resort town in the Tartar mountains. It was a beautiful place. We were to take a cable car ride up to the top of the mountains but the winds were too high. Ann was not disappointed. We saw a group of gypsies performing on the street playing violins and other instruments.
From Katowice we took a day trip over to Oswiecim (Auswitz). In many ways it was like Maydanek except that the Germans had taken a former Polish Army base with its brick buildings and turned it into a concentration camp. Over the main gate there was an iron work sign which said “Arbeit Mach Frei” which means “Work makes free”. It was the Nazi’s way of trying to create a false sense of hope. In one barrack there was a display of the different patches used to designate the type of prisoners in the camp. Among the patches was the purple triangle used to designate “Bible Student” which was what Jehovah Witnesses were know as then.
The next day we headed back to Warsaw and the convention. The convention was held in a sports stadium and seating was divided in to sections for the different languages. There would be section for Polish and next to that a section for English and then another Polish section. I believe there were accommodations for fifteen languages. They had directional sound speakers for each section and when they would translate the program into English we didn’t really hear the other languages. On our first day at the convention we were trying to follow along a portion of the program which was not translated from Polish and a voice came over our shoulders saying “First Peter – chapter 3...” and so we met Wojtek and Margosza. A couple of Polish witnesses that had sat in our section. We developed a friendship and they sat with us each day. One day they brought Margosza’s father, not a witness, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of Ann. I don’t know if he was so taken with her beauty or the fact that she was African-American. Maybe a little of both. We spent time with Wojtek and Margosza during our free time, and for a while after the convention we kept in touch by mail. The baptism ceremony was quite impressive. They had the baptismal candidates seated on the sports field in front of the speakers’ platform. They had three baptismal pools at both ends of the stadium. First to come out for the baptism were the brothers who would perform the baptism, a group of nurses and other medical personnel. Then the candidates started coming out, brothers at one end and the sisters at the other end. They came out, and they came out and they kept coming out. I believe over 3000 were baptized that day. At one point the sisters were being baptized at both ends. At the conclusion of the convention nobody wanted to leave. There was continuous applause and handkerchief waving.
The day we were to leave Poland Wojtek came by the hotel to say goodbye. It was time to say goodbye to some of our tour group friends who were either going on to a different post-convention tour or home. We were heading to Great Britain. I got so verbose on Poland that I’ll go into London and the rest of the British Isles in the next chapter.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Chapter Thirty-Five San Simeon to San Diego
Chapter Thirty-Five
San Simeon to San Diego
About four years after we got married, Ann and I applied and were accepted to go to the International Convention of Jehovah Witnesses in Warsaw, Poland. We made an arrangement with a friend and spiritual sister, Jan Jones, to come to our home on New York Dr. and stay with the kids while we went to the convention in Poland. So, before going to the convention we felt like we should do something special for the kids. We started out by going north to San Simeon to tour Hearst Castle. We had a bit of a shaky start. We were driving a Chevie Civic which was not a large family car, but the kids weren’t that big either at that time. We started off on the Simi Valley route and hadn’t got out of the San Fernando Valley when we had a flat tire. We knew we were on a tight schedule so we drove up to San Simeon on the spare tire; it was one of those donut like tires. It was a bit spooky but we made it. We toured the castle and I know I was impressed and I think the rest of the family was too. Especially impressive are the two swimming pools. There’s an indoor and a outdoor pool. The outdoor pool was used in the filming of the Kirk Douglas movie “Spartacus”.
On our way back we headed back to the Simi Valley route when in the Moorpark area we had another flat tire. Fortunately, we were in town. Eric and I rolled the flat tire a couple of blocks off the beaten path to a tire place and bought a used tire. We rolled it back to the car and installed and we were off again heading south to Buena Park.
In Buena Park we first went to the Wax Museum. I think everyone enjoyed it. Most of the figures were very good likeness of the real people. I remember one display was of the USS Enterprise bridge with all the main characters from Startrek. After the Wax Museum we went to Knotts Berry Farm. I managed to lose our motel room key on one of the rides. I had the key in a shirt pocket and of course it was a ride on which you would go upside down for part of the ride. Gravity did its job and we didn’t even try to retrieve it. Fortunately the motel office supplied us with another key without any hassle. We took the kids to Medieval Times but I don’t remember whether that was a separate trip or part of this one. We all had a great time at Medieval Times.
We weren’t through yet. From Buena Park we drove down to San Diego to Vacation Village in the Mission Bay area. As I recall it was like an island retreat with water on three sides. We stayed in a nice motel room which was like separate units. We rented a bicycle like surrey that we could all ride in and went riding around the resort area which was rather extensive. Eric and I tried our hand at tennis. We also rented one of those feet paddle board type boats. I remember that Ann, Eddie (I think) and I went for a ride and had a little difficulty in fighting an outward underwater flow. We all had a great time there. I think the resort is still there but under different ownership now.
A couple of weeks after the excursion with the kids Ann and I went on our first International trip to Poland. That was in August of 1989. This August it will have been twenty years since we went on the trip. We first flew to New York and we stayed a couple of days with a spiritual sister named Becky Ramirez, her daughter Laura and son Louis. Jan Jones knew Becky and made the arrangement for us. She became our guide and we went on tour of the Brooklyn printing facilities and headquarters of Jehovah Witnesses. Also, we toured Bethel where all the volunteer workers live. At the headquarters Becky got us in to meet brother Carey Barber of the Governing Body. He was very pleasant and listened to me go on about the convention that we were going to in Warsaw and all the arrangements. It turns out he was on the program at the convention but had politely listen to me anyway. Becky also took us on the subway through New York on our way to New Jersey to see the refurbished Stanley Theatre. The Witnesses using volunteer workers refurbished the old theatre bringing it back to its original state to be used as an assembly hall. It was very impressive. We’re very thankful for Becky and her family’s hospitality shown us while we were in Brooklyn.
From Brooklyn we took what they call a “gypsy taxi” to the Kennedy Airport. The driver lived in Queens and was very talkative. He referred to the police using the French word “gendarme” which surprised Ann because she thought I was the only one who called police “gendarme”.
From New York we flew British Airways to Heathrow in London and on our long approximately nine hour flight we saw “My Alibi” with Tom Selleck for the first time. On our flight back the movie being shown was “My Alibi”. We had about an hour layover before flying a Polish airline on into Warsaw. When we landed we could see armed soldiers around our airplane. In August of 1989 the Russians were in their last days of occupation of Poland. Later that fall the Berlin Wall came down.
After de-boarding we found that though we made it safely to Poland Ann’s luggage did not. It took about four days for her bag to catch up to us. We later found that it had most likely been mishandled at Kennedy Airport. We found out the hard way that you need to pack a few essential clothing articles in a carry-on bag. Also, a husband and wife team should not have a “his bag” and a “her bag”. Fortunately for Ann some of the sisters were able to help her out, but she did have to put up with being the subject of friendly jokes.
In the next chapter I’ll relate more about our trip through Poland and Great Britain.
San Simeon to San Diego
About four years after we got married, Ann and I applied and were accepted to go to the International Convention of Jehovah Witnesses in Warsaw, Poland. We made an arrangement with a friend and spiritual sister, Jan Jones, to come to our home on New York Dr. and stay with the kids while we went to the convention in Poland. So, before going to the convention we felt like we should do something special for the kids. We started out by going north to San Simeon to tour Hearst Castle. We had a bit of a shaky start. We were driving a Chevie Civic which was not a large family car, but the kids weren’t that big either at that time. We started off on the Simi Valley route and hadn’t got out of the San Fernando Valley when we had a flat tire. We knew we were on a tight schedule so we drove up to San Simeon on the spare tire; it was one of those donut like tires. It was a bit spooky but we made it. We toured the castle and I know I was impressed and I think the rest of the family was too. Especially impressive are the two swimming pools. There’s an indoor and a outdoor pool. The outdoor pool was used in the filming of the Kirk Douglas movie “Spartacus”.
On our way back we headed back to the Simi Valley route when in the Moorpark area we had another flat tire. Fortunately, we were in town. Eric and I rolled the flat tire a couple of blocks off the beaten path to a tire place and bought a used tire. We rolled it back to the car and installed and we were off again heading south to Buena Park.
In Buena Park we first went to the Wax Museum. I think everyone enjoyed it. Most of the figures were very good likeness of the real people. I remember one display was of the USS Enterprise bridge with all the main characters from Startrek. After the Wax Museum we went to Knotts Berry Farm. I managed to lose our motel room key on one of the rides. I had the key in a shirt pocket and of course it was a ride on which you would go upside down for part of the ride. Gravity did its job and we didn’t even try to retrieve it. Fortunately the motel office supplied us with another key without any hassle. We took the kids to Medieval Times but I don’t remember whether that was a separate trip or part of this one. We all had a great time at Medieval Times.
We weren’t through yet. From Buena Park we drove down to San Diego to Vacation Village in the Mission Bay area. As I recall it was like an island retreat with water on three sides. We stayed in a nice motel room which was like separate units. We rented a bicycle like surrey that we could all ride in and went riding around the resort area which was rather extensive. Eric and I tried our hand at tennis. We also rented one of those feet paddle board type boats. I remember that Ann, Eddie (I think) and I went for a ride and had a little difficulty in fighting an outward underwater flow. We all had a great time there. I think the resort is still there but under different ownership now.
A couple of weeks after the excursion with the kids Ann and I went on our first International trip to Poland. That was in August of 1989. This August it will have been twenty years since we went on the trip. We first flew to New York and we stayed a couple of days with a spiritual sister named Becky Ramirez, her daughter Laura and son Louis. Jan Jones knew Becky and made the arrangement for us. She became our guide and we went on tour of the Brooklyn printing facilities and headquarters of Jehovah Witnesses. Also, we toured Bethel where all the volunteer workers live. At the headquarters Becky got us in to meet brother Carey Barber of the Governing Body. He was very pleasant and listened to me go on about the convention that we were going to in Warsaw and all the arrangements. It turns out he was on the program at the convention but had politely listen to me anyway. Becky also took us on the subway through New York on our way to New Jersey to see the refurbished Stanley Theatre. The Witnesses using volunteer workers refurbished the old theatre bringing it back to its original state to be used as an assembly hall. It was very impressive. We’re very thankful for Becky and her family’s hospitality shown us while we were in Brooklyn.
From Brooklyn we took what they call a “gypsy taxi” to the Kennedy Airport. The driver lived in Queens and was very talkative. He referred to the police using the French word “gendarme” which surprised Ann because she thought I was the only one who called police “gendarme”.
From New York we flew British Airways to Heathrow in London and on our long approximately nine hour flight we saw “My Alibi” with Tom Selleck for the first time. On our flight back the movie being shown was “My Alibi”. We had about an hour layover before flying a Polish airline on into Warsaw. When we landed we could see armed soldiers around our airplane. In August of 1989 the Russians were in their last days of occupation of Poland. Later that fall the Berlin Wall came down.
After de-boarding we found that though we made it safely to Poland Ann’s luggage did not. It took about four days for her bag to catch up to us. We later found that it had most likely been mishandled at Kennedy Airport. We found out the hard way that you need to pack a few essential clothing articles in a carry-on bag. Also, a husband and wife team should not have a “his bag” and a “her bag”. Fortunately for Ann some of the sisters were able to help her out, but she did have to put up with being the subject of friendly jokes.
In the next chapter I’ll relate more about our trip through Poland and Great Britain.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Chapter Thirty-Four To San Diego and Beyond
Chapter Thirty-Four
To San Diego and Beyond
Ann and the crew moved to San Diego I believe in the early part of 1985. She started out living with her oldest sister Jean. We kept the relationship going by telephone and letters. That’s right letters, snail mail. Email and cell phone texting wasn’t in yet. Early on in our courtship, Brad and I drove down to San Diego and we took Ann, Eric, Jennisha and Eddie to the Ruben E Fleet museum in Balboa Park. The museum featured two things. It had a IMAX like theatre in which we saw some kind of space film. It also had a hands on science exhibit designed for children and youth. We had a great time there and everyone seemed to get along fine.
At the time, Ann was in a bank management program and in connection with that training program she had to make trips to the Los Angeles area. On one such trip she was staying over in a hotel down by the beach. It happened to be at the time Brad was graduating from high school. So, after the graduation ceremony Brad and I went to the beach, picked up Ann and went to dinner. Another opportunity for Ann and Brad to get to know each other better.
Well, after many phone calls, letters and trips to San Diego a major milestone was reached. I had been attending both the English and the French congregation. I was pretty busy attending meetings, participating in the ministry school and field service for both congregations, but it kept me out of trouble. Anyway, the summer of ’85 I was going to attend the French District Convention in Florida, but I changed my mind and spent the vacation time in San Diego. By this time Ann and the kids had moved into an apartment and I stayed over in a motel not too far away. Again my memory is a little hazy here and I don’t remember which of the following two events occurred first. Ann and I had gone to Mission Beach to walk along in the sand. We sat down in the sand and talked a while and then, since we were already sitting I didn’t have to kneel, I proposed to her. She accepted. Now here’s the second event which may have been the first event. We went to a shopping mall, I believe it was the Spring Valley Mall, and picked out the rings. I was rather partial to a set of rings in which the engagement ring had both a diamond and two rubies. Ann liked them too. Unfortunately a couple of years ago, someone broke into our apartment here in Pasadena and stole them.
After Ann accepted my proposal we began to make wedding arrangements. We decided to get married the following November. We decided to get married in the Kingdom Hall of Ann’s congregation. Ann made most of the arrangements for the wedding. Even though it was a couple of hours drive from LA, a large number of friends from my congregation came to the wedding and reception in San Diego. So all together it turned out to be quite a nice size group sharing in our wedding ceremonies. Ginger was able to make the wedding, but Gary and Dad were not able to attend.
Unfortunately we were not able to take a honeymoon trip. On the wedding night we stayed at Ann’s apartment. Eric, Jennisha, and Eddie stayed with Jean as I remember. However, Brad had his own special event connected to our wedding night. I had driven my car down to San Diego; so, we needed to get two cars up to Pasadena. Brad drove my car up loaded with wedding gifts to our new rented house on New York Drive. That seems simple enough, right? Except on the way up to Pasadena, he had a flat tire and of course the spare was buried under a trunk load of gifts. He did finally make it. Once again, thank you, Brad. Our honeymoon consisted of having a few days in our new home, just the two of us. I had been living in the home for about a month before the wedding; so, my furniture and things were already there. After the wedding we had to pack up Ann’s furniture and things, including her full length baroque like mirror which has been with us through thick and thin and move them to the new home.
After our few days of just the two of us, we not only moved the furniture up from San Diego, but we also brought Eric, Jennisha and Eddie to their new home. And so began our adjustments to the new family arrangements. It was a change of environment for the kids, but they had lived in the Pasadena/Altadena area before. However, now they had to adjust to a new man in the family arrangements. When Ann and I got married mixed racial marriages were not common. We were both well aware of the looks we got in most places we went except at the Kingdom Hall. But now, almost twenty-five years later things have changed a lot. Either we don’t get as many looks as we use to or I’ve gotten to a point of not noticing them. Mixed racial marriages are much more common today; they even show mixed couples in commercials. In our congregation we currently have six mixed marriages, and they’re not all African-American and White. We have African-American and Hispanic and also African-American and East Indian. But when we got married the mixed marriage did mean that the kids had to make some adjustments due to it. One thing that helped was a couple from Ann’s former congregation in Altadena, James and Marsha Weems. Their marriage was a mixed marriage and they had been married for several years when I met them. They had six kids and two of them were close to Eric and Jennisha’s ages.
We had a lot of good experiences along with some challenging ones there are New York Drive, but more about that in the next chapter – San Simeon to San Diego.
To San Diego and Beyond
Ann and the crew moved to San Diego I believe in the early part of 1985. She started out living with her oldest sister Jean. We kept the relationship going by telephone and letters. That’s right letters, snail mail. Email and cell phone texting wasn’t in yet. Early on in our courtship, Brad and I drove down to San Diego and we took Ann, Eric, Jennisha and Eddie to the Ruben E Fleet museum in Balboa Park. The museum featured two things. It had a IMAX like theatre in which we saw some kind of space film. It also had a hands on science exhibit designed for children and youth. We had a great time there and everyone seemed to get along fine.
At the time, Ann was in a bank management program and in connection with that training program she had to make trips to the Los Angeles area. On one such trip she was staying over in a hotel down by the beach. It happened to be at the time Brad was graduating from high school. So, after the graduation ceremony Brad and I went to the beach, picked up Ann and went to dinner. Another opportunity for Ann and Brad to get to know each other better.
Well, after many phone calls, letters and trips to San Diego a major milestone was reached. I had been attending both the English and the French congregation. I was pretty busy attending meetings, participating in the ministry school and field service for both congregations, but it kept me out of trouble. Anyway, the summer of ’85 I was going to attend the French District Convention in Florida, but I changed my mind and spent the vacation time in San Diego. By this time Ann and the kids had moved into an apartment and I stayed over in a motel not too far away. Again my memory is a little hazy here and I don’t remember which of the following two events occurred first. Ann and I had gone to Mission Beach to walk along in the sand. We sat down in the sand and talked a while and then, since we were already sitting I didn’t have to kneel, I proposed to her. She accepted. Now here’s the second event which may have been the first event. We went to a shopping mall, I believe it was the Spring Valley Mall, and picked out the rings. I was rather partial to a set of rings in which the engagement ring had both a diamond and two rubies. Ann liked them too. Unfortunately a couple of years ago, someone broke into our apartment here in Pasadena and stole them.
After Ann accepted my proposal we began to make wedding arrangements. We decided to get married the following November. We decided to get married in the Kingdom Hall of Ann’s congregation. Ann made most of the arrangements for the wedding. Even though it was a couple of hours drive from LA, a large number of friends from my congregation came to the wedding and reception in San Diego. So all together it turned out to be quite a nice size group sharing in our wedding ceremonies. Ginger was able to make the wedding, but Gary and Dad were not able to attend.
Unfortunately we were not able to take a honeymoon trip. On the wedding night we stayed at Ann’s apartment. Eric, Jennisha, and Eddie stayed with Jean as I remember. However, Brad had his own special event connected to our wedding night. I had driven my car down to San Diego; so, we needed to get two cars up to Pasadena. Brad drove my car up loaded with wedding gifts to our new rented house on New York Drive. That seems simple enough, right? Except on the way up to Pasadena, he had a flat tire and of course the spare was buried under a trunk load of gifts. He did finally make it. Once again, thank you, Brad. Our honeymoon consisted of having a few days in our new home, just the two of us. I had been living in the home for about a month before the wedding; so, my furniture and things were already there. After the wedding we had to pack up Ann’s furniture and things, including her full length baroque like mirror which has been with us through thick and thin and move them to the new home.
After our few days of just the two of us, we not only moved the furniture up from San Diego, but we also brought Eric, Jennisha and Eddie to their new home. And so began our adjustments to the new family arrangements. It was a change of environment for the kids, but they had lived in the Pasadena/Altadena area before. However, now they had to adjust to a new man in the family arrangements. When Ann and I got married mixed racial marriages were not common. We were both well aware of the looks we got in most places we went except at the Kingdom Hall. But now, almost twenty-five years later things have changed a lot. Either we don’t get as many looks as we use to or I’ve gotten to a point of not noticing them. Mixed racial marriages are much more common today; they even show mixed couples in commercials. In our congregation we currently have six mixed marriages, and they’re not all African-American and White. We have African-American and Hispanic and also African-American and East Indian. But when we got married the mixed marriage did mean that the kids had to make some adjustments due to it. One thing that helped was a couple from Ann’s former congregation in Altadena, James and Marsha Weems. Their marriage was a mixed marriage and they had been married for several years when I met them. They had six kids and two of them were close to Eric and Jennisha’s ages.
We had a lot of good experiences along with some challenging ones there are New York Drive, but more about that in the next chapter – San Simeon to San Diego.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Chapter Thirty-Three Every-other-weekend
Thirty-Three
Every-other-weekend
My study with Charles went well and in about a year I made my dedication to Jehovah and symbolized it by getting baptized. I was baptized at the Woodland Hills Assembly Hall on Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) 1979. So, just this past May I had my 30th anniversary of my baptism.
Charles Clark and his family moved to Yerington, Nevada. Brad and I drove up to visit them. On the way up we took a dirt road over to Bodie, California. Bodie is a ghost town high up in the Sierra Mountains. We had to drive quite a way on that dirt road. Bodie is a State Park but it’s been left pretty much in its original state. It’s not like the ghost town in Calico, California which is on the way to Barstow. Both are interesting, but Calico has been renovated and made into a tourist attraction. I know I enjoyed our wondering around freely in Bodie and I think Brad did too. There are strict rules about defacing or trying to take souvenirs. You just walk around and enjoy the history.
Our visit in Yerington was nice and relaxed. Brad, Paul, Charles and I went trout fishing near Yerington. I think Charles and I did most of the fishing. Brad and Paul just explored around. I don’t remember catching a lot of fish, but we had a good time. While there Brad and I accompanied Charles and his family to the local Kingdom Hall for meeting and we went out in service with them on Saturday. I think it was the first time for me to do rural witnessing which was quite different from our local field service.
After Brad got his driver’s license, we took a trip up through Salt Lake and into Idaho. We stayed over in Pocatello in the Southeast part of Idaho. The motel we stayed overnight in had a mirror on the ceiling, not by request, and a waterbed. Pocatello was one of the isolated areas in which prostitution was still legal. A holdover from the old Wild West days. A little West of Pocatello was American Falls at which a large dam had been built and was pretty impressive. It was near American Falls that we went to the Crystal Ice Caves. We didn’t go down too deep but in the caves it was right around freezing temperatures. The Native Americans and early frontiersmen use it to store food and furs.
We kept heading further West along the Snake river passing near where Evil Knievel made his motorcycle jump across a Snake River canyon. On our way West we drove up into the Sawtooth Mountains. My memory is a little hazy here, but I think we drove up through Ketchum and Sun Valley on our way up to town of Stanley which was located on a large lake. All the country up there in Idaho is beautiful. We eventually ended up in Boise the Capital of Idaho. In Boise we visited the old Idaho State Penitentiary. The accommodations were pretty harsh. I think somewhere I have a picture of Brad in one of the cells. We went to Sunday meeting there in a Boise Kingdom Hall and met some nice friends.
From Idaho we headed back towards home going through Reno and staying over night at one of the Casino. Reno is a lot like Las Vegas but not as big and less flamboyant. I don’t remember if it was before or after Reno, we stopped in a small town to pay a visit on Ben’s mother. Ben was Brad’s stepfather. We next stopped in Sacramento and visited a historic fort but didn’t get by the capitol nor to Sutter’s Mill. From Sacramento we made our way back home to Pasadena. It was a nice long father-son trip and Brad got to put his new driver’s license to use.
Not too long after Brad had concluded his year or so living with me and returning to live with Sue, I moved from the apartment on N. Allen to a one bedroom apartment with a pool on Washington Blvd. just west of Hill. On Brad’s weekend visits we go swimming, play games or just mess around.
It was during this time while I lived in the apartment on Washington that another major change occurred in my life. For three years during that time I regularly auxiliary pioneered which means that I’d perform a minimum of sixty hours of field service each month. Part of that time I would do magazine witnessing by a donut shop at Washington and Hill. On somewhat of a regular basis I would see this foxy looking lady in a Datsun 280Z stop at the donut shop. I thought she was really an attractive woman, but driving that sporty Z I thought she was a “fast lane girl”. One day she says “hello, brother”. Whoops, she’s a spiritual sister. That was good news. I later found out that when she stopped at the donut shop, she had her three kids in the Z with her and she was on her way to San Diego to visit relatives. I also found out her name was Ann Miller and she was in the Alta Vista Congregation which was nearby.
During those early days of circuit assemblies at Woodland Hills we use to serve food at lunchtime. You could get the food at either stands inside the hall or at the cafeteria next to the hall. I worked in the audit department for our circuit and I was assigned to supervise the sisters we used as cashiers. Who showed up on my list of cashiers? Yep, Ann Miller of the Alta Vista congregation.
One day just before a circuit assembly, I had to distribute to all the sisters an information handout on new cashiering procedures. I decided to deliver Ann’s handout to her at her home; after all she only lived a few blocks from where I lived. I think she was surprised to see me at her door, but we hit it off pretty well. However, she informed me that she would be shortly moving back to San Diego.
Well, I wasn’t going to let this foxy lady, er ... I mean charming sister get away from me. In the next chapter I’ll cover commuting to San Diego for love.
Every-other-weekend
My study with Charles went well and in about a year I made my dedication to Jehovah and symbolized it by getting baptized. I was baptized at the Woodland Hills Assembly Hall on Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) 1979. So, just this past May I had my 30th anniversary of my baptism.
Charles Clark and his family moved to Yerington, Nevada. Brad and I drove up to visit them. On the way up we took a dirt road over to Bodie, California. Bodie is a ghost town high up in the Sierra Mountains. We had to drive quite a way on that dirt road. Bodie is a State Park but it’s been left pretty much in its original state. It’s not like the ghost town in Calico, California which is on the way to Barstow. Both are interesting, but Calico has been renovated and made into a tourist attraction. I know I enjoyed our wondering around freely in Bodie and I think Brad did too. There are strict rules about defacing or trying to take souvenirs. You just walk around and enjoy the history.
Our visit in Yerington was nice and relaxed. Brad, Paul, Charles and I went trout fishing near Yerington. I think Charles and I did most of the fishing. Brad and Paul just explored around. I don’t remember catching a lot of fish, but we had a good time. While there Brad and I accompanied Charles and his family to the local Kingdom Hall for meeting and we went out in service with them on Saturday. I think it was the first time for me to do rural witnessing which was quite different from our local field service.
After Brad got his driver’s license, we took a trip up through Salt Lake and into Idaho. We stayed over in Pocatello in the Southeast part of Idaho. The motel we stayed overnight in had a mirror on the ceiling, not by request, and a waterbed. Pocatello was one of the isolated areas in which prostitution was still legal. A holdover from the old Wild West days. A little West of Pocatello was American Falls at which a large dam had been built and was pretty impressive. It was near American Falls that we went to the Crystal Ice Caves. We didn’t go down too deep but in the caves it was right around freezing temperatures. The Native Americans and early frontiersmen use it to store food and furs.
We kept heading further West along the Snake river passing near where Evil Knievel made his motorcycle jump across a Snake River canyon. On our way West we drove up into the Sawtooth Mountains. My memory is a little hazy here, but I think we drove up through Ketchum and Sun Valley on our way up to town of Stanley which was located on a large lake. All the country up there in Idaho is beautiful. We eventually ended up in Boise the Capital of Idaho. In Boise we visited the old Idaho State Penitentiary. The accommodations were pretty harsh. I think somewhere I have a picture of Brad in one of the cells. We went to Sunday meeting there in a Boise Kingdom Hall and met some nice friends.
From Idaho we headed back towards home going through Reno and staying over night at one of the Casino. Reno is a lot like Las Vegas but not as big and less flamboyant. I don’t remember if it was before or after Reno, we stopped in a small town to pay a visit on Ben’s mother. Ben was Brad’s stepfather. We next stopped in Sacramento and visited a historic fort but didn’t get by the capitol nor to Sutter’s Mill. From Sacramento we made our way back home to Pasadena. It was a nice long father-son trip and Brad got to put his new driver’s license to use.
Not too long after Brad had concluded his year or so living with me and returning to live with Sue, I moved from the apartment on N. Allen to a one bedroom apartment with a pool on Washington Blvd. just west of Hill. On Brad’s weekend visits we go swimming, play games or just mess around.
It was during this time while I lived in the apartment on Washington that another major change occurred in my life. For three years during that time I regularly auxiliary pioneered which means that I’d perform a minimum of sixty hours of field service each month. Part of that time I would do magazine witnessing by a donut shop at Washington and Hill. On somewhat of a regular basis I would see this foxy looking lady in a Datsun 280Z stop at the donut shop. I thought she was really an attractive woman, but driving that sporty Z I thought she was a “fast lane girl”. One day she says “hello, brother”. Whoops, she’s a spiritual sister. That was good news. I later found out that when she stopped at the donut shop, she had her three kids in the Z with her and she was on her way to San Diego to visit relatives. I also found out her name was Ann Miller and she was in the Alta Vista Congregation which was nearby.
During those early days of circuit assemblies at Woodland Hills we use to serve food at lunchtime. You could get the food at either stands inside the hall or at the cafeteria next to the hall. I worked in the audit department for our circuit and I was assigned to supervise the sisters we used as cashiers. Who showed up on my list of cashiers? Yep, Ann Miller of the Alta Vista congregation.
One day just before a circuit assembly, I had to distribute to all the sisters an information handout on new cashiering procedures. I decided to deliver Ann’s handout to her at her home; after all she only lived a few blocks from where I lived. I think she was surprised to see me at her door, but we hit it off pretty well. However, she informed me that she would be shortly moving back to San Diego.
Well, I wasn’t going to let this foxy lady, er ... I mean charming sister get away from me. In the next chapter I’ll cover commuting to San Diego for love.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Chapter Thirty-Two Change in Personal and Career Paths
Chapter Thirty-Two
Change in Personal and Career Paths
Pat Miller, Art Romans and I left White Productions and formed our own audio visual company. We had a fourth partner Cal Currens who was an integral part of our company. He was an ex-Playhouse student also like the three of us. I don’t think Pat was ever a student but he had performed there and had association with the Playhouse. Cal had a full time job in sales for McCulloch chain saw company. He was our source for contracts to produce sales and PR films for McCulloch which turned out to be our only client. I ended up doing some more traveling to produce these films. On one film which was a sales type film we went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts and Bar Harbor, Maine. In Baton Rouge we filmed in a large Sporting Goods store and the owner invited us to his home for dinner. After dinner we went out to his backyard which was a large lawn leading down to a stream running across the back of his yard. He warned us not to go too close to the stream because there were alligators. While in Massachusetts we went to Plymouth Rock where they had recreated a pilgrim’s village complete with people in costumes. That was cool. Also, we flew in and out of Boston; so, I had an opportunity to meet up with my schoolmate from Topeka Carter Umbarger. He was the friend I campaigned with for Sophomore Rep. He lived in a tall multi-floor house in which his home was on three floors. The tall narrow homes were quite common in Boston. I also remember in the older parts of Boston the streets go back to the colonial days and are very narrow, just room enough for carriages. I Googled Carter’s name the other day and found that he is a published author of books on Psychology and a co-founder of the Family Institute of Cambridge. It doesn't surprise me that he has done well, his father was the business manager of a medical clinic in Topeka and his mother was prominent in the field of education. He has good genes.
A safety training film for McCulloch took us to Bellingham, Washington north of Seattle. The footage we were shooting there was cutting down of the big trees with the McCulloch chain saws. Working there among the big trees was very impressive.
Unfortunately Pat, Art and I did not engage actively enough in marketing our company but relied too much on the work that Cal brought in. We made some good films but were not clearing enough money after expenses to live on. We eventually had to close up the company and go our separate ways. One last thing to say on Art. Gary, Art and I would play golf at the Altadena public course. Gary and I would go to the driving range and the putting green preparing to go out and shoot a great round of golf. Art would just sit under a tree smoking in his bare feet. He didn’t use golf shoes. Then when we would play our round he would always beat us bad. It just didn’t seem fair to us.
After dissolving our company I went to work at Bank of America’s Real Estate Loan Service center in Pasadena. I believe by that time Sue had been working at the telephone company for awhile. When Brad reached the age of about twelve the relationship between Sue and I had become strained and we divorced.
Divorce is never a good thing. The only contention that came up in the divorce proceedings was who would get custody of Brad. As far as the breakup of our marriage I believe we both shared responsibilities for it failing. To our credit I think we both did well in not putting Brad into the divorce proceedings; however, in the custody dispute it was not possible to not involve him. If I remember right he had to make an appearance in court. In the end Sue was granted custody. There was some irony in the matter though. Due to some issues in Sue’s new living arrangements, she asked me if Brad could stay with me for about a year. That was fine with me. My memories are a little confused here because it seems like Brad was in his pre-teens and yet I remember he went to Muir High school in Pasadena for at least a year. He did pretty well at Muir except for a math class. I went to the Open House there and sat in on his teacher’s open meeting with the parents. I could see that the teacher knew his subject well, but his teaching skills were lacking. He got me confused. I believe Brad ended up with a “C” in that class.
Not too long after the divorce one of my co-workers at Bank of America, Pat Arnold, noticed that I was often upset. So, she and another co-worker, Ellen Pratt, started witnessing to me. At first I resisted. I remember accepting either a Watchtower or Awake article and writing a rebuttal, but my argument didn’t hold water. They invited me to an assembly in Woodland Hills and I was quite impressed with it. I could see a group of people who really believed in living a clean and moral life. I liked that.
I developed a close friendship with Pat and Ellen. Pat had four kids – Barry, Elizabeth, Greg and Eric. Brad and Barry were close to the same age. I became more interested in Jehovah’s Witnesses and started studying with Charles Clark. He had a son and a daughter named Paul and Rachel. Paul was about Brad’s age and Rachel a year or two younger. So Brad and I enjoyed a lot of activities with Pat and her kids, Ellen and her husband Gerry. Also, we did things with Charles and his family. In the next chapter I’ll spend a little time on my every-other-weekend with Brad and our two trips before he reached his senior year in high school.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Chapter Thirty-One Do your homework first.
Chapter Thirty-One
Do your homework first.
These memories of N. Allen I’m sure are out of chronological order. Burbank Elementary was only about five houses north of us on Allen and Brad went there for a couple of years. Dad liked to tell a story about when visiting with us he would look after Brad when he got out of school. Brad would come home from school and start to watch TV. Dad would say, “Your parents said you were to do your homework before you could watch TV. Brad would then go do his homework.” He told that story many times.
Throughout childhood and adult family life we’ve had different pets, but the one that stands out the most to me was our black cat Barney. Like a typical cat he would come to you when he wanted to come to you. And of course when you wanted to do something that was when he wanted to come to you and get right in the middle of it. We had a floor to ceiling tree house pole which he did like to use. We all had affection for Barney and at times he would display affection towards us. As I remember after Sue and I divorced Barney went with them and one day he got out and never came back. I’m sure if I’ve got that wrong Brad will correct me.
Brad and I did a few typical father and son type things while living on Allen. We joined some kind of Indian group that met in the neighborhood where the boys would wear a headband with a feather and we did pseudo Indian activities. I don’t think it click with Brad nor me. We didn’t stay in the group very long. We also tried the Cubs or Boy Scouts (I don’t remember which level it was). I think what really turned me off about the group was the psychology of the day to award kids for anything. They would give them awards for just showing up. It just didn’t live up to my memories of scouting. We didn’t stay in that group very long either.
One activity that we both anticipated with great excitement was when we got a gas engine model airplane and went up to the playground at the Burbank school to try it out. But try as we may we could never get the engine to work and it never got off the ground. That was a huge disappointment for both of us.
One year Joe, Ginger, Sue, Brad and I all wore homemade Elizabethan costumes to go to The Renaissance Faire when it was located by Agoura. We looked pretty good and had a ball. A real crowd favorite was a physical balancing game where you tried to climb up a rope ladder and ring a bell at the top. The challenge was that the rope ladder was attached at the bottom and top by just a single rope and thus if you didn’t equalize your weight properly you would flip over very easily. The guys working the game made it look so easy. Later while the faire was still in the Agoura area Ann and I took Eric, Jennisha and Eddie to the faire and had a great time. Recently Brad and Tina took Aidan , Tristan and visiting grandparents to the faire at its new location east of LA at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area.
Once we got inspired and held a casino night at our apartment on Allen. We invited about ten friends over including by brother. We had a roulette wheel, poker table and/or black jack and I believe we had a crap table. We made up play money and everybody started the evening with a certain amount of money. At the end of the evening I think we had some prizes for those who had the most remaining money. I think everyone had a good time.
I had Brad in all the major sports at one time or another. He played football, softball, basketball and hockey. I think I even tried him at tennis but not as an organized sport. The only sport he really took a liking to was Hockey. To be a part of hockey at a young age (I think Brad played from about 5 to 7 years old) you really had to be dedicated because the only time you get the ice for practice was early in the morning. I think Brad has fond memories of playing hockey. He played goalie a lot and his memory of his level of expertise at that position and my memory aren’t quite the same. But he insists that his memories are right. I unfortunately began to shows traits of becoming one of those hockey dads who forget that the boys are out there to have fun not to be pro’s. I think I got it under control before it got too bad.
I started Brad out on the path of being a gamer at a very young age. I’ve always been a proponent of the idea that playing games helps develop thinking logic and following rules while having fun. We were into card games, board games and miniatures. At one point I made a table for our miniatures. We would make hills from styrofoam and use pieces of cloth to represent bodies of water. We played medieval knights era and some times World War II miniatures. We spent a lot hours painting lead miniatures. Early on I think Brad would play primarily because I wanted him to play. We went to conventions for gaming. I remember Sue going with us at least once. She liked to play a game called “Kingmaker”. When Brad was a young adult, we went to a gaming convention in San Jose and one of the highlights for us was playing a board game called “Civilization” by Avalon Hill. I guess all that gaming took affect on Brad because he’s now raising a new generation of gamers, his sons Aidan and Tristan. Also, recently Brad and I have started designing board games together.
In the next chapter I’ll move on to a major change in both my personal life and career path.
Do your homework first.
These memories of N. Allen I’m sure are out of chronological order. Burbank Elementary was only about five houses north of us on Allen and Brad went there for a couple of years. Dad liked to tell a story about when visiting with us he would look after Brad when he got out of school. Brad would come home from school and start to watch TV. Dad would say, “Your parents said you were to do your homework before you could watch TV. Brad would then go do his homework.” He told that story many times.
Throughout childhood and adult family life we’ve had different pets, but the one that stands out the most to me was our black cat Barney. Like a typical cat he would come to you when he wanted to come to you. And of course when you wanted to do something that was when he wanted to come to you and get right in the middle of it. We had a floor to ceiling tree house pole which he did like to use. We all had affection for Barney and at times he would display affection towards us. As I remember after Sue and I divorced Barney went with them and one day he got out and never came back. I’m sure if I’ve got that wrong Brad will correct me.
Brad and I did a few typical father and son type things while living on Allen. We joined some kind of Indian group that met in the neighborhood where the boys would wear a headband with a feather and we did pseudo Indian activities. I don’t think it click with Brad nor me. We didn’t stay in the group very long. We also tried the Cubs or Boy Scouts (I don’t remember which level it was). I think what really turned me off about the group was the psychology of the day to award kids for anything. They would give them awards for just showing up. It just didn’t live up to my memories of scouting. We didn’t stay in that group very long either.
One activity that we both anticipated with great excitement was when we got a gas engine model airplane and went up to the playground at the Burbank school to try it out. But try as we may we could never get the engine to work and it never got off the ground. That was a huge disappointment for both of us.
One year Joe, Ginger, Sue, Brad and I all wore homemade Elizabethan costumes to go to The Renaissance Faire when it was located by Agoura. We looked pretty good and had a ball. A real crowd favorite was a physical balancing game where you tried to climb up a rope ladder and ring a bell at the top. The challenge was that the rope ladder was attached at the bottom and top by just a single rope and thus if you didn’t equalize your weight properly you would flip over very easily. The guys working the game made it look so easy. Later while the faire was still in the Agoura area Ann and I took Eric, Jennisha and Eddie to the faire and had a great time. Recently Brad and Tina took Aidan , Tristan and visiting grandparents to the faire at its new location east of LA at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area.
Once we got inspired and held a casino night at our apartment on Allen. We invited about ten friends over including by brother. We had a roulette wheel, poker table and/or black jack and I believe we had a crap table. We made up play money and everybody started the evening with a certain amount of money. At the end of the evening I think we had some prizes for those who had the most remaining money. I think everyone had a good time.
I had Brad in all the major sports at one time or another. He played football, softball, basketball and hockey. I think I even tried him at tennis but not as an organized sport. The only sport he really took a liking to was Hockey. To be a part of hockey at a young age (I think Brad played from about 5 to 7 years old) you really had to be dedicated because the only time you get the ice for practice was early in the morning. I think Brad has fond memories of playing hockey. He played goalie a lot and his memory of his level of expertise at that position and my memory aren’t quite the same. But he insists that his memories are right. I unfortunately began to shows traits of becoming one of those hockey dads who forget that the boys are out there to have fun not to be pro’s. I think I got it under control before it got too bad.
I started Brad out on the path of being a gamer at a very young age. I’ve always been a proponent of the idea that playing games helps develop thinking logic and following rules while having fun. We were into card games, board games and miniatures. At one point I made a table for our miniatures. We would make hills from styrofoam and use pieces of cloth to represent bodies of water. We played medieval knights era and some times World War II miniatures. We spent a lot hours painting lead miniatures. Early on I think Brad would play primarily because I wanted him to play. We went to conventions for gaming. I remember Sue going with us at least once. She liked to play a game called “Kingmaker”. When Brad was a young adult, we went to a gaming convention in San Jose and one of the highlights for us was playing a board game called “Civilization” by Avalon Hill. I guess all that gaming took affect on Brad because he’s now raising a new generation of gamers, his sons Aidan and Tristan. Also, recently Brad and I have started designing board games together.
In the next chapter I’ll move on to a major change in both my personal life and career path.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Chapter Thirty Family on Kenmore
Chapter Thirty
Family on Kenmore
We fixed up an alcove between the bedroom and the front room in our apartment on Kenmore in Hollywood for our soon to arrive son, Brad. We put planet and star decals that glowed in the dark on the ceiling of the alcove. At the time when Brad was born they allowed husband/fathers to be in the preparation room but not in the delivery room. So, I spent the traditional time in the waiting room. As I remember, Sue’s time in labor was of average length and delivery during the daytime on November 14th, 1967. He was born in Cedars Hospital in Hollywood. I don’t know if Brad’s birth had anything to do with it, but it wasn’t too long after that they closed the hospital. It’s now the Scientology headquarters in Hollywood. The Alenco Cranes & Windows film liaison who had become a friend sent us a Texas A&M t-shirt for Brad. We had some pictures of him proudly wearing his t-shirt.
Not too long after Brad was born my brother Gary came for a visit. By then his marriage with Pat had ended and Gary was looking to start a new path. We invited Karen, Sue’s neighbor friend to join us on some of activities. We hadn’t intended to be matchmakers, but they really hit it off. Gary decided to make the move to California and stayed with us for a while before he got his own place about four or five blocks away. While he was staying with us we played a lot of cards and Gary had a lot of little sayings he’d use while playing cards. One of them was “Up jumped Jonah!” whenever he’d play what he felt was a great card. So, Sue and I put together a little booklet with his different sayings.
The time line of some events becomes a little hazy in my memory, but I believe after Gary moved to California Dad made a trip to California for a visit. As I recall, Ginger and Gary’s five kids (Gary Lee, Brad, Becky, Mike and Cindy) came with Dad. Later Gary Lee (he just goes by Gary but he’s always been Gary Lee to me) moved to California. He met Nilda and they got married. I don’t remember how old my Brad was at the time of the wedding but he was their ring bearer. I think at the time Brad thought he was the “ring barrel”. Gary has stayed in the Southern California area. He has two sons and now has grand kids. Gary and Nilda live in Orange County near the beach I believe in the Mission Viejo area.
Gary and Karen got married and lived in the Palos Verde area for a couple of years and then they went their separate ways. Gary met Lynn in the apartment complex that he and Karen were living in and later after the divorce Gary and Lynn got married. They moved to a mobile home park in Camarillo. Jumping ahead a little back in Topeka Dad met Mary and they got married. They decided to move to California. Gary and Lynn helped them to get a place in the same mobile home park that they were in. They were only four or five homes apart.
Now jumping back a little; before Dad and Mary got married Ginger and Joe got married. I don’t remember if Joe was in the army when they got married or he joined after their marriage. He served as a medic in Viet Nam. After he got out of the army they moved to the Los Angeles area and so, after Dad and Mary moved here all my immediate family lived in Southern California. Ginger and Joe lived in the Santa Monica area I believe. Joe had a job at a hospital in that area and Ginger got on at CBS Television City in the Fairfax area. At one time Ginger had a tough job of monitoring the line feed of CBS shows originating in New York and being fed to LA for broadcast. She had to watch the shows. Sounds hard, right? Of course if something went wrong she had to alert the technicians. So, it was a pretty responsible job and she couldn’t go to sleep on the job.
I remember they had a pachinko machine which we had a lot of fun with. A pachinko machine is kind of an upright pinball machine. Small metal balls are shot up to the top to fall down through a series of pegs to end up in slots at the bottom with different score values. It’s a simple game but very additive. Also, we used to play “Simon” which was an early electronic game where you try to repeat a series of flashing colored lights. It would start with a simple pattern and progressively get harder. Again, it was very addictive.
Getting back to Sue, Brad and I, we lived on Kenmore for a year or two and then moved to Pasadena. We found a nice little duplex in back a house just East of Hill and South of Villa. I remember Brad had a tricycle which he was able to ride outside in the driveway, but I don’t know if he was old enough to remember that place or not. We really like the place and tried to fix it up a little. We had a painting party where we invited Gary, Karen and I think there was another couple but I don’t remember who to join us in painting a couple of rooms. We had a pretty good time and did a pretty good job on the rooms. Unfortunately we didn’t live there very long when the property was take by the government as public domain. They ended up building an access road which ran along the 210 freeway that they built. So we moved up to a nice two bedroom apartment on N. Allen above New York Dr. in Altadena. We lived next door to the landlord. They were a nice couple. We had some good memories there. Next chapter I cover more of our time on N. Allen.
Family on Kenmore
We fixed up an alcove between the bedroom and the front room in our apartment on Kenmore in Hollywood for our soon to arrive son, Brad. We put planet and star decals that glowed in the dark on the ceiling of the alcove. At the time when Brad was born they allowed husband/fathers to be in the preparation room but not in the delivery room. So, I spent the traditional time in the waiting room. As I remember, Sue’s time in labor was of average length and delivery during the daytime on November 14th, 1967. He was born in Cedars Hospital in Hollywood. I don’t know if Brad’s birth had anything to do with it, but it wasn’t too long after that they closed the hospital. It’s now the Scientology headquarters in Hollywood. The Alenco Cranes & Windows film liaison who had become a friend sent us a Texas A&M t-shirt for Brad. We had some pictures of him proudly wearing his t-shirt.
Not too long after Brad was born my brother Gary came for a visit. By then his marriage with Pat had ended and Gary was looking to start a new path. We invited Karen, Sue’s neighbor friend to join us on some of activities. We hadn’t intended to be matchmakers, but they really hit it off. Gary decided to make the move to California and stayed with us for a while before he got his own place about four or five blocks away. While he was staying with us we played a lot of cards and Gary had a lot of little sayings he’d use while playing cards. One of them was “Up jumped Jonah!” whenever he’d play what he felt was a great card. So, Sue and I put together a little booklet with his different sayings.
The time line of some events becomes a little hazy in my memory, but I believe after Gary moved to California Dad made a trip to California for a visit. As I recall, Ginger and Gary’s five kids (Gary Lee, Brad, Becky, Mike and Cindy) came with Dad. Later Gary Lee (he just goes by Gary but he’s always been Gary Lee to me) moved to California. He met Nilda and they got married. I don’t remember how old my Brad was at the time of the wedding but he was their ring bearer. I think at the time Brad thought he was the “ring barrel”. Gary has stayed in the Southern California area. He has two sons and now has grand kids. Gary and Nilda live in Orange County near the beach I believe in the Mission Viejo area.
Gary and Karen got married and lived in the Palos Verde area for a couple of years and then they went their separate ways. Gary met Lynn in the apartment complex that he and Karen were living in and later after the divorce Gary and Lynn got married. They moved to a mobile home park in Camarillo. Jumping ahead a little back in Topeka Dad met Mary and they got married. They decided to move to California. Gary and Lynn helped them to get a place in the same mobile home park that they were in. They were only four or five homes apart.
Now jumping back a little; before Dad and Mary got married Ginger and Joe got married. I don’t remember if Joe was in the army when they got married or he joined after their marriage. He served as a medic in Viet Nam. After he got out of the army they moved to the Los Angeles area and so, after Dad and Mary moved here all my immediate family lived in Southern California. Ginger and Joe lived in the Santa Monica area I believe. Joe had a job at a hospital in that area and Ginger got on at CBS Television City in the Fairfax area. At one time Ginger had a tough job of monitoring the line feed of CBS shows originating in New York and being fed to LA for broadcast. She had to watch the shows. Sounds hard, right? Of course if something went wrong she had to alert the technicians. So, it was a pretty responsible job and she couldn’t go to sleep on the job.
I remember they had a pachinko machine which we had a lot of fun with. A pachinko machine is kind of an upright pinball machine. Small metal balls are shot up to the top to fall down through a series of pegs to end up in slots at the bottom with different score values. It’s a simple game but very additive. Also, we used to play “Simon” which was an early electronic game where you try to repeat a series of flashing colored lights. It would start with a simple pattern and progressively get harder. Again, it was very addictive.
Getting back to Sue, Brad and I, we lived on Kenmore for a year or two and then moved to Pasadena. We found a nice little duplex in back a house just East of Hill and South of Villa. I remember Brad had a tricycle which he was able to ride outside in the driveway, but I don’t know if he was old enough to remember that place or not. We really like the place and tried to fix it up a little. We had a painting party where we invited Gary, Karen and I think there was another couple but I don’t remember who to join us in painting a couple of rooms. We had a pretty good time and did a pretty good job on the rooms. Unfortunately we didn’t live there very long when the property was take by the government as public domain. They ended up building an access road which ran along the 210 freeway that they built. So we moved up to a nice two bedroom apartment on N. Allen above New York Dr. in Altadena. We lived next door to the landlord. They were a nice couple. We had some good memories there. Next chapter I cover more of our time on N. Allen.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Chapter Twenty-Nine Equinox
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Equinox
I first met Dennis Muren when he was a student at Pasadena City College. He and a couple of his friends were putting together a movie in 16mm. They had already shot most of the film both live action and animation with models of monsters. The special effects with the monsters was Dennis’ focus, but as far as I could see he was the driving force behind making the film. He came to White Productions because they had shot the live action footage without sound and Dale had a rudimentary film/sound sync system. So we helped Dennis and his actors to lay down a sound track. Dennis also made a deal with a music instructor at PCC to compose and orchestrate a music track. The way I remember this coming about Truman Fisher had a summer music camp up near Carmel and he had a full orchestra play for the track. White Productions’ film/sound sync system was used for recording the music. I went up to run the sync system which took a couple of days. Sue was able to go along with me and as I remember Brad had seen the light of day by then coming along with us. So, we were able to make it a bit of a vacation at the same time.
After we had finished our work on Dennis’ film, he started his marketing of the film. I remember meeting Dennis in Hollywood once during this period at a studio where he was working on educational films and commercials. One of the commercials he worked on was an early version of the Pillsbury Doughboy. It took awhile before he sold an indie producer, Jack Harris, on the film. Jack Harris had a reputation of buying into small budget films, shooting some additional footage and then putting the biggest part of the budget into marketing the film. This is what he did with Equinox. In the new version the film starts off with one of the male lead actors in a mental asylum. Well, the interior of White Productions studio had these stone, block-like walls which they thought would work well for the mental asylum interior. Dale asked me to sort of baby-sit the film group while they shot in our studio. They had a scene where the character was to be rolled down the asylum corridor to a padded cell. They only had one person lined up to be a hospital orderly and needed a second orderly. So they asked me to do it. I said “sure!” We had to restrain him on the gurney. They also used our padded sound booth to be a padded cell. So, we had a scene in there restraining him. There were a couple of add-lib lines and that was that.
Once they got it ready for release to the theatres, they had a showing of the film in a theatre in Hollywood. So the family and I (Dad, Sue and Ginger – at least that’s what I remember) went to see it. Much to my surprise shortly into the opening credits there was my name. I had no idea I was going to get screen credits.
Now time goes bye and Dennis wins several Oscars and other awards for his special effects work on movies like “ET”, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, “Innerspace”, “Abyss”, “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” and “Jurasic Park”. (to see more on Dennis’ awards click here) Now Brock deShane enters stage left. Brock produces a restored DVD version of “Equinox” including interviews with Dennis and other notables in the SciFi world.
At times I would wonder if I ever tried to call Dennis would he remember me? One day I receive a call from Dennis and he’s inviting me to be a part of a premiering of the DVD of “Equinox” that they were having at the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood. It gets better. He also invites Ann and I to an intimate dinner of twenty to thirty crew and cast of “Equinox” at a hotel on Sunset before the premiere. We met Dennis’ wife Zara and their daughter. Everyone at the dinner was very gracious. Later at the premiere after the showing of the movie they had a Q&A session with the audience and they had me join the others up front. So it was a night of mini-celebs for Ann and I.
Dennis was a key part of the original team when Industrial Light and Magic was formed. ILM has been a leader in special effects since its founding in 1975 and have created their magic for over two hundred films.
Dennis told me that he had withdrawn from the daily activities at ILM and works as a consultant now.
There were four main characters in “Equinox”. They were all college age and friends that go for a picnic in the nearby mountains. There was Edward Connell as David Fielding (the one who was a patient in the mental asylum), Barbara Hewitt as Susan Turner, Frank Boers, Jr. as Jim Hudson and Robin Christopher as Vicki. Barbara Hewitt was the Queen of the 78th Tournament of Roses. Only Frank, who later changed his acting name to Frank Bonner, went on to making a name for himself in TV and films. He still is working in TV and films, but his part as Herb on the TV series “WKRP in Cincinati” (1978 – 1982) was his shinning moment.
Before moving on to breaking away from White Productions to form our own industrial film company, in the next chapter I’ll talk more about the family.
Equinox
I first met Dennis Muren when he was a student at Pasadena City College. He and a couple of his friends were putting together a movie in 16mm. They had already shot most of the film both live action and animation with models of monsters. The special effects with the monsters was Dennis’ focus, but as far as I could see he was the driving force behind making the film. He came to White Productions because they had shot the live action footage without sound and Dale had a rudimentary film/sound sync system. So we helped Dennis and his actors to lay down a sound track. Dennis also made a deal with a music instructor at PCC to compose and orchestrate a music track. The way I remember this coming about Truman Fisher had a summer music camp up near Carmel and he had a full orchestra play for the track. White Productions’ film/sound sync system was used for recording the music. I went up to run the sync system which took a couple of days. Sue was able to go along with me and as I remember Brad had seen the light of day by then coming along with us. So, we were able to make it a bit of a vacation at the same time.
After we had finished our work on Dennis’ film, he started his marketing of the film. I remember meeting Dennis in Hollywood once during this period at a studio where he was working on educational films and commercials. One of the commercials he worked on was an early version of the Pillsbury Doughboy. It took awhile before he sold an indie producer, Jack Harris, on the film. Jack Harris had a reputation of buying into small budget films, shooting some additional footage and then putting the biggest part of the budget into marketing the film. This is what he did with Equinox. In the new version the film starts off with one of the male lead actors in a mental asylum. Well, the interior of White Productions studio had these stone, block-like walls which they thought would work well for the mental asylum interior. Dale asked me to sort of baby-sit the film group while they shot in our studio. They had a scene where the character was to be rolled down the asylum corridor to a padded cell. They only had one person lined up to be a hospital orderly and needed a second orderly. So they asked me to do it. I said “sure!” We had to restrain him on the gurney. They also used our padded sound booth to be a padded cell. So, we had a scene in there restraining him. There were a couple of add-lib lines and that was that.
Once they got it ready for release to the theatres, they had a showing of the film in a theatre in Hollywood. So the family and I (Dad, Sue and Ginger – at least that’s what I remember) went to see it. Much to my surprise shortly into the opening credits there was my name. I had no idea I was going to get screen credits.
Now time goes bye and Dennis wins several Oscars and other awards for his special effects work on movies like “ET”, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, “Innerspace”, “Abyss”, “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” and “Jurasic Park”. (to see more on Dennis’ awards click here) Now Brock deShane enters stage left. Brock produces a restored DVD version of “Equinox” including interviews with Dennis and other notables in the SciFi world.
At times I would wonder if I ever tried to call Dennis would he remember me? One day I receive a call from Dennis and he’s inviting me to be a part of a premiering of the DVD of “Equinox” that they were having at the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood. It gets better. He also invites Ann and I to an intimate dinner of twenty to thirty crew and cast of “Equinox” at a hotel on Sunset before the premiere. We met Dennis’ wife Zara and their daughter. Everyone at the dinner was very gracious. Later at the premiere after the showing of the movie they had a Q&A session with the audience and they had me join the others up front. So it was a night of mini-celebs for Ann and I.
Dennis was a key part of the original team when Industrial Light and Magic was formed. ILM has been a leader in special effects since its founding in 1975 and have created their magic for over two hundred films.
Dennis told me that he had withdrawn from the daily activities at ILM and works as a consultant now.
There were four main characters in “Equinox”. They were all college age and friends that go for a picnic in the nearby mountains. There was Edward Connell as David Fielding (the one who was a patient in the mental asylum), Barbara Hewitt as Susan Turner, Frank Boers, Jr. as Jim Hudson and Robin Christopher as Vicki. Barbara Hewitt was the Queen of the 78th Tournament of Roses. Only Frank, who later changed his acting name to Frank Bonner, went on to making a name for himself in TV and films. He still is working in TV and films, but his part as Herb on the TV series “WKRP in Cincinati” (1978 – 1982) was his shinning moment.
Before moving on to breaking away from White Productions to form our own industrial film company, in the next chapter I’ll talk more about the family.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Chapter Twenty-Eight White Productions and Beginning a Family
Twenty-Eight
White Productions & Beginning a Family
As I mentioned in the previous chapter I had begun to work at White Productions and Sue and I started dating and early in 1967 we got married. It was a very simple wedding in the chapel at Hollywood Congregational church. I don’t even remember who was the Best Man and Bride’s Maid. Sue’s mother was there and one or two other friends. Dale White did have a nice little reception party at his home up in Hastings Ranch.
Sue’s mother was originally from Canada and her first name was Ruth but Sue called her “Pooie”, and so Pooie it was. When she came to LA she worked for the film studios as a secretary and I believe that’s where she met Tommy who was to become Sue’s father. I only saw Tommy a few times. He worked as a Prop Master in the studios and had worked on many major movies with most of the big names of the time. I remember a couple of times when we met up with Tommy and the two times I remember dad was with us.
One time he was living in the Santa Monica area and I believe we met him at an ice rink. If my memory serves me right, Ginger was with us that time. The other time we met up with him was at Santa Anita racetrack. I think dad like and was impressed with Tommy. Later on he moved to Palm Springs where he eventually died.
Pooie had a home in Hollywood on N. Lucerne Blvd. just south of Melrose. That’s where Sue was living when I met her. Sue had a close friend who lived across the street named Karen Kamp. Karen later became involved in our family. Karen’s father also worked in the film industry in sound. Pooie lived in that home for many years and I believe she died there a short time after Brad graduated from high school.
Sue and I got a nice little one bedroom apartment on N. Kenmore just south of, yep you guessed it, Melrose. I guess I had something about Melrose. It was right by the Hollywood freeway. The freeway was literally in our backyard. If I remember correctly, Sue attended LA City College which was just four or five blocks east of us between Melrose and Santa Monica.
I don’t remember exactly how this came about but shortly after the marriage, Pat Miller and I went on quite an extensive journey to make a sales film for Alenco Cranes and Windows company headquartered in College Station/Bryan Texas the home of Texas A&M. Sue went along with us as our script girl and general assistant. Brad became a traveler before he ever saw the light of day. Sue was pregnant with him at the time. I remember one time we were shooting in the window assembly area in Alenco’s factory and it was really hot. We became rather concerned about her and her health. But she was fine and came through it well. Our liaison with the Alenco company was really a nice guy. Some of the things I remember about College Station/Bryan was everyone were fanatics about the Aggies football team. Barbecue was a big thing there and we tried out two or three places and they were all good. They would slow cooked their meats over night in a wood fire pit. One other thing I remember was at that time some counties in Texas were dry and some were wet. You couldn’t buy packaged alcohol in College Station/Bryan because it was in a dry county, but just a few miles away across the Brazos river was a wet county. The locals would make their daily runs to the Brazos.
On the Alenco Crane portion of the film job the three of us and the liaison drove from Texas to Detroit to shoot some film of the Alenco Cranes on actual job sites. One day we were filming a tree trimming crew using a crane in a residential area. A few of the residents came out to see what we were doing and wondered if we were shooting a scene for the “Fugitive” TV show. They expected to see David Jensen run out from one of the houses or something.
Driving back to Texas we stopped over in Chicago and were able to go to the Museum of Science and Industry and in one of the exhibits you could go down into a recreation of a coal mine. Also, we went to Morton’s Steakhouse an elegant restaurant near Lake Michigan. Standing on the shores of Lake Michigan in the Fall with the wind coming in off the lake is an experience you don’t forget.
On another film project about four of us drove from Pasadena to Daytona, Florida to shoot footage of a father and son motorcycle racing team for Yamaha motorcycles. Dale knew personally the father and son and we shot a lot of other footage of them locally in southern California. Fortunately for the Yamaha film the father and son team won the race.
Another regular client and friend of Dale’s was Mel Marshall. He was responsible for making audio tracks for filmstrips produced by Brigham Young University for the Mormon church. Mel was a real nice guy. Pat Miller, the White Production guy we went to Texas with, and a guy by the name of Art Romans did most of the narrations for the film strips. Art became a close friend. He was the friend I mentioned in chapter twenty-five Name Dropping that did the holiday show in Beverly Hills that I met Carole Burnette at. A friend of Mel’s and an actor by the name of Gordon Jump did a lot character voice work on the film strips. Gordon later was cast in a major role in the TV comedy “WKRP Cincinnati” (1978 – 1982). After the TV show, Gordon was the Maytag repairman for several years.
In the next chapter my experience with Academy Awards winner Dennis Muren and The Equinox.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Chapter Twenty-Seven More Hollywood
Chapter Twenty-Seven
More Hollywood
Matt and I moved to a newer and larger apartment on N. Kingsley Dr. just South of Melrose. I think I was still working at Wallich’s Music City and Matt had become a ballroom dancing instructor. He met a fellow instructor named Sherry who was originally from Findlay, Ohio. I was uncomfortable when Matt said she was moving in with him. I apparently didn’t fell uncomfortable enough to object. Fortunately, I liked Sherry as a person and the arrangement lasted until my life started a different course.
Dale White, my former TV instructor from the Playhouse, along with Jan Haraszthy formed an Industrial Film studio called Dale & James Production. I guess Jan’s name was actually James. Jan and his family became very close friends (more on Jan later). Dale offered me a job with Dale & James Productions as a non-title general worker. I accepted – at least it was ShowBiz. Another original member of the group was Pat Miller. Pat and I over the following years went through many journeys together.
It wasn’t too long after I started work at Dale & James Productions that Jan decided it was no longer a good commitment for him and his family to continue as a partner in the production company. He continued to do some art work for the studio and through that association I got to know him and his family well. The name of the studio was changed from Dale & James Productions to White Productions.
A little more on Jan and our friendship. Jan was the great, great ... grandson of Count Agoston Haraszthey who is credited with being the father of the California wine industry. In 1857 he founded Buena Vista Winery and Vineyards at Sonoma, California. In 1861 he went back to Europe to tour through the country collecting cuttings from different quality grape stocks and brought them back to California in a trunk. He then by wagon travel up and down through California distributing the cuttings to the various vineyard which were struggling to rebuild after a devastating blight of Phylloxera.
The Count had quite a history escaping from Hungary and coming to America as a political refugee he ended up in the San Diego area of California. He served as the Marshall/Sheriff of early San Diego, as well as the Assemblyman representing San Diego at Sacramento. He later founded the winery and vineyards at Sonoma, but eventually ended up in Nicarauga where he died mysteriously in a river on his sugar plantation.
Jan and his family, his wife Miana, son Val and daughter “Missy”, lived just across the street on the East side of the Altadena golf course. I spent a lot of fun filled time in that home. What I fondly remember about Jan was in our travels he would point out a place and would tell me a historical account or anecdote about it. He was a great story teller. He’s the one who told me about the yellow poppy fields in Altadena that I have shared with my friends in Pasadena and Altadena. Jan told me that back when the air was clean and clear that the ships coming in from the sea would use the yellow poppy fields in Altadena as a beacon to take them in to the port at San Pedro. Can you imagine not only the yellow poppy fields but the clear air in the Los Angeles basin?
Before introducing the other leg of the “a different course”, let me relate another name dropping experience. White Productions was located between the Playhouse and Colorado Blvd. Which made it just a couple of doors north of the Playhouse. Before the Playhouse shut down as being a college due to issues with the IRS, a young female student would frequent White Productions. She was a young, vibrant and friendly girl name Sally Struthers. A short time after her graduation she landed the roll of Archie Bunker’s daughter Gloria on “All In The Family” TV show (1971-78).
While living in Hollywood I started attending the Hollywood Congregational Church located on Hollywood Blvd. near La Brea. After getting involved there I became the Sunday School Director. I was asked to take on that roll mainly because no one else wanted to. There was also a youth group active at the church headed up by a young couple who also had a small theatre/drama school. Of note the veteran film actor Mako was a member there for a while. Mako also for a short period of time attended the Pasadena Playouse before I got there. Mako seen above from the 2001 Jerry Bruckheimer film “Pearl Harbor”. Through both of these groups I came to know Susan Plews. I’ll follow up in the next chapter with more about Susan.
More Hollywood
Matt and I moved to a newer and larger apartment on N. Kingsley Dr. just South of Melrose. I think I was still working at Wallich’s Music City and Matt had become a ballroom dancing instructor. He met a fellow instructor named Sherry who was originally from Findlay, Ohio. I was uncomfortable when Matt said she was moving in with him. I apparently didn’t fell uncomfortable enough to object. Fortunately, I liked Sherry as a person and the arrangement lasted until my life started a different course.
Dale White, my former TV instructor from the Playhouse, along with Jan Haraszthy formed an Industrial Film studio called Dale & James Production. I guess Jan’s name was actually James. Jan and his family became very close friends (more on Jan later). Dale offered me a job with Dale & James Productions as a non-title general worker. I accepted – at least it was ShowBiz. Another original member of the group was Pat Miller. Pat and I over the following years went through many journeys together.
It wasn’t too long after I started work at Dale & James Productions that Jan decided it was no longer a good commitment for him and his family to continue as a partner in the production company. He continued to do some art work for the studio and through that association I got to know him and his family well. The name of the studio was changed from Dale & James Productions to White Productions.
A little more on Jan and our friendship. Jan was the great, great ... grandson of Count Agoston Haraszthey who is credited with being the father of the California wine industry. In 1857 he founded Buena Vista Winery and Vineyards at Sonoma, California. In 1861 he went back to Europe to tour through the country collecting cuttings from different quality grape stocks and brought them back to California in a trunk. He then by wagon travel up and down through California distributing the cuttings to the various vineyard which were struggling to rebuild after a devastating blight of Phylloxera.
The Count had quite a history escaping from Hungary and coming to America as a political refugee he ended up in the San Diego area of California. He served as the Marshall/Sheriff of early San Diego, as well as the Assemblyman representing San Diego at Sacramento. He later founded the winery and vineyards at Sonoma, but eventually ended up in Nicarauga where he died mysteriously in a river on his sugar plantation.
Jan and his family, his wife Miana, son Val and daughter “Missy”, lived just across the street on the East side of the Altadena golf course. I spent a lot of fun filled time in that home. What I fondly remember about Jan was in our travels he would point out a place and would tell me a historical account or anecdote about it. He was a great story teller. He’s the one who told me about the yellow poppy fields in Altadena that I have shared with my friends in Pasadena and Altadena. Jan told me that back when the air was clean and clear that the ships coming in from the sea would use the yellow poppy fields in Altadena as a beacon to take them in to the port at San Pedro. Can you imagine not only the yellow poppy fields but the clear air in the Los Angeles basin?
Before introducing the other leg of the “a different course”, let me relate another name dropping experience. White Productions was located between the Playhouse and Colorado Blvd. Which made it just a couple of doors north of the Playhouse. Before the Playhouse shut down as being a college due to issues with the IRS, a young female student would frequent White Productions. She was a young, vibrant and friendly girl name Sally Struthers. A short time after her graduation she landed the roll of Archie Bunker’s daughter Gloria on “All In The Family” TV show (1971-78).
While living in Hollywood I started attending the Hollywood Congregational Church located on Hollywood Blvd. near La Brea. After getting involved there I became the Sunday School Director. I was asked to take on that roll mainly because no one else wanted to. There was also a youth group active at the church headed up by a young couple who also had a small theatre/drama school. Of note the veteran film actor Mako was a member there for a while. Mako also for a short period of time attended the Pasadena Playouse before I got there. Mako seen above from the 2001 Jerry Bruckheimer film “Pearl Harbor”. Through both of these groups I came to know Susan Plews. I’ll follow up in the next chapter with more about Susan.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Chapter Twenty-Six Shakespeare and Hollywood
Chapter Twenty-Six
Shakespeare and Hollywood
After graduating “cum laude” with a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre in June of 1961, that summer I was part of a Shakespearean repertory group performing in Farnsworth Park in Altadena. We did “Romeo and Juliet”, “Twelfth Night” and “The Taming of the Shrew”. As I remember we would perform on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. We started with one play and when it was ready we would start performing it and rehearsing the next play. When it was ready we would start alternating performances of those two plays and prepare the third play. When it was ready, we then alternated performances of the three plays. I think we had a three month season and was very well received. I had small parts in all three plays. Several of the actors had Playhouse connections but not all. We shared in profits from the show but the profits were meager and shares were proportioned to the size parts you had. It was a great experience if not necessarily a profitable one.
After the summer Matt and I moved to Hollywood to be close to where the action was as the story goes. I think our first apartment there was on N. Ivar just above the Hollywood freeway. We both were a part of a small theatre group; again most with Playhouse connections. It was called "The Cellar Theatre”. It was a small theatre in Hollywood basically in a basement area of a business building on N. Cahuenga. It had seating for about twenty-five people on two sides with the rest of the room our stage. Sid and Charlotte mentioned in the previous chapter were part of the group. Ken Rose who had been an instructor at the Playhouse was the head of the group. I remember when we did “Front Page” a play written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, James MacArthur came to see our production of his father’s play. I believe Charlotte was the connection for his being there. James MacArthur played detective Danny Williams in the TV series “Hawaii Five-O” which ran from 1968 – 1980. Most episodes of Hawaii Five-O ended with the arrest of criminals with McGarrett's (Jack Lord) catch phrase to Williams, "Book 'em, Danno!".
The Cellar theatre was a showcase for struggling actors not a paying job. So, to pay the rent I got a job at Wallich’s Music City located at Sunset and Vine. I worked in the stock room filing new records on the shelves of the stockroom. It was a pretty good job and I worked my way up to some degree. Wallich had a store in Hollywood, another one in Lakewood and a third one in the San Fernando Valley. They’re all three closed and gone by now. When I started working there the NBC studios were right across the street on the northeast corner of Sunset and Vine. At that time the studios were mostly designed for radio shows. When they built their new studios in Burbank at their current location they closed the studios at Sunset and Vine. If I remember correctly, Johnny Carson did a few shows from the studios there in Hollywood.
About the time Barbara Streisand’s movie “Funny Girl” came out, she came in to Wallich’s Music City. The store was all a buzz kind of like in the movie “Selena” when she and her friend was shopping in LA before the Grammys and all the workers were saying “Selena aqui!”
I remember I was at work at Music City the day President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas-Ft. Worth.
Everything came to a stand still and nobody could believe he was actually dead. That was November 22, 1963. Five years later in April Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis. Not long after that JFK’s brother Bobby Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador hotel in Los Angeles. Again everyone was stunned. Those were very turbulent years.
About this time I went through a period of trying to find my way in the world of boy-girl relations. I was a late bloomer when it came to relating to women and I was shy. I knew and dated some of several different types of women. I even tried at being a Player, but that wasn’t really me. The names of these women have long since become lost in my memories. I do remember this one tall redhead that was a blind date. I don’t remember her name but I do remember what we did on that date. We went to see the bullfights in Tijuana.
The blind date didn’t work for either one of us. She was a nice person and attractive, but the chemistry just wasn’t there. But the chemistry was there for me and bullfighting. I became an aficionado of the ritual. I read up on it and learn many of the names of the great matadors both past and present. I went to see El Cordobes a great matador from Spain fight at the ring by sea at Tijuana. I even created a board game based on bullfighting. The parade of the matadors and their entourage entering the ring to music of the trumpets and in their suit of lights raises the emotions to a fever pitch. At first I bought into the rationale that the bulls were raised for fighting in the ring. That the bulls like to fight, and after all once they die in the ring they’re slaughtered and the meat given to the poor. What could be more noble? I have since accepted the fact that bullfighting is savage not only for bulls but also for the picadors’ horses. But I must admit that the sight of a matador’s suit of lights glittering in the late afternoon sun as he maneuvers the bull with his cape and ballet like movements stirs the emotions. But it comes at too high a price when man abuses his God given control of the animals.
In the next chapter I continue with more of my life in Hollywood.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Chapter Twenty-Five Name Dropping
Chapter Twenty-Five
Name Dropping
During the summer between my first and second year at the Playhouse I lived in a UCLA frat house in Westwood. During the summer months while the students were on vacation they would rent out rooms. I lived in one for the summer and worked at Pacific Ocean Park. POP was an amusement park on the Santa Monica pier. They closed the park in 1967. (click here to see info and vintage photos of POP) Westwood in the 60’s was a nice college town with no high-rise office buildings. It’s very commercial these days.
I didn’t live in the dorm for my second year. A fellow student of mine, Matt Uitz, and I got a small apartment located on the second floor of a house farther north on El Molino. Matt was born in Germany and grew up there during World War II; so, when the World War II “Combat” series starring Vic Morrow was on TV (1962-1967) Matt was able to get several bit parts. We actually roomed together even after the Playhouse living in a couple of places in Hollywood.
During my second year at the Playhouse I took a television class. We had a small studio with a small closed circuit system of monitors. We didn’t broadcast anything, but we were able to learn the basics of directing, tech directing, camera and sound jobs. Dale White was the instructor for the TV class and we became more than teacher/student friends. Dale had a reappearing part on the old Jack Benny show as Don Wilson’s son. Don Wilson was Jack Benny’s announcer who also appeared in the show. Dale looked like he could be his son. I remember one time Dale got me on the set of the Benny show when Carol Burnette was the guest star. They did a very funny Tarzan skit. A side note on Carol Burnette: a Playhouse friend of mine had a part in some kind of holiday show in Beverly Hills and she was in attendance with her kids. We were able to say “hello” to her and she was very gracious. Another side note out of chronological order: when Ginger worked at CBS she got dad and I in for a rehearsal of the Carol Burnette show. That was fun and dad really enjoyed it. Back to Dale White, more on him and White Productions later on.
The Playhouse had a couple of small theatres in addition to the main stage and I remember playing a small part of a poker player in a production of “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Rue McClanahan played the part of Stella. Rue went on to play a featured role in both Bea Arthur’s “Maude” and “The Golden Girls”.
Stu Margolin was another classmate who made good in TV also. Stu was a year ahead of me and I think we may have been in one play together, but I knew him fairly well. I kept in touch with him for a couple of years after the Playhouse. Stu landed a part in James Garner’s “Rockford Files” TV series (1974 – 1980). He appeared in 38 episodes as Angel. Here's Stu with Garner in a scene from the “Rockford Files”:
Charlotte Stewart another classmate and good friend got the part of Ms. Beadle the school teacher in Michael Landon’s “Little House on the Prarie”. Charlotte got me on to the set to watch them filming a scene from the show. Her role on Little House inspired me to write a script for the show and I actually got an agent to submit it to the Producer, but it was not what they were looking for. Here’s a somewhat recent picture of Charlotte :
Other classmates that got parts in major movies or TV include Gigi Goluban in the 1962 “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm”, Frank Atienza as Ito O’Hara in the 1961 Elvis Presley movie “Blue Hawaii” and a good friend of mine Sid (Mosesian) Haig who played villains in several movies and TV shows.
Tyler McDuff who had graduated earlier from the Playhouse came back to work in a play that I was in also got production work on the Perry Mason TV series. He got me on to the set one day. I also had the opportunity to watch Andy Griffith and Don Knotts rehearse a scene for the Andy Griffith Show where Barney is playing chess against himself. It was really funny. I don’t remember who got me on the set for that one.
With all these former classmate doing well and getting on to the different sets I thought that I was going some place in Hollywood. But I only worked in two training films shortly after graduating. One was a pharmaceutical film and the other was for the telephone company which I understand my sister-in-law Pat saw back in Topeka. Next chapter Shakespeare and Hollywood.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Chapter Twenty-Four - The Pasadena Playhouse
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Pasadena Playhouse
In early September of 1959 I caught a Santa Fe train in Topeka and headed West to Pasadena, California the land of dreams. As I remember, it took me a couple of days to get to California and I rode coach; no, sleeper for me this time. But I was too excited to mind the Spartan accommodations. Arriving in Union Station with that impressive vaulted ceiling this world traveler from Kansas was intimidated. Bags in hand I had to walk two or three blocks to catch a bus to Pasadena. Walking to the bus stop I had to cross a bridge over the San Bernardino freeway and seeing all those cars rushing by in both directions I vowed I would never drive on the freeways. Of course when I eventually got a car it wasn’t long before I was right there with all the rest rushing along.
For my first year at the Playhouse I lived in the boys’ dorm. Just a couple of blocks away up El Molino there were three big early Pasadena homes which the college had made into dorms. There were two for the boys and one for the girls. The dorms were located about the middle of the block between Union and Walnut which now is a business building and at one time housed the Kaiser Credit Union. A couple of more places that use to be but aren’t anymore that Playhouse students would frequent are Tops which used to be located on Colorado right across the alley from the Playhouse. There’s a Mexican food restaurant there now. There was a restaurant right across the street from Tops, I don’t remember the name but we didn’t go there as often because it costs more. Then there was Nardi’s which was a small bar that was located on the north side Colorado just east of El Molino. Some of the named actors who would appear on the main stage at the Playhouse would go there. Morri Ankrum who did a lot of early TV; he had a reappearing part as a judge on the Perry Mason show. He directed some of the main stage shows at the Playhouse and would frequent Nardi’s. So much for the night life, now let’s turn to student life.
We used to have a full schedule of classes which included theatre history & costume, dance, stage make-up, fencing and acting classes including performances. There were five floors to the school and we were on most of them. Fencing was on the roof so that made six floors and I believe dance was on the fifth floor and the locker rooms with the showers was in the basement. So, after fencing or dance class before we’d go to the next class a group of us guys would run all the way down the stairs to the showers. The girls never put out the effort. I guess they just sprayed a little perfume on.
We had speech class where we learned to speak properly. We would work on overcoming a lazy tongue and lips. I worked on losing my Kansas accent such as saying “just” not “jist” and “wash” not “worsh”. We also learned for stage use to speak with foreign accents and dialects. I remember little saying and songs we learned to helps us with our accents – like for a Scots dialect – “it’s a braw brecht mun lict nicht.” Translation – “it’s a bright moon light night.” Because of learning the Scots dialect a great opportunity opened up for me. Just before we graduated in 1961. Three or four of us got an audition at MGM for a speaking part in a blockbuster movie called “How the West Was Won” which had an all-star cast including Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Karl Malden and Debbie Reynolds. In the movie Karl Malden had a daughter played by Debbie Reynolds who had three scotish brothers wanting to marry her. The auditions were for those three brothers. They went with actors with credits which we graduating students didn’t have yet. But it was an exciting experience. Here’s a picture from a movie trailer for “How the West Was Won”.
Another audition experience I had was a couple of years after graduating from the Playhouse. I don’t remember how I got the audition, but an independent studio was going to do an English lip-sync version of the German actor Maximilian Schell’s “Hamlet”. I remember when I did the audition I sounded like I had just come off the boat my accent was so thick. They ended up doing subtitles rather than doing an English lip-sync. Again an exciting experience. (see photo above of Schell).
In the next chapter some more experiences from Playhouse days in “Name Dropping”.
The Pasadena Playhouse
In early September of 1959 I caught a Santa Fe train in Topeka and headed West to Pasadena, California the land of dreams. As I remember, it took me a couple of days to get to California and I rode coach; no, sleeper for me this time. But I was too excited to mind the Spartan accommodations. Arriving in Union Station with that impressive vaulted ceiling this world traveler from Kansas was intimidated. Bags in hand I had to walk two or three blocks to catch a bus to Pasadena. Walking to the bus stop I had to cross a bridge over the San Bernardino freeway and seeing all those cars rushing by in both directions I vowed I would never drive on the freeways. Of course when I eventually got a car it wasn’t long before I was right there with all the rest rushing along.
For my first year at the Playhouse I lived in the boys’ dorm. Just a couple of blocks away up El Molino there were three big early Pasadena homes which the college had made into dorms. There were two for the boys and one for the girls. The dorms were located about the middle of the block between Union and Walnut which now is a business building and at one time housed the Kaiser Credit Union. A couple of more places that use to be but aren’t anymore that Playhouse students would frequent are Tops which used to be located on Colorado right across the alley from the Playhouse. There’s a Mexican food restaurant there now. There was a restaurant right across the street from Tops, I don’t remember the name but we didn’t go there as often because it costs more. Then there was Nardi’s which was a small bar that was located on the north side Colorado just east of El Molino. Some of the named actors who would appear on the main stage at the Playhouse would go there. Morri Ankrum who did a lot of early TV; he had a reappearing part as a judge on the Perry Mason show. He directed some of the main stage shows at the Playhouse and would frequent Nardi’s. So much for the night life, now let’s turn to student life.
We used to have a full schedule of classes which included theatre history & costume, dance, stage make-up, fencing and acting classes including performances. There were five floors to the school and we were on most of them. Fencing was on the roof so that made six floors and I believe dance was on the fifth floor and the locker rooms with the showers was in the basement. So, after fencing or dance class before we’d go to the next class a group of us guys would run all the way down the stairs to the showers. The girls never put out the effort. I guess they just sprayed a little perfume on.
We had speech class where we learned to speak properly. We would work on overcoming a lazy tongue and lips. I worked on losing my Kansas accent such as saying “just” not “jist” and “wash” not “worsh”. We also learned for stage use to speak with foreign accents and dialects. I remember little saying and songs we learned to helps us with our accents – like for a Scots dialect – “it’s a braw brecht mun lict nicht.” Translation – “it’s a bright moon light night.” Because of learning the Scots dialect a great opportunity opened up for me. Just before we graduated in 1961. Three or four of us got an audition at MGM for a speaking part in a blockbuster movie called “How the West Was Won” which had an all-star cast including Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Karl Malden and Debbie Reynolds. In the movie Karl Malden had a daughter played by Debbie Reynolds who had three scotish brothers wanting to marry her. The auditions were for those three brothers. They went with actors with credits which we graduating students didn’t have yet. But it was an exciting experience. Here’s a picture from a movie trailer for “How the West Was Won”.
Another audition experience I had was a couple of years after graduating from the Playhouse. I don’t remember how I got the audition, but an independent studio was going to do an English lip-sync version of the German actor Maximilian Schell’s “Hamlet”. I remember when I did the audition I sounded like I had just come off the boat my accent was so thick. They ended up doing subtitles rather than doing an English lip-sync. Again an exciting experience. (see photo above of Schell).
In the next chapter some more experiences from Playhouse days in “Name Dropping”.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Chapter Twenty-Three The Land of the Round Doorknobs
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Land of the Round Doorknobs
As I said earlier my mother developed lung cancer and I made two trips back home from Germany. They granted me an Emergency Leave in both instances. The first time after I had been home for about a week my mother’s cancer went into remission and things were looking better. She was bedridden and on oxygen but it did look better; so, I returned to Germany. A few months later she took a turn for the worse and once again I left for home on an Emergency Leave. This time she was in the hospital and being on leave I had the time to spend at the hospital. She was heavily sedated and therefore their wasn’t much conversation. She finally lost her battle with the cancer and I, along with other family members were in the room when she died. I happened to linger a little longer than the others and unexpectedly she made a sound and I thought maybe she hadn’t died. However, one of the nurses assured me that what I heard was the final breath of air being exhaled from her lungs. That was back in about 1957 and time has softened the memories of the occasion and I hope to see my mother in the resurrection.
In making the two trips back from Germany I had a couple of interesting experiences. I don’t remember if I was flying a commercial airline or a military lift. But our route took us to Rejkovic, Iceland and I had to stay overnight at the air base there. I don’t remember too much about Iceland except I didn’t see any trees but a lot of snow and ice. We left out of a civilian airport and I remember seeing a tourism poster encouraging vacationing in Iceland which seemed to be a little bazaar. I understand though that they do have pretty good tourism business.
The other experience involved catching military rides to make it back home. One such ride was out of Omaha, Nebraska in a B25. For those of you that may not be aware of what a B25 aircraft is, it a World War II light bomber. It was not designed for passenger accommodations; so, I rode in what would have been one of the side gunners’ seat. It was an exhilarating experience. I remember when we were at the end of the runway preparing for take-off, the pilot revved the engine and the back portion of the plane where I was located started dancing all about. The B25 has a nose wheel so the back portion of the plane is suspended off the ground. My part of the plane continued to dance all about all the way down the runway but once we left the ground it was smooth flying. It was great to have that experience.
After my mother died my Aunt Mary, the one that got me a job as a Page in the Kansas Senate, started doing her thing to get me a Compassionate Discharge. She contended that my dad would need my assistance in raising Ginger. Ginger would have been about eleven or twelve at the time. The air force didn’t go for the discharge, but they did reassign me to Forbes Air Force Base which was located on the outskirts of Topeka. In fact my dad had a job there as the supervisor of the paint shop responsible for building maintenance at the base. I don’t remember exactly, but I think I would ride to work with him since I was allowed to live off base at home. One thing that Ginger reminds me of from time to time is that on occasions she would come home from school to find me in costume and make-up as an Italian waiter or French something or other. I’ve always been a ham.
My assignment at Forbes was on the staff at the Airmen’s Club. As I recall we had a civilian director and there was a staff of maybe three or four airmen. A side note – I don’t remember ever working any where in the air force with women in the military. I do remember that in basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio there was a section for the women recruits. Back to the Airmen’s Club; our duties were really pretty easy. We checked out pool and ping pong equipment. Ran the weekly bingo night. We also would supervise a detail of three or four prisoners from the base stockade. The AP’s would drop them off and picked them up later, but we were responsible for them while they were working for us. They would wax and buff the floors and other maintenance chores. We got to know most of them pretty well and they were never any trouble.
Another event that I was personally responsible for was a talent shows & contests. I remember for the shows I would arrange for local civilian talent to perform and called upon some of my former schoolmates. But in the Talent Contest in 1959 I entered as a Master of Ceremonies contestant. I think there were three of us entered in that category and I won 1st Place. I kind of wonder about a “Conflict of Interest”, but nevertheless it won me a trip to an airbase outside of Columbus, Ohio for a regional talent contest. I didn’t win at that level, but I did get an Oscar like statuette trophy for the win at the local level and I still display it on my computer desk.
Another experience I remember from my days at Forbes AFB was working as a night club manager. Another airmen that I got to know at Forbes decided to rent upstairs facilities downtown Topeka to operate a night club. In Kansas at that time you could not sell mixed drinks. So, what the entertainment clubs would do is sell the mixers and soft drinks and the guests could bring their own bottle of alcohol and leave it at the bar picking up their left-overs when they would leave the club. My job was to hire some local waitresses and see that everything went smoothly. We had live music and dancing. It went pretty well but didn't last too long. I think one reason my friend wanted me to be the manager was that he was African-American and need someone of the local variety out front. We had a good relationship and as I said it went smoothly.
I was honorably discharged from the USAF in July of 1959 and I was set to go to the Pasadena Playhouse that fall. Next chapter we “head West, young man!”
The Land of the Round Doorknobs
As I said earlier my mother developed lung cancer and I made two trips back home from Germany. They granted me an Emergency Leave in both instances. The first time after I had been home for about a week my mother’s cancer went into remission and things were looking better. She was bedridden and on oxygen but it did look better; so, I returned to Germany. A few months later she took a turn for the worse and once again I left for home on an Emergency Leave. This time she was in the hospital and being on leave I had the time to spend at the hospital. She was heavily sedated and therefore their wasn’t much conversation. She finally lost her battle with the cancer and I, along with other family members were in the room when she died. I happened to linger a little longer than the others and unexpectedly she made a sound and I thought maybe she hadn’t died. However, one of the nurses assured me that what I heard was the final breath of air being exhaled from her lungs. That was back in about 1957 and time has softened the memories of the occasion and I hope to see my mother in the resurrection.
In making the two trips back from Germany I had a couple of interesting experiences. I don’t remember if I was flying a commercial airline or a military lift. But our route took us to Rejkovic, Iceland and I had to stay overnight at the air base there. I don’t remember too much about Iceland except I didn’t see any trees but a lot of snow and ice. We left out of a civilian airport and I remember seeing a tourism poster encouraging vacationing in Iceland which seemed to be a little bazaar. I understand though that they do have pretty good tourism business.
The other experience involved catching military rides to make it back home. One such ride was out of Omaha, Nebraska in a B25. For those of you that may not be aware of what a B25 aircraft is, it a World War II light bomber. It was not designed for passenger accommodations; so, I rode in what would have been one of the side gunners’ seat. It was an exhilarating experience. I remember when we were at the end of the runway preparing for take-off, the pilot revved the engine and the back portion of the plane where I was located started dancing all about. The B25 has a nose wheel so the back portion of the plane is suspended off the ground. My part of the plane continued to dance all about all the way down the runway but once we left the ground it was smooth flying. It was great to have that experience.
After my mother died my Aunt Mary, the one that got me a job as a Page in the Kansas Senate, started doing her thing to get me a Compassionate Discharge. She contended that my dad would need my assistance in raising Ginger. Ginger would have been about eleven or twelve at the time. The air force didn’t go for the discharge, but they did reassign me to Forbes Air Force Base which was located on the outskirts of Topeka. In fact my dad had a job there as the supervisor of the paint shop responsible for building maintenance at the base. I don’t remember exactly, but I think I would ride to work with him since I was allowed to live off base at home. One thing that Ginger reminds me of from time to time is that on occasions she would come home from school to find me in costume and make-up as an Italian waiter or French something or other. I’ve always been a ham.
My assignment at Forbes was on the staff at the Airmen’s Club. As I recall we had a civilian director and there was a staff of maybe three or four airmen. A side note – I don’t remember ever working any where in the air force with women in the military. I do remember that in basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio there was a section for the women recruits. Back to the Airmen’s Club; our duties were really pretty easy. We checked out pool and ping pong equipment. Ran the weekly bingo night. We also would supervise a detail of three or four prisoners from the base stockade. The AP’s would drop them off and picked them up later, but we were responsible for them while they were working for us. They would wax and buff the floors and other maintenance chores. We got to know most of them pretty well and they were never any trouble.
Another event that I was personally responsible for was a talent shows & contests. I remember for the shows I would arrange for local civilian talent to perform and called upon some of my former schoolmates. But in the Talent Contest in 1959 I entered as a Master of Ceremonies contestant. I think there were three of us entered in that category and I won 1st Place. I kind of wonder about a “Conflict of Interest”, but nevertheless it won me a trip to an airbase outside of Columbus, Ohio for a regional talent contest. I didn’t win at that level, but I did get an Oscar like statuette trophy for the win at the local level and I still display it on my computer desk.
Another experience I remember from my days at Forbes AFB was working as a night club manager. Another airmen that I got to know at Forbes decided to rent upstairs facilities downtown Topeka to operate a night club. In Kansas at that time you could not sell mixed drinks. So, what the entertainment clubs would do is sell the mixers and soft drinks and the guests could bring their own bottle of alcohol and leave it at the bar picking up their left-overs when they would leave the club. My job was to hire some local waitresses and see that everything went smoothly. We had live music and dancing. It went pretty well but didn't last too long. I think one reason my friend wanted me to be the manager was that he was African-American and need someone of the local variety out front. We had a good relationship and as I said it went smoothly.
I was honorably discharged from the USAF in July of 1959 and I was set to go to the Pasadena Playhouse that fall. Next chapter we “head West, young man!”
Friday, May 22, 2009
Chapter Twenty-Two Heidelberg
Chapter Twenty-Two
Heidelberg
In high school I became friends with an AFS exchange student named Dieter who was from Heidelberg, Germany. I kept in touch with him so I had an address for him and an airmen buddy and I took the train to Heidelberg. It was not a long trip to Heidelberg and I was impressed with the modern banhof (train station) that they had. I was not as impressed with an experience I had in the station, but I learned a good lesson from it. As an American serviceman I was paid in script which was a currency only to be used by servicemen on base or some other similar situation. The locals liked to get their hands on script because it often had a value higher than their currency. So, it was policy not to give script to them. We had authorized places that we could convert script to the Deutsch Mark. When we arrived in the station in Heidelberg I had not yet converted my script; so, when a man came up to me and asked if I had any script to exchange before thinking, I said Yes. He asked me to follow him and we went down to a second level. By now I’m realizing that I was not doing a smart thing, but I had already given my word. When we get to a somewhat secluded spot he shows me German currency amounting to about $10 more than what I would be giving him in script. Then as he getting ready to exchange the money with me he glances back over his shoulder and mentioned he had almost got caught the week before. I give him the script he gives me the envelope with the German money and we go our separate ways. I go back upstairs not feeling good about the transaction and vowing never to do that again. I felt even worse about the transaction when I opened the envelope and found nothing but folded paper in it. I lost about $20 or $30, but I guess I got a fairly cheap lesson.
Dieter lived at an orphanage where he either worked or volunteered. As I remember it was an all boy orphanage. Our visit extended over the lunch time and they invited us to join them. It was a meager meal just a bowl of potato soup and bread, but it was a very pleasant experience.
We did some site seeing while in Heidelberg which I enjoyed very much. The city of Heidelberg is located on the Neckar river on both sides of the river connected by die alte Brücke built in the 1300’s. I remember crossing over it on foot. The University of Heidelberg dates back many centuries and I remember seeing a group of students strolling the streets singing as they went. It reminded me of an old MGM movie “The Student Prince” featuring the singing voice of the great Mario Lanza. We also climbed a steep hill to visit the ruins of Heidelberg Castle..
I remember the first time to stay in a German hotel. The room was spacious and more like a bedroom in a resident than a commercial hotel. The thing that sticks out in my mind was this large bed with a mattress that was like a large feather filled pillow than the flat mattresses we’re used to.
On our trip back as we passed through Mannheim and from the train window I could see a large outdoor ice rink with a lot of young people skating there. We made other trips while I was stationed there. I remember going to Bingen on the Rhine. It was a beautiful city on the Rhine river, but I was a little disappointed because I wanted to try my German on some locals. So many people spoke English that I didn’t get much of a chance. We drove to some places and although the autobahn was a nice major highway the country roads were something else. Picture in your mind a Volkswagen Beetle. That’s the type and size of car you’d see mostly. So, country roads are very narrow and the trees quite often are right along the edge of the road. It can make for some hairy driving.
I took a package tour to Paris, France that included a side trip to Reims the birthplace of champagne. There’s a historic cathedral in Reims where many of the French kings were coronated. It was getting a facelift when we visited. On the subject of champagne, the story goes that some monks were making wine but for some reason altered the fermenting technique and time coming up with what they at first thought was a failure. But actually turned out to be a fine sparkling wine they named Champagne the name of the province in which Reims is located. Paris was a fun experience. We saw the usual sights -–Notre Dame cathedral, the Louvre (the Mona Lisa) and the Palace of Versailles. We also sampled the night life going to The Folies Bergere and Moulin Rouge – all very exciting.
In my less than two years tour in Germany I saw a lot of Germany and France. I also took college level classes through the Overseas Campus of Maryland University gaining credits toward the degree program at the Pasadena Playhouse. I would have enjoyed a longer stay in Germany but my mother’s lung cancer altered my plans. The next chapter I return to the land of the round doorknobs which is what we called the US. In Germany all the door handles were a lever like device not a round doorknob.
Heidelberg
In high school I became friends with an AFS exchange student named Dieter who was from Heidelberg, Germany. I kept in touch with him so I had an address for him and an airmen buddy and I took the train to Heidelberg. It was not a long trip to Heidelberg and I was impressed with the modern banhof (train station) that they had. I was not as impressed with an experience I had in the station, but I learned a good lesson from it. As an American serviceman I was paid in script which was a currency only to be used by servicemen on base or some other similar situation. The locals liked to get their hands on script because it often had a value higher than their currency. So, it was policy not to give script to them. We had authorized places that we could convert script to the Deutsch Mark. When we arrived in the station in Heidelberg I had not yet converted my script; so, when a man came up to me and asked if I had any script to exchange before thinking, I said Yes. He asked me to follow him and we went down to a second level. By now I’m realizing that I was not doing a smart thing, but I had already given my word. When we get to a somewhat secluded spot he shows me German currency amounting to about $10 more than what I would be giving him in script. Then as he getting ready to exchange the money with me he glances back over his shoulder and mentioned he had almost got caught the week before. I give him the script he gives me the envelope with the German money and we go our separate ways. I go back upstairs not feeling good about the transaction and vowing never to do that again. I felt even worse about the transaction when I opened the envelope and found nothing but folded paper in it. I lost about $20 or $30, but I guess I got a fairly cheap lesson.
Dieter lived at an orphanage where he either worked or volunteered. As I remember it was an all boy orphanage. Our visit extended over the lunch time and they invited us to join them. It was a meager meal just a bowl of potato soup and bread, but it was a very pleasant experience.
We did some site seeing while in Heidelberg which I enjoyed very much. The city of Heidelberg is located on the Neckar river on both sides of the river connected by die alte Brücke built in the 1300’s. I remember crossing over it on foot. The University of Heidelberg dates back many centuries and I remember seeing a group of students strolling the streets singing as they went. It reminded me of an old MGM movie “The Student Prince” featuring the singing voice of the great Mario Lanza. We also climbed a steep hill to visit the ruins of Heidelberg Castle..
I remember the first time to stay in a German hotel. The room was spacious and more like a bedroom in a resident than a commercial hotel. The thing that sticks out in my mind was this large bed with a mattress that was like a large feather filled pillow than the flat mattresses we’re used to.
On our trip back as we passed through Mannheim and from the train window I could see a large outdoor ice rink with a lot of young people skating there. We made other trips while I was stationed there. I remember going to Bingen on the Rhine. It was a beautiful city on the Rhine river, but I was a little disappointed because I wanted to try my German on some locals. So many people spoke English that I didn’t get much of a chance. We drove to some places and although the autobahn was a nice major highway the country roads were something else. Picture in your mind a Volkswagen Beetle. That’s the type and size of car you’d see mostly. So, country roads are very narrow and the trees quite often are right along the edge of the road. It can make for some hairy driving.
I took a package tour to Paris, France that included a side trip to Reims the birthplace of champagne. There’s a historic cathedral in Reims where many of the French kings were coronated. It was getting a facelift when we visited. On the subject of champagne, the story goes that some monks were making wine but for some reason altered the fermenting technique and time coming up with what they at first thought was a failure. But actually turned out to be a fine sparkling wine they named Champagne the name of the province in which Reims is located. Paris was a fun experience. We saw the usual sights -–Notre Dame cathedral, the Louvre (the Mona Lisa) and the Palace of Versailles. We also sampled the night life going to The Folies Bergere and Moulin Rouge – all very exciting.
In my less than two years tour in Germany I saw a lot of Germany and France. I also took college level classes through the Overseas Campus of Maryland University gaining credits toward the degree program at the Pasadena Playhouse. I would have enjoyed a longer stay in Germany but my mother’s lung cancer altered my plans. The next chapter I return to the land of the round doorknobs which is what we called the US. In Germany all the door handles were a lever like device not a round doorknob.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Chapter Twenty-One - Germany
Chapter Twenty-One
Germany
We landed in Frankfurt, Germany and were bused to Sembach Air Force Base. Sembach was located just outside of Kaiserslautern in the Black Forest region of Southwest Germany. Most of my fellow airmen from the Polish class got stationed at Sembach. We were assigned to a Radio Group Mobile unit. But in typical military fashion we didn’t immediately get assigned to the kind of work we were trained for. I worked as a clerk typist for quite awhile in the office section. Each day we would get bused from the air base out to a remote radio site. This was during the Cold War with Russia and we’d often see a car drive by our site and knew it was Russians monitoring our activity. Every once in awhile we would have a practice alert and have to stay a couple of days at the site living in tents. One time I remember it was during the winter and boy can those Black Forest winters be cold. After having been at Sembach for a few months my mother got very ill with lung cancer and I went on leave to visit her. More on traveling to and from seeing her and her illness later. When I got back from my leave I told the commanding officer that I had been told that when I got back from leave I was to be assigned to the foreign language work for which I had been trained. And they did find a opening for me. The only thing, it wasn’t working with Polish but rather they had me working in Russian. I had had a couple of weeks of Russian back in Texas before qualifying for the Polish training at IU.
Our work there at the radio site was classified; so, I can’t say too much about it. I imagine by now no foreign country would be much interested in what we did back then in the late 50’s. Intelligence gathering advancements would make what we did look very archaic. There was one time though that it became very tense for us. That was during the Hungarian Uprising in 1956. There were questions in the air as to whether the United States would intervene in behalf of the Hungarians against the Russians or not. If the US would have entered into that conflict, we would have been too close for comfort there in Germany. The US didn’t intervene and the uprising failed after a short time.
To turn to a lighter side of my tour in Germany, I loved being in Germany. It was my first time to be in a foreign country and the different language, customs and people was very exciting. When I was stationed in Germany it had only been about a decade since World War II and there was still evidence of that conflict. For an example, the autobahn (the German highway system) was for the most part two lanes of highway each direction until it would come to a bridge. They had only rebuilt a bridge for one side of the autobahn; so, they would divert the other lane to that side where traffic in both directions would share one bridge.
Cuckoo clocks – I was very fascinated by them. The Black Forest region was noted for their Cuckoo clocks and I bought one and shipped it home to the family. We had it for quite awhile. It was similar to this one, but the bird and the leaves had color.
It seemed like every little town in Germany had its own brewery; so, beer could be had almost everywhere. The small German towns nestled in among the hills looked very picturesque from a little distance like a page out of a Brothers Grimm fairly tale. But up close the streets were narrow and not quite as picturesque.
In Kaiserslautern I had my first encounter with a double bus. It was two vehicles joined together with an accordion like connection which allowed movement from one car to the other. It had a conductor riding on the bus collecting the fares. Another first for me was that it was common for women to not shave their legs. OK, that’s not too bad, but they would wear stockings and that would mash the hair down on their legs making a poor American male wince with pain. A favorite first was the street vendors that sold “bratwurst”. It was kind of like a hot dog but the meat was a white type of sausage. Put a little mustard on it and “hmmmm-mmmm good! Next chapter we’ll travel Germany and France in Chapter Twenty-Two – Heidelberg.
Editor’s Note: My sister, Ginger, corrected my memory of the bug splat on the windshield story in Chapter Nineteen – The Brown County Players. She remembers me telling it as: “I bet he doesn't have the guts to do that again.” She’s right and it’s a little funnier that way.
Germany
We landed in Frankfurt, Germany and were bused to Sembach Air Force Base. Sembach was located just outside of Kaiserslautern in the Black Forest region of Southwest Germany. Most of my fellow airmen from the Polish class got stationed at Sembach. We were assigned to a Radio Group Mobile unit. But in typical military fashion we didn’t immediately get assigned to the kind of work we were trained for. I worked as a clerk typist for quite awhile in the office section. Each day we would get bused from the air base out to a remote radio site. This was during the Cold War with Russia and we’d often see a car drive by our site and knew it was Russians monitoring our activity. Every once in awhile we would have a practice alert and have to stay a couple of days at the site living in tents. One time I remember it was during the winter and boy can those Black Forest winters be cold. After having been at Sembach for a few months my mother got very ill with lung cancer and I went on leave to visit her. More on traveling to and from seeing her and her illness later. When I got back from my leave I told the commanding officer that I had been told that when I got back from leave I was to be assigned to the foreign language work for which I had been trained. And they did find a opening for me. The only thing, it wasn’t working with Polish but rather they had me working in Russian. I had had a couple of weeks of Russian back in Texas before qualifying for the Polish training at IU.
Our work there at the radio site was classified; so, I can’t say too much about it. I imagine by now no foreign country would be much interested in what we did back then in the late 50’s. Intelligence gathering advancements would make what we did look very archaic. There was one time though that it became very tense for us. That was during the Hungarian Uprising in 1956. There were questions in the air as to whether the United States would intervene in behalf of the Hungarians against the Russians or not. If the US would have entered into that conflict, we would have been too close for comfort there in Germany. The US didn’t intervene and the uprising failed after a short time.
To turn to a lighter side of my tour in Germany, I loved being in Germany. It was my first time to be in a foreign country and the different language, customs and people was very exciting. When I was stationed in Germany it had only been about a decade since World War II and there was still evidence of that conflict. For an example, the autobahn (the German highway system) was for the most part two lanes of highway each direction until it would come to a bridge. They had only rebuilt a bridge for one side of the autobahn; so, they would divert the other lane to that side where traffic in both directions would share one bridge.
Cuckoo clocks – I was very fascinated by them. The Black Forest region was noted for their Cuckoo clocks and I bought one and shipped it home to the family. We had it for quite awhile. It was similar to this one, but the bird and the leaves had color.
It seemed like every little town in Germany had its own brewery; so, beer could be had almost everywhere. The small German towns nestled in among the hills looked very picturesque from a little distance like a page out of a Brothers Grimm fairly tale. But up close the streets were narrow and not quite as picturesque.
In Kaiserslautern I had my first encounter with a double bus. It was two vehicles joined together with an accordion like connection which allowed movement from one car to the other. It had a conductor riding on the bus collecting the fares. Another first for me was that it was common for women to not shave their legs. OK, that’s not too bad, but they would wear stockings and that would mash the hair down on their legs making a poor American male wince with pain. A favorite first was the street vendors that sold “bratwurst”. It was kind of like a hot dog but the meat was a white type of sausage. Put a little mustard on it and “hmmmm-mmmm good! Next chapter we’ll travel Germany and France in Chapter Twenty-Two – Heidelberg.
Editor’s Note: My sister, Ginger, corrected my memory of the bug splat on the windshield story in Chapter Nineteen – The Brown County Players. She remembers me telling it as: “I bet he doesn't have the guts to do that again.” She’s right and it’s a little funnier that way.
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