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”.

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!”

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.

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.

Chapter Twenty - Spanish Harlem and Slick Air Lines

Chapter Twenty
Spanish Harlem and Slick Air Lines

We had enough time at Manhattan Air Force Station before shipping out for Germany for a group of us to go downtown New York. We wondered around the streets for a while doing the typical tourist things. I don’t remember much about what we saw, but I do remember thinking that everything in New York was too expensive. What stands out in my memory is how we got back to the air force station. I’m not sure if we thought a taxi would costs more than we had or what, but some how we got this young couple to agree to take us back to base. Here’s the catch though, they wanted to go to Spanish Harlem first. I couldn’t help thinking what have we got ourselves into. Were they going to rob us or would we end up on the news – “Airmen found dead in Harlem!” But the worry was all for naught. When we got there they invited up to there home which was very family oriented. They offered us a drink and then took us back out to the base turning out to be a very nice experience.

Slick Air Lines – not TWA or United Air Lines, no, we were going to fly across the Atlantic to Europe in an airplane that the air force had chartered from Slick Air Lines. Actually it was OK – not fancy with a lot of frills but it got us there safe and sound.

Potpourri
While in the air flying to Europe let’s take a memory detour. As I write down these memories sometimes memories come to mind that I should have written about in earlier chapters. So, for the remainder of this chapter I’ll relate different memories out of chronological order but seemed to me worth telling.

In our two story home on Fillmore street in Topeka we not only had a basement but also an attic. I don’t remember if Dad and Mom were motivated to turn the attic into an apartment because when Gary married Pat they needed a place to live or that they just wanted make the attic into an apartment. I remember putting a lot of hours into that remodel and it came out quite well. The number of hours and the value of my work is probably greater in my mind than Dad would ever had placed on it. I bring all this up just to tell of an incident that came about in that apartment. Gary and Pat had lived up there for a while, in fact long enough to have had their first son, Gary Lee. I’m not sure how old he was but being the generous uncle that I was I got him a drum set which he greatly enjoyed. I can’t say the same for Gary and Pat. Gary has always said he would get even with me. I’m still waiting.

Before we remodeled the attic I remember we had our home built xylophone up there. On a wooden frame we hung several different size bottles with different levels of water in them. When you struck the bottles with a mallet you’d get different notes. Kind of cool actually.

It’s interesting how some very simple activities can generate such pleasurable memories. Bobo’s Drive In was one of those pleasurable experiences. It was a real treat to go there for a slice of home-made like apple pie with a scoop of a soft-serve satin freeze type of topping. Hmmmm- mmm! Also, in that category of simple pleasures in our early days, about once a week Dad would get a quart brick of ice cream from the local ice cream store. It wasn’t that we were poor it just wasn’t an every day thing to have ice cream. Fresh corn on the cob was a special treat to me.

We had egg laying chickens. A portion of our garage was set up as a chicken coop and a small area adjoining the garage was fenced in for the chickens. Remember the cleaning business Dad was involved with in Abilene. Well, one of the things that came with us to Topeka was a cash register. Gary and I would play store in the garage. As I’ve been told one time Dad couldn’t figure out why the hens were not laying as many eggs as they usually did. Apparently in playing store, Gary and I had hung some of the chickens upside down by their legs like they did in the stores. I guess chickens don’t like to hang upside down. Later on the outside fenced in chicken area became a great little vegetable garden.

Speaking of stores, during the time of World War II the small, family store was the norm. There were no supermarkets in Topeka at that time. The family store we shopped at extended monthly credit to families. We would charge our groceries to the account and then Dad and Mom would pay the bill off at the end of month. The store was just a one room facility with shelves around the walls some stand-alone shelves in the middle of the floor. They had a small fresh meat area. It was literally a mom & pop store. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the Hartzell’s who owned the store and they knew everyone in the neighborhood. Oleomargarine was just beginning to take the place of real butter in many a home during that time. The early version would come in a plastic bag with a capsule attached inside which had food color in it and you would press it to break capsule releasing the coloring. Then you would have to knead the bag of margarine until you had it yellow instead of white, looking more like butter.

I guess that’s enough detour for this chapter – next chapter Germany.

Chapter Nineteen - The Brown County Players

Chapter Nineteen
The Brown County Players

While stationed at Indiana University I was able to get time away from air force duties to audition for a summer theatre group of the university. They performed in a small artsy town a few miles away from Bloomington. The group was called The Brown County Players. I had a small role in a play called “You Can’t Take It With You”. It was a great experience. The name of the theatre department head at IU was Lee Norvelle. Hmmm! Great last name.

I was able to associate and blend in with the university students. A unique experience was to go with a group of the students to a local rock quarry to go swimming.

One experience that I’m not fond of remembering but does say something about my past character had to do with food. We were given a monthly food allowance from the air force which we could pay to the grad students cafeteria to eat there or use it to eat on our own. I was always looking for ways to save money for my college education at the Pasadena Playhouse. One of my fellow airman convinced me we could save some money by shoplifting at a local grocery store. It actually was easy to do. Fortunately it didn’t take too long for me to come to my senses and realize that even though I might not get caught, it just was not right. I’ve never been tempted to shoplift since.

There was a small air force reserve air field about twenty miles from Bloomington. Since we were in the air force we were able to hitch rides with reserve officers that had to log in flight time monthly. One time four or five of us caught a ride to Tampa, Florida. One of our guys, his last name was Booth I believe, came from Tampa. He showed us around once we got there. What I remember most about Tampa was the soft, powdery white sand of Tampa Bay. They had great beaches. Another time we caught a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We rented a car and if I remember correctly Coral Gables was near by southwest of Miami. It’s a Beverly Hills type residential area – it was impressive. On one of the flights to Florida while flying over Tennessee in C47 (a cargo plane) we ran into a storm system. The flight was really rough hitting air pockets and suddenly dropping hundreds of feet instantly. But instead of really being afraid I was having fun. Oh, the invincible days of youth.

Another way we would make weekend trips was by hitchhiking. I definitely would not recommend it today, but back then we would hitchhike in our uniforms which gave us a better chance of getting a ride. One of my friends, Danny Alderman who originally was from Florida, had a girlfriend in Atlanta. So, we took off one weekend to visit her. I remember going through Tennessee we were picked up by a young couple and a father of one of them. They were riding in the front seat and as we were going along the highway a big, juicy insect splat on the windshield. The father chuckled and said “I bet he won’t do that again!” It probably loses a little in the translation, but it seemed terribly funny then. The thing I remember most about Atlanta was the red dirt.

Jim Barnes’, another friend, family lived in Waupun, Wisconsin. So, we hitchhiked there to visit their farm. Besides being a farmer, his father also worked as a guard at the nearby state prison. While on our visit there we went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The beautiful campus is located on the shores of Lake Mendota. Also, while there at Waupun, we went just across the state line into Minnesota to a barn dance. Yep, a good old fashion barn dance like you might see in a Reese Witherspoon or Sandra Bullock movie complete with dancing the polka. Another experience in Waupun was seeing a famous life-size sculptor called “The End of the Trail”. It depicts a defeated Cheyenne warrior on horseback representing the demise of the Cheyenne nation. I was aware of the sculptor from pictures of it and has been a favorite of mine. In fact, using it as my design I made a latch-hook pillow for my father back in one of my handicraft eras.

Editor’s Note: When searching for this picture of the statue I found that what I saw apparently was a replica not the original sculptor as I had thought. It was still impressive.

Later Jim joined me and we hitchhike to Topeka to visit my family. As I look back, it’s amazing how well we did at hitchhiking. We never had to wait very long to catch a ride, which again I credit to wearing our air force uniform. Also, I don’t remember ever getting a ride with any spooky or weird people. But as I said earlier, I wouldn’t do it today. I guess I’m a little wiser and there is a much bigger chance to catch a ride with a weirdo or a bad driver.

When we finished our training at Indiana University, I got a furlough and mom & Ginger drove from Kansas to pick me up. From Indiana we drove down into Kentucky and went to Mammoth Cave which was a very interesting experience. Then we went to Louisville where dad was attending a convention having to do with his job. After Louisville we headed back to Kansas stopping at some large man-made lake with a large dam. When my furlough was over I had to report to Manhattan Air Force Station in Brooklyn where we would be processed to ship overseas to Germany.

Next chapter – Spanish Harlem and Slick Air Lines.

Chapter Eighteen - An Indiana Hoosier

Chapter Eighteen
An Indiana Hoosier
Indiana University is located in Bloomington which is a little ways Southwest of Indianapolis. Bloomington is a small university town in a hilly, wooded area of Indiana. At least it used to be a small town. It had its typical small town square that kids drove around on Saturday night to see who’s there and who’s not there. Our air force attachment stationed at IU was a small group of which I don’t think many of the locals were aware of and so we could blend in with the other university students.
Our housing and class facilities were in the post-graduate section of the campus. We lived in barracks and within those confines we were air force with a commanding officer. Otherwise, we ate in the grad students’ cafeteria and in off duty hours pretty much had a run of the campus and town.
Our training lasted about nine months. It was pretty intensive and some washed out along the way. At the end of the training session I wouldn’t say I was fluent in Polish, but I could read Polish newspaper articles and converse in Polish. We had four extremely interesting instructors all from Poland. Over the course of the training we came to have great affection for them.
The Count: Count Yablanowski was an honest to goodness Count who due to World II lost his position. He was probably the stiffest of the four instructor; after all a Count has to retain his stature. A couple of things I remember about him was he smoked a pipe and he would sometimes put the pipe in his jacket pocket still lit and forget about it. I don’t remember him having any bad experience due to this habit. The other thing I remember is his telling us about being in the Polish Calvary and during the German’s Blitzkrieg of the second world war they attempted to repel an attack of German tanks with their horses and sabers.
Pani Borowieska: Pani in Polish is Mrs. Pani Borowieska was a lady of class who lost her husband and her status during the German attacks and occupation. She was a nice, quiet lady.
Pan i Pani Soroka: The Soroka’s were a husband and wife team. They both were our instructors. They had a couple of children with them but I don’t ever remember meeting them. I think Pan Soroka was a professor in Poland. One of the things I remember about him was he told us that sometimes he dreams in Latin. (that gives you an idea of his intellect) He always had a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face. Apparently he and his wife were involved with the Polish resistance because he related a story about his home being surrounded by German tanks.
All four of these wonderful people went through much in their homeland of Poland. After the German’s were defeated in the mid 1940’s, they were then occupied by the Russians. That occupation lasted until 1989 the year Ann and I went to an International Convention of Jehovah Witnesses in Warsaw. We were there in the last months of the Russian occupation of Poland. Today Poland is a part of the European Trade Union of countries.
As I said earlier in this chapter we had a good deal of freedom in our activities in our assignment at IU. I remember early on a group of us airmen made the rounds of sorority and fraternity parties which were given to attract new pledges. I’ve never been much of a supporter of fraternities and sororities. I think they’re too much a distraction from the reason students are at the higher level of schooling – too much partying.
My air force language courses counted as college credits and I was able to take a history course while at IU for some more credits which could be applied towards the Pasadena Playhouse degree program.
A couple of more things I remember about Bloomington & IU, my first time to have pizza was at a little pizza place in town frequented by students. In my memory it’s the best pizza I ever had but that’s probably influenced by time and the fact it was my introduction to pizza.
Also, another first and so far my only time to go to an opera was at IU. They had a touring company appearing in their main theatre doing one of the Italian operas but I don’t remember the name. I enjoyed it; however, I’m not rushing out to see another. Some of the arias are beautiful but the singing of the dialog is a little too contrived for me and usually in a language I don’t know. You get a libretto in English which lets you know the story line so that you can follow the action. I don’t know but I think the origination of the Musical was American, and at least the music being interwoven with spoken dialog is more popular with us Americans.
The last thing for this chapter, it was in Bloomington that for a few minutes I was a millionaire. I had opened a savings account at one of the local banks (located at the town square of course). One time when I made a deposit of $100 the teller made an error in entry and credited me with $1,000,000.00. Before I left the bank the error was noted and changed. Ah well, for a fleeting moment I was a millionaire in a time when that was like being a billionaire.
More on my time at Bloomington in the next chapter – Chapter Nineteen – The Brown County Players.

Chapter Seventeen - USAF and the Almo

Chapter Seventeen
USAF & the Alamo
In July after graduating from high school in May of 1955, I headed off to Kansas City to be sworn in and start my four year enlistment in the United States Air Force. A fairly large group of us recruits boarded a train for San Antonio, Texas. It was my first time and my only time to ride in a sleeper car. I had an upper berth quite like the one featured in the Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis movie "Some Like It Hot". I don’t remember much about the train ride to Texas probably because I was setting off on a new adventure on my own that would take over four years of my life.
One of the first things I remember on arriving at basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio was the infamous hair cut. It was an experience pretty much like what you see in the movies. I don’t think it took two minutes for them to cut my hair. We all looked pretty much bald. We were dressed alike and marched every where in a group. The concept was to breakdown any tendency toward individualism. We were a group of sheep so to speak following every command of the TI. Church services on Sunday were pretty popular because they gave you a chance to get out of the barracks and be somewhat on your own.
There were a couple of things I could never understand about the thinking of the service. One day when a large groups of recruits where at the base movie theatre for some kind of class, the sergeant in charge asked if anyone knew how to work a popcorn machine. A few guys eager to get some free popcorn volunteered even though I don’t think they knew anything about popcorn machines. After the sergeant got his volunteers he informed them that their assignment was not working the popcorn machine but to clean the bathrooms. He then said, "let that be a lesson for you, never volunteer for anything." The other thing that seems to work against what would be good for the air force had to do with inspecting our barracks by our commanding officers. We had to take the blankets from our beds to buff a paste wax which we had applied to the floor on our hands and knees. It gave a real nice shine to the floor. However, our TI would tell us if an inspecting officer were to asks how we shined the floor we were to answer "with GI wax and burlap sacks, sir!" Also, the top tray in our footlockers would have rolled up, unused underwear and socks as well as a unused tootbrush and tube of toothpaste. Once again, if an inspecting officer asked us if we had inspection gear in our foot lockers we were to reply "No, sir!"
Another vivid memory about basic training was running the obstacle course. At the beginning of the course they had a device with a rope hanging down that you were suppose to use to swing over a small body of muddy water. It looked like a simple task to perform. When the rope swung back towards you, you jump out and grab it to swing across the water. The problem for me was that the guy who went before me released the rope going to the side. So, instead of swinging straight back to me it went more in a "S" pattern throwing my judgement off. The next thing I knew I was face down in the muddy water and had to finish running the course all wet. There was a lot of crawling in the course so I finished up pretty mucky looking.
Basic training lasted about eleven long weeks; however, the last few weeks we had more liberty of movement and was able to go into San Antonio. I was able to do the tourist thing and go to the Alamo which was impressive when you think of the event that occurred there. San Antonio has what they call "The River Walk" and when I was there it wasn’t a place you’d want to go. Since then they have done a lot of development and is now a tourist attraction. There’s a scene in the movie "Salena" where she and Chris are sitting on a bridge over the River Walk. Pretty cool!
Also, my cousin Mary Jane and her husband were living in San Antonio at that time and I got to go visit her a few times. She’s Uncle Roy’s daughter and sister to my cousin Dick who was the one I was riding in back of on the bicycle when I caught my foot in the spokes of the wheel.
I also found time to take some ballroom dancing lessons at the Arthur Murray Dance Studios. I learned a few basic steps for the Rumba, Samba and the Waltz. I had a crush on my dance instructor because she showed an interest in me. I was too young and impressionable to realize that showing interest in the student was part of her job.
When we finished our basic training about a dozen of my fellow airmen and myself were selected to go to Randolph AFB which was next door to Lackland AFB. We were put into an intensive 3 to 4 weeks of English Grammar training followed by a couple of weeks training in Russian. We were tested all along and especially at the end. I had a score in the top group of the class and had an early choice of foreign language and school I wanted to go to. We were going to be trained as foreign language specialists. As I remember our choices of schools were Syracuse, NY – Monterey, CA and Indiana University. Some of the choices of languages were Hungarian, Czech, Polish and Russian. I ended up choosing Polish at Indiana University. Also several of my friends made the same choice.
The next chapter – An Indiana Hoosier.

Chapter Sixteen - Scouting

Chapter Sixteen
Scouting

Both dad and mom were very active and supporting of Gary’s and my activities in the scouting program. I started in the Cub Scouts. Mom was a Den Mother and dad was a Cub Master. What stands out in my memories of my Cub Scout days were the den meetings at our home. We mostly did different kinds of handicrafts. One activity that I remember was making bowls or other decorative items out of the center metal disc of the radio stations radio programs. At that time Hollywood or New York would transcribe on to huge 13” to 15” records the popular radio shows and distribute them to radio stations all over America. Mom got from our local station, WBIW, several of these discarded discs. I don’t remember how, but we strip the vinyl off the metal discs and then shaped and painted them to make our decorative items. I was in my Picasso era at the time; my picture was kind of weird and symbolic.

As I got older I progressed from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts and dad progressed from Cub Scout Master to a Boy Scout Master. Some of the things I remember about scouting are the Valley Forge Jamboree, camping and scout camp. In 1950 I was fortunate to be able to go back to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania for the Jamboree. There were thousands of Boys Scouts and their adult leaders from all over the US in a huge camp at the historical Valley Forge. For some of you younger ones, George Washington and his troops spent an extremely hard winter at Valley Forge early in the revolutionary war against Great Britain. We traveled by train from Topeka to Philadelphia and back which was a long trip. I remember touring Philadelphia seeing the historical sights – Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and others. At the campsite itself, I remember visiting the Texas contingency and coming back home with a pet horn toad. It was a great adventure and made a big impression on a young 13 year old boy.

As a scout troop we were going camping all the time. Often we would pitch tents and cook over an open fire. One time we went camping during the cold weather time and it got so cold overnight that we woke up to eggs that had frozen. I also remember learning how to make a stew in a coffee can and cooking it over an open fire. I tried to re-enact this cooking skill when much later Brad and I went camping up at San Luis Obispo, but it just wasn’t the same.

Gary worked at a boy scout camp a few miles Northeast of Topeka for a couple of summers. I remember the second year he was in charge of the rifle range. That second summer I worked at the camp too in the kitchen. There’s two things I remember about working in the kitchen, washing dishes in a somewhat automatic dishwasher and sheet cakes. The camp had archery, the rifle range, canoeing & swimming at the camp lake and handicrafts. I remember one day a group of us were walking on a path and we came upon a copperhead snake which is one of the two poisonous snakes of the region. We watched it from a respectful distance and eventually we and the snake went our separate ways. I also remember that after having gone swimming in the camp lake coming down with an ear infection. I got pretty sick with a high fever and my dad had to take me to a doctor in a small nearby town. He was able to treat my infection and in a few days I was OK again except that it did scar both my eardrums. So, today I can’t hear some high frequency sounds and have some loss of general hearing. My wife thinks I’m half deaf, but I like to think of it as “selective hearing”. Gramps had “selective hearing”.

I don’t remember if it was at one of our scout meeting or another event that we had a local magician perform for us. He made quite an impression on me and I bought a magic kit. After a good deal of practice I put on a show for the neighbors in a sort of lean-to tent theatre at my friend Penn Morton’s home. It went well but I didn’t pursue a career in magic.

Another event unrelated to scouting but it occurred in the alley behind Penn’s home was having a “ladyfinger” firecracker go off in my hand. In those days there were really no regulation on fireworks. I remember that instead of after lighting the firecracker doing a quick underhand throw, I pulled my hand up and back by my ear to toss it. Well, that took too long and it went off next to my ear. I was fortunate that it was only a “ladyfinger”.

While on the subject of “fortunate accidents” which is a bit of an oxymoron, I fell out of a second story window narrowly missing a concrete driveway. While Gary was in a period of falling out of trees and breaking or spraining an arm, I was falling out of a window. We were visiting relatives in Cherryvale and mom with some others were just returning in a car pulling up the driveway. I came running down the stairs from the second floor and on a landing between the floors there was a window overlooking the driveway through which I was going to look at them driving in but my momentum just kept carrying me out the window narrowly missing the concrete. I suffered a sprained ankle in this “fortunate accident”, but actually I didn’t sprain my ankle falling out the window. Earlier in the day I had been riding behind my cousin Dick on a bicycle and caught my food in the spokes of the rear wheel. We didn’t tell anyone though.

There’s one more “fortunate accident”. One evening I was riding in the back seat of a car with my cousins Albert and Nellie when they went around a corner at normal speed, but the next thing I knew I was sitting on the street. Apparently the car door was not securely closed but I wasn’t hurt. It scared the heck out of my cousins though.

Next chapter we’ll move forward with USAF & the Alamo.