While his father was busy at the office on the first Thursday night in September of 1952, Burt Larson, a slim boy of average height for his age with straight brown hair, cut short, was sitting home alone on the carpeted floor of the living room directly in front of their brand new black and white television watching a slew of programs, some of which were carryovers from radio days.
At 7:30 PM there was The Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore), a program featuring a masked man, a former Texas Ranger, who travels on horseback with his Indian friend Tonto (Jay Silverheels) across the old American west "to assist those challenged by lawless elements."
At 8:00 PM, Burt watched The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, a situation comedy featuring a pair of former vaudeville stars who in real life were husband and wife.
Following at 8:30 PM was The Amos 'n' Andy Show, an all black situation comedy, which was almost the only time blacks were on television in 1952. It starred Tim Moore (as Kingfish) and Spencer Williams (as Andy) who played two buffoons.
Finally at 9:00 PM, Burt saw Dragnet, a drama which was created by and starred Jack Webb as Joe Friday, the stone-faced, by the book police sergeant in Los Angeles, California ("This is the city").
As soon as Burt saw his father's car pull up in front of their house, he turned off the TV and scooted up the stairs to his bedroom, closed the door and got into bed. He already had on his pajamas. Burt knew it would be hopeless to try to engage his father in conversation as he was sure he would be rebuffed. Everything had to wait until morning.
However, before Burt fell asleep, he stared for a moment at the photo (hanging on the wall near his bed) of his late mother, Mollie, who died in a car accident when Burt was only two years old. He has no memory of her when she was alive. She was a pretty young woman (30 years old) with curly brown hair.
The previous month, Burt celebrated his thirteenth birthday. Two days ago, on the Tuesday after Labor Day, he entered the eighth grade of his public school.
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Sunday, August 19, 2018
New York No More
On August 19, 1957 (sixty-one years ago today), the board of directors of the New York Giants baseball team voted 8-1 to move the franchise (which had been in New York City for seventy-four years) to San Francisco. (Such a thing would never happen in Brazil.) It had only been three short years before (1954) that the Giants won the World Series beating the favored Cleveland Indians in four games.
Prior to the move, the Giants competed with two other teams in New York, the Yankees and the Dodgers, for fans to attend their home games, which were played at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan on West 155th Street next to the Harlem River. In 1925, the Giants were number one in attendance in the city. Ten years later (1935) they were number one again, but it would be for the last time.
In 1951, the Giants won the National League pennant (lost to the Yankees in the World Series in six games) and had an average home attendance of 13,584. Three years later, in their last championship season in New York, their average home attendance rose to 15,198. By 1957, it had dropped to 8,493.
Per Giant President, Horace Stoneham, "Attendance has been going down here. Kids are still interested, but you don't see many of their parents at games." Moving to San Francisco, where the Giants would be the sole local team, was an opportunity "too good to pass up." Average home attendance in their new home in 1958 was 15,711, a 79% increase over the prior year. Last year (2017) it was 40,785, twice the Giants best year in New York.
When I was growing up in the early 1950s, baseball was by far the most popular sport in America. It was the "National Pastime." Living where I did, New York was the closest major league city. So everybody in Oswego was either a Yankee, a Dodger, or a Giant fan. Most were Yankee fans, especially since they had won the World Series five straight years, from 1949 to 1953.
However, my older brother Paul was a Giant fan, so I became a Giant fan. When he went to college in Philadelphia, he switched to the Phillies. But, I have remained a Giant fan my whole life, even when they moved from New York to San Francisco.
The move meant little to me since I lived 300 miles from their former home in New York and never went to any of their games. I simply followed the Giants in newspapers, magazines, on the radio and on television. Their name (Giants) and their colors (black and orange) remained the same, so I remained loyal.
When I was nine years old (1954), the Giants won the World Series (as discussed above). I thought it would happen again real soon. However, it would be another 56 years (2010) until the San Francisco Giants would win their first World Series, defeating the Texas Rangers in five games. In 2012, they won again beating the Detroit Tigers in four. 2014 brought a third championship in five years, with a victory over the Kansas City Royals in seven games.
In 1972, on a drive to California (see last week's post), I went to the only Giant home game I have ever been to, at Candlestick Park. I hope to do it again one day at their new San Francisco home, AT&T Park.
Ironically, tomorrow the Giants will be back in New York...but only to play some games against the team that replaced them in that city, the Mets. They'll return home to San Francisco next Friday.
Prior to the move, the Giants competed with two other teams in New York, the Yankees and the Dodgers, for fans to attend their home games, which were played at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan on West 155th Street next to the Harlem River. In 1925, the Giants were number one in attendance in the city. Ten years later (1935) they were number one again, but it would be for the last time.
In 1951, the Giants won the National League pennant (lost to the Yankees in the World Series in six games) and had an average home attendance of 13,584. Three years later, in their last championship season in New York, their average home attendance rose to 15,198. By 1957, it had dropped to 8,493.
Per Giant President, Horace Stoneham, "Attendance has been going down here. Kids are still interested, but you don't see many of their parents at games." Moving to San Francisco, where the Giants would be the sole local team, was an opportunity "too good to pass up." Average home attendance in their new home in 1958 was 15,711, a 79% increase over the prior year. Last year (2017) it was 40,785, twice the Giants best year in New York.
When I was growing up in the early 1950s, baseball was by far the most popular sport in America. It was the "National Pastime." Living where I did, New York was the closest major league city. So everybody in Oswego was either a Yankee, a Dodger, or a Giant fan. Most were Yankee fans, especially since they had won the World Series five straight years, from 1949 to 1953.
However, my older brother Paul was a Giant fan, so I became a Giant fan. When he went to college in Philadelphia, he switched to the Phillies. But, I have remained a Giant fan my whole life, even when they moved from New York to San Francisco.
The move meant little to me since I lived 300 miles from their former home in New York and never went to any of their games. I simply followed the Giants in newspapers, magazines, on the radio and on television. Their name (Giants) and their colors (black and orange) remained the same, so I remained loyal.
When I was nine years old (1954), the Giants won the World Series (as discussed above). I thought it would happen again real soon. However, it would be another 56 years (2010) until the San Francisco Giants would win their first World Series, defeating the Texas Rangers in five games. In 2012, they won again beating the Detroit Tigers in four. 2014 brought a third championship in five years, with a victory over the Kansas City Royals in seven games.
In 1972, on a drive to California (see last week's post), I went to the only Giant home game I have ever been to, at Candlestick Park. I hope to do it again one day at their new San Francisco home, AT&T Park.
Ironically, tomorrow the Giants will be back in New York...but only to play some games against the team that replaced them in that city, the Mets. They'll return home to San Francisco next Friday.
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Drive to California
In 1972, a year after my ex-wife Bonita and I had made a one month trip to Europe (see blog post Europe 1971), we decided to drive to California. We wanted to see our own country, not from a seat on an airplane thousands of feet up, but down on the ground in a car. But, not just any car.
My Corvair, the used car (my first car) I had bought five years before, was wearing out. To drive across country required a brand new car, one in tip top condition. So, we bought a green, Fiat 124 Sport Coupe.
The problem with the above purchase was this car had standard transmission, a stick shift. Neither Bonita nor I knew how to drive it. So, we signed up for lessons in a Volkswagen Beetle which is an easy car to drive. After a few, I went to the Fiat dealership on Northern Boulevard to pick up our new car.
However, much to my chagrin, I couldn't get the car off their lot. I kept stalling out. The salesman was very kind and took me for a drive around the block. Finally, I was able to head home. I stalled out at every red light on the way. But, I made it and we started our drive to California a few days later.
The first day we drove about 500 miles to Durham, North Carolina. I chose this location because of Duke University, which we toured. Little did I know I would return to the area to live and work 35 years later.
Day two saw us travel 385 miles to Atlanta, Georgia. We visited a tourist attraction (shopping and entertainment) called Underground Atlanta, which opened in 1969. It closed last August. My niece, Karen, who was not yet born, has lived with her family in the Atlanta area for many years.
On the third day, we drove 470 miles to New Orleans, Louisiana. I remember driving through Alabama (the only time in my life I was there) and stopping at a bank in a small town to get some cash. We drove across Lake Pontchartrain and into The Big Easy. I saw the Mississippi River for the first time and ate dinner at a restaurant specializing in gumbo.
Next we drove up through Bayou country in Louisiana passing Baton Rouge and then Shreveport before heading west into Texas. While still in Louisiana, Bonita had to stop for a bathroom break at a general store, which unfortunately didn't have indoor plumbing. We stopped for the night in Dallas after driving a little over 500 miles. This was four years before my brother Joel and his family moved there. They have now lived in Dallas for 42 years. But I was there first.
On the fifth day, we took a relatively short trip of 360 miles to Amarillo where we enjoyed a good steak dinner. It is cattle country.
Then we headed due west into New Mexico, passing numerous beautiful mesas along the way, stopping overnight in the western end of the state, in a town called Gallup after driving 425 miles. At the time, Gallup had a population of about 15,000, the majority of whom were mostly Navajo people. I remember shopping in a store which specialized in native American hand made jewelry.
Early the next morning, after loading up with fruit from a Gallup supermarket, we headed west towards Arizona. Just before dawn, we had a surreal experience. At the border, we encountered Arizona State Police who inquired whether we had any fruit, which we acknowledged. We then had a choice of either consuming it on the spot or leaving it with them. We chose the latter. I had thought the Constitution allows for the free and unobstructed transportation of goods from one state to another. Apparently not.
We then drove to the Grand Canyon which is the most beautiful natural creation I have ever seen. It took my breath away, similar to my experience viewing the Champs-Elysees the previous year. We ended the day in the most garish place on Earth, Las Vegas, Nevada (after driving a total of over 450 miles). We had dinner at Circus, Circus, walked into a casino, put down a $1 bet on a roulette wheel, lost and returned to our nondescript motel.
The next morning we drove west through a desert for about 270 miles before finally reaching our destination, Los Angeles, California. I remember a sign while driving which said "no gas next 90 miles." There was nothing but sand and cactus. We stopped in Baker, California, which consisted of a gas station and a diner. We used both.
In our three days in LA, we hit some of the usual tourist locations: Disneyland, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood and Vine, Beverly Hills, the Los Angeles Coliseum, etc. We dined at a restaurant owned by Sonny (and Cher). At one point, the owner walked past us and smiled.
Then we took gorgeous route 101 for 380 miles up the coast to San Francisco, stopping at Malibu Beach and San Simeon, where we stepped into the Pacific Ocean and saw (from a distance) the Hearst Castle.
The highlight of my stay in the bay area was a baseball game at Candlestick Park, then the home of my lifelong favorite team, the San Francisco Giants. It is the only Giant home game I have ever been to and it was the only time I ever saw the great Roberto Clemente in person.
However, my lasting impression of the game was the weather. I was dressed (t-shirt and shorts) for a summer time game in New York City, but I was in San Francisco. The fans around me wore winter jackets and were under blankets. Mark Twain was credited as saying, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." I suffered from the wind and the cold air for three hours. Thankfully, the Giants won the game, 7-0.
Leaving California, we took route 80 East 380 miles to Winnemucca, a small town in northern Nevada which consisted of some gas stations, motels and three casinos, which we didn't enter.
The following day we drove 355 miles, past the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Range to Salt Lake City, Utah. We visited the Temple Square and the Tabernacle in the downtown area.
Next, we then drove 535 miles through the Rocky Mountains to Denver, Colorado. I remember almost nothing about that day.
The following day, it was on to Omaha, Nebraska, a distance of about 540 miles. Nearby, we visited Boys Town, the village made famous by the Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney 1938 film of the same name which I had seen many times. It is the true story of a home for delinquent and underprivileged boys founded by Father Edward Flanagan (Tracy). Why only for boys?
After re-crossing the Mississippi River, we reached Chicago, Illinois (470 miles). We drove around a bit, seeing Lake Michigan and the Sears Tower.
Our tour of the USA was about over. We stopped in Detroit, Michigan (280 miles) to visit Bonita's family. The next day we drove to our home in New York City (615 miles). In total, our brand new Fiat had covered over 7,000 miles from New York to California and back with no problem. It was a fantastic, never to be forgotten journey across our beautiful country.
My Corvair, the used car (my first car) I had bought five years before, was wearing out. To drive across country required a brand new car, one in tip top condition. So, we bought a green, Fiat 124 Sport Coupe.
The problem with the above purchase was this car had standard transmission, a stick shift. Neither Bonita nor I knew how to drive it. So, we signed up for lessons in a Volkswagen Beetle which is an easy car to drive. After a few, I went to the Fiat dealership on Northern Boulevard to pick up our new car.
However, much to my chagrin, I couldn't get the car off their lot. I kept stalling out. The salesman was very kind and took me for a drive around the block. Finally, I was able to head home. I stalled out at every red light on the way. But, I made it and we started our drive to California a few days later.
The first day we drove about 500 miles to Durham, North Carolina. I chose this location because of Duke University, which we toured. Little did I know I would return to the area to live and work 35 years later.
Day two saw us travel 385 miles to Atlanta, Georgia. We visited a tourist attraction (shopping and entertainment) called Underground Atlanta, which opened in 1969. It closed last August. My niece, Karen, who was not yet born, has lived with her family in the Atlanta area for many years.
On the third day, we drove 470 miles to New Orleans, Louisiana. I remember driving through Alabama (the only time in my life I was there) and stopping at a bank in a small town to get some cash. We drove across Lake Pontchartrain and into The Big Easy. I saw the Mississippi River for the first time and ate dinner at a restaurant specializing in gumbo.
Next we drove up through Bayou country in Louisiana passing Baton Rouge and then Shreveport before heading west into Texas. While still in Louisiana, Bonita had to stop for a bathroom break at a general store, which unfortunately didn't have indoor plumbing. We stopped for the night in Dallas after driving a little over 500 miles. This was four years before my brother Joel and his family moved there. They have now lived in Dallas for 42 years. But I was there first.
On the fifth day, we took a relatively short trip of 360 miles to Amarillo where we enjoyed a good steak dinner. It is cattle country.
Then we headed due west into New Mexico, passing numerous beautiful mesas along the way, stopping overnight in the western end of the state, in a town called Gallup after driving 425 miles. At the time, Gallup had a population of about 15,000, the majority of whom were mostly Navajo people. I remember shopping in a store which specialized in native American hand made jewelry.
Early the next morning, after loading up with fruit from a Gallup supermarket, we headed west towards Arizona. Just before dawn, we had a surreal experience. At the border, we encountered Arizona State Police who inquired whether we had any fruit, which we acknowledged. We then had a choice of either consuming it on the spot or leaving it with them. We chose the latter. I had thought the Constitution allows for the free and unobstructed transportation of goods from one state to another. Apparently not.
We then drove to the Grand Canyon which is the most beautiful natural creation I have ever seen. It took my breath away, similar to my experience viewing the Champs-Elysees the previous year. We ended the day in the most garish place on Earth, Las Vegas, Nevada (after driving a total of over 450 miles). We had dinner at Circus, Circus, walked into a casino, put down a $1 bet on a roulette wheel, lost and returned to our nondescript motel.
The next morning we drove west through a desert for about 270 miles before finally reaching our destination, Los Angeles, California. I remember a sign while driving which said "no gas next 90 miles." There was nothing but sand and cactus. We stopped in Baker, California, which consisted of a gas station and a diner. We used both.
In our three days in LA, we hit some of the usual tourist locations: Disneyland, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood and Vine, Beverly Hills, the Los Angeles Coliseum, etc. We dined at a restaurant owned by Sonny (and Cher). At one point, the owner walked past us and smiled.
Then we took gorgeous route 101 for 380 miles up the coast to San Francisco, stopping at Malibu Beach and San Simeon, where we stepped into the Pacific Ocean and saw (from a distance) the Hearst Castle.
The highlight of my stay in the bay area was a baseball game at Candlestick Park, then the home of my lifelong favorite team, the San Francisco Giants. It is the only Giant home game I have ever been to and it was the only time I ever saw the great Roberto Clemente in person.
However, my lasting impression of the game was the weather. I was dressed (t-shirt and shorts) for a summer time game in New York City, but I was in San Francisco. The fans around me wore winter jackets and were under blankets. Mark Twain was credited as saying, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." I suffered from the wind and the cold air for three hours. Thankfully, the Giants won the game, 7-0.
Leaving California, we took route 80 East 380 miles to Winnemucca, a small town in northern Nevada which consisted of some gas stations, motels and three casinos, which we didn't enter.
The following day we drove 355 miles, past the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Range to Salt Lake City, Utah. We visited the Temple Square and the Tabernacle in the downtown area.
Next, we then drove 535 miles through the Rocky Mountains to Denver, Colorado. I remember almost nothing about that day.
The following day, it was on to Omaha, Nebraska, a distance of about 540 miles. Nearby, we visited Boys Town, the village made famous by the Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney 1938 film of the same name which I had seen many times. It is the true story of a home for delinquent and underprivileged boys founded by Father Edward Flanagan (Tracy). Why only for boys?
After re-crossing the Mississippi River, we reached Chicago, Illinois (470 miles). We drove around a bit, seeing Lake Michigan and the Sears Tower.
Our tour of the USA was about over. We stopped in Detroit, Michigan (280 miles) to visit Bonita's family. The next day we drove to our home in New York City (615 miles). In total, our brand new Fiat had covered over 7,000 miles from New York to California and back with no problem. It was a fantastic, never to be forgotten journey across our beautiful country.
Sunday, August 5, 2018
Thelma & Louise
Thelma & Louise is a 1991 film directed by Ridley Scott (nominated for Academy Award for Best Director, but lost to Jonathan Demme for The Silence of the Lambs), written by Callie Khouri (won Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay) and starred Geena Davis (Thelma) and Susan Sarandon (Louise). Both actresses were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress but lost to Jodie Foster, also for The Silence of the Lambs.
Thelma & Louise are two friends from Arkansas who go on a fishing trip into the mountains. On their way there, they make a nighttime stop at a roadside bar. Thelma is picked up by a womanizing stranger named Harlan (played by Timothy Carhart). After drinking and dancing, the two leave the bar and go out to the parking lot to get some air. Feeling better, Thelma attempts to return to the bar.
Harlan: Wait a minute. Where do you think you're going, huh?
Thelma & Louise are two friends from Arkansas who go on a fishing trip into the mountains. On their way there, they make a nighttime stop at a roadside bar. Thelma is picked up by a womanizing stranger named Harlan (played by Timothy Carhart). After drinking and dancing, the two leave the bar and go out to the parking lot to get some air. Feeling better, Thelma attempts to return to the bar.
Harlan: Wait a minute. Where do you think you're going, huh?
Thelma: I'm going back inside.
Harlan: Oh, no, no. (Harlan starts grabbing and touching her.)
Thelma: Harlan.
Harlan: What?
Thelma: Hey, quit it. Stop it. Stop it.
Harlan: Thelma. Listen to me. I'm not gonna hurt you, OK? I just wanna kiss you. All right?
Thelma: No. No.
Harlan: Come on. (He kisses her.) God damn, you are gorgeous.
Thelma: All right. Let me go now. I mean, I'm married. Come on.
Harlan: That's OK, I'm married, too.
Thelma: I don't feel good. I've been sick.
Harlan: Listen to me. I said I'm not going to hurt you. OK? Relax. (He continues his unwanted advances towards her.)
Thelma: Harlan, stop it. Please. I mean it. Wait. Don't. Louise is gonna wonder where I am.
Harlan: Fuck Louise. (She slaps him to ward him off.) Don't ever fucking hit me, fucking bitch.
Thelma: Please, Harlan. Don't hurt me, Harlan, please.
Harlan: Shut up. Shut the fuck up. You hear me? (He attempts to rape her. Suddenly, Louise arrives at the parking lot.)
Louise: Let her go.
Harlan: Get the fuck out of here.
Louise: (She puts a gun to his head.) You let her go, you fucking asshole, or I'm gonna splatter your ugly face all over this nice car.
Harlan: (He lets her go.) All right. Hey, just calm down. We were just having a little fun, that's all.
Louise: Looks like you got a real fucked up idea of fun. In the future, when a woman's crying like that, she isn't having any fun. (The two women head back toward the bar, perhaps for Thelma to get cleaned up, perhaps to call the police to get justice for Thelma. But Harlan can't keep his mouth shut.)
Harlan: Bitch! I should have gone ahead and fucked her.
Louise: What did you say?
Harlan: You can suck my [expletive deleted].
Full of rage, Louise shoots Harlan dead with one bullet to the heart. She became his judge, jury and executioner. Louise then decides, for both her and Thelma, that the best policy would be to flee the scene in their car. She believes the police will treat what happened as nothing more than a simple homicide. This is 1991, not 2018. Did she do the right thing?
First, Louise's decision eventually leads to the police engaging in a multi-state pursuit of the two fugitives, climaxing in the death of both women.
Second, Louise's decision makes Thelma, who was not directly involved in the shooting, an accomplice. By turning herself into the police, Louise could have saved Thelma from criminal prosecution.
Third, Thelma & Louise could have told the police (a lie) that Louise shot Harlan in the act of attempting to rape Thelma. There seems to have been plenty of physical evidence to prove Harlan's guilt of that crime.
Or fourth, Thelma & Louise could have told the truth as to what happened. An extenuating circumstance is that Louise was a rape victim years before and the behavior of Harlan triggered an emotional response that may have been uncontrollable (see 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder). This may have given her a lighter sentence or perhaps none at all with the right judge and jury.
The bottom line is that Louise's decision to flee was the worst choice. What do you think?
Louise: What did you say?
Harlan: You can suck my [expletive deleted].
Full of rage, Louise shoots Harlan dead with one bullet to the heart. She became his judge, jury and executioner. Louise then decides, for both her and Thelma, that the best policy would be to flee the scene in their car. She believes the police will treat what happened as nothing more than a simple homicide. This is 1991, not 2018. Did she do the right thing?
First, Louise's decision eventually leads to the police engaging in a multi-state pursuit of the two fugitives, climaxing in the death of both women.
Second, Louise's decision makes Thelma, who was not directly involved in the shooting, an accomplice. By turning herself into the police, Louise could have saved Thelma from criminal prosecution.
Third, Thelma & Louise could have told the police (a lie) that Louise shot Harlan in the act of attempting to rape Thelma. There seems to have been plenty of physical evidence to prove Harlan's guilt of that crime.
Or fourth, Thelma & Louise could have told the truth as to what happened. An extenuating circumstance is that Louise was a rape victim years before and the behavior of Harlan triggered an emotional response that may have been uncontrollable (see 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder). This may have given her a lighter sentence or perhaps none at all with the right judge and jury.
The bottom line is that Louise's decision to flee was the worst choice. What do you think?
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