High School, Chapter 12

 It's just after Labor Day and the first day of high school has finally arrived.

I just woke up from a deep sleep.  

Wow!  

I had the greatest dream ever.

Can it come true?

In the past year, I was intimidated by girls.

I was afraid to initiate conversation with them.  

Why?

They might laugh at me.

I'd be humiliated.

Can I overcome that fear?

When you walk through a storm,

Hold your head up high,

And don't be afraid of the dark, 

At the end of a storm,

there's a golden sky,

and the sweet silver song of a lark,

walk on through the wind, 

walk on through the rain, 

though your dreams be tossed and blown,

walk on, walk on,

with hope in your heart and you'll...

The End.

  

Irvine Auditorium

Irvine Auditorium is located on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia at the corner of 34th and Spruce Streets.  Construction was completed in 1932.  

I was there one memorable weekend evening in November 1963 for a concert with two performers.  The first was a Black stand-up comedian, Godfrey Cambridge.  The second, a Black vocalist, Dionne Warwick.  Were the choices a little unusual since the audience, 1,260 Penn students, was almost 100% white?  It was 57 years ago, but I remember.

Godfrey Cambridge at the time was thirty years old.  Two years later, Time Magazine described him as "one of the country's foremost celebrated Negro comedians."  Godfrey was indeed funny that night.

 Godfrey was born in New York City to parents who had emigrated from what is now known as Guyana.  After graduating from high school, he attended medical school for three years before deciding to become an actor.  In 1962, Godfrey received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in the play, Purlie Victorious.

"In addition to acting, Cambridge had major success as a stand-up comedian.  By 1965, he was earning as much as $4,000 a week...in all respects a headliner, working the best places.  His routines were imbued with biting sarcasm and topical humor.  

Sadly, Godfrey died of a heart attack at age 43 while filming a TV movie in which he was portraying the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

Dionne Warwick was not yet twenty-three years old that night in 1963, but seemed so mature, appearing before a large audience.  She had been discovered the previous year by the composer, Burt Bacharach, and the lyricist, Hal David.  

Dionne's first single, "Don't Make Me Over," was released in November 1962 and rose to number 21 on the Pop Chart.  I'm sure she sang it that night at Irvine Auditorium.  I've been a fan of Dionne's ever since.  

Dionne went on to become a big star.  Some of her other top songs over her long career are That's What Friends Are For, I Say a Little Prayer, Do You Know The Way To San Jose, I'll Never Love This Way Again, Walk On By, Alfie and How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye.

Dionne Warwick celebrated her eightieth birthday eight days ago on December 12th.     

      

Mary Todd

 Mary Todd was born December 13, 1818 (202 years ago today) in Lexington, Kentucky, the fourth of seven children.  Her father was a wealthy banker, who owned slaves who worked in their fourteen room house.

At school, Mary studied French, literature, dance, drama and music.  After graduating in 1839, she moved to Springfield, Illinois to live with her married sister, Elizabeth Edwards.

That same year, Mary met a tall, prominent, but poor lawyer named Abraham Lincoln.  After an on again, off again, on again relationship, they married November 4, 1842 at her sister's home.  The marriage lasted more than twenty-two years and produced four sons.  

My mother, Margaret (Karch) Lasky, also produced four sons: Joel, Paul, Ted and me.

Mary's eldest, Robert Todd Lincoln, born in 1843, was a lawyer, businessman, US Secretary of War in President James Garfield's Administration and an Ambassador to the Court of St. James, appointed by President Benjamin Harrison.  He died in his sleep in 1926 just shy of his 83rd birthday.

Mary's second son, Edward Baker Lincoln, was born in 1846, but died four years later of tuberculosis.

The third was William Wallace Lincoln.  He was born in 1850 and died 1862 of typhoid fever while living at the White House while his father was president.

Mary's youngest child was Thomas (Tad) Lincoln who was born in 1853.  He died at 18 years of age from an undetermined cause.

After Mary was widowed in 1865, she returned to live with her family in Illinois.  In 1875, Robert Todd Lincoln had his mother institutionalized because of her erratic behavior.  Mary was later released into the custody of her sister.  

Mary then moved to Pau, France for four years.  Afterwards, she moved back to her sister's home in Springfield, Illinois where she died of a stroke in 1882 at the age of 63.      

Charade

The dictionary defines charade as "an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance."

There is a connection between the above definition and the 1963 romantic mystery film Charade, produced and directed by Stanley Donen, written by Peter Stone and which starred Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn and George Kennedy.  

Henry Mancini's original song (Charade) was nominated for an Academy Award  (won by James Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn for Call Me Irresponsible in Papa's Delicate Condition).

What a cast!  Hepburn (Roman Holiday), Matthau (The Fortune Cookie), Coburn (Affliction) and Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke) are all Academy Award winners.  Grant (a two-time Academy Award nominee) received an honorary Academy Award "for his sheer brilliance in the acting business," according to his presenter, Frank Sinatra. 

Filmed on location in Paris, Charade tells the story of five former American soldiers who stole a quarter of a million dollars ($2,100,000 today) from the U.S. government during WWII and twenty years later try to retrieve it from a hiding place, each for themselves.  One of them, Charles, is found dead at the beginning of the film.  He had the money, but hid it from the others.  But where?  That is one of the film's mysteries.  

Three of the remaining four ex-G.I.s, Herman (Kennedy), Leopold (Ned Glass) and Tex (Coburn) are desperate to find the stolen loot, but are murdered, by whom?  A CIA administrator (Matthau) and a mystery man (Grant) are also looking for the money.  And they all believe Charles's widow (Hepburn) knows where it is, but she claims ignorance.

At the film's climax, the CIA administrator is really one of the original group of thieves (Dyle) who murdered the other four.  The mystery man is really an American government official (Brian) whose job it is to find stolen U.S. government property.  

Caught between the above two (Dyle and Brian), the widow doesn't know whom to believe.  Finally, she correctly trusts her romantic instincts to believe Brian, who saves her from the murderer (and later asks her to marry him).

And where is the money?  In plain sight.  On a plain ordinary envelope addressed by Charles to his wife are three rare postage stamps worth a quarter of a million dollars.  

   

     

High School, Chapter 11

 It's Saturday morning and I'm in a great mood.  Who wouldn't be after Ann's party last night?  And the kiss.  Maybe I should call her.

The phone rings.  Could it be Ann?  Unbelievable!

"Bennie?"

"Yeah."

"It's Beulah.  How are ya?"

I'm surprised.  I wasn't expecting this.  

"Fine.  What's goin' on?"

I hear giggling in the background.

"Look, Alexandra and Carla are here and we're gonna make some chocolate cakes for a bake sale at the church.  Wanna come and help?"

Wow!  Chocolate cakes and girls!  I can't miss this.

"Sure.  I'll be right over."

More giggling in the background.

After I arrive, they put an apron on me and I'm put to work.  Together we bake three big chocolate cakes with plenty of chocolate frosting.  We eat and lick some of the leftovers.  There's a lot of giggling goin' on.

I woke up this morning, 

I had to laugh 

  

Lucky

One of the old black-and-white movies I saw on TV in my youth was the 1943 Cary Grant romance, Mr. Lucky, in which he portrayed a professional gambler.  From early in my life, I have considered myself lucky as well.

Want some examples?  In December 1952, I had a very bad infection in my right knee and penicillin (see post) saved my life.  A mere eleven years earlier, penicillin wasn't available.  Nothing could have saved me.  I was lucky.

In 1954, I was a Polio Pioneer.  I was in the age group where the experimental Salk vaccine was injected into thousands of guinea pig children.  Not only did the vaccine work, but I was lucky I was not in the placebo group.

In the summer of 1955, my mother and I visited the New York State Fair in Syracuse.  At one exhibit I put my name on a paper for a chance to win a bust of Christopher Columbus.  I was lucky the first name drawn wasn't present.  Mine was second and I took home the bust.  Where is that bust?

In April 1963, I was one of three males participating in a dance contest at a night club at the Doral Beach Hotel in Miami Beach (The Greatest).  I did the twist and was lucky enough to be chosen the winner.  I still have the picture of me with the trophy, but not the trophy.  Where is it?

In October 1969, I was lucky to win a ticket to the third game of the World Series (see post) between the New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles.  There were two tickets and three wanted one.  We drew straws and my luck came through again.  

But my biggest piece of luck came in 1978.  My ex-wife Bonita and I decided to buy a brand new Toyota Corolla station wagon.  

I financed the purchase of the car at a branch of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company across the street from my office at 375 Park Avenue in Manhattan.  The bank's loan officer told me I would receive a coupon book I would use when making the monthly payments.

Shortly thereafter, Bonita's mother died and she flew to Michigan with our daughter Rachel for the funeral.  Days later, I picked up our new car and drove by myself the 600 mile trip to join them.

Thirty days after taking out the car loan I had not yet received the coupon book.  I went to the bank to see the loan officer, ready to make my first payment.  She told me it was not possible to do it without a coupon.  I should be patient.

Sixty days after taking out the car loan I had not yet received the coupon book.  I went back to the bank.  The loan officer reiterated that I should patiently wait for the coupon book to arrive, which "it inevitably would."  She told me it was "not necessary to come back" to the bank until the coupon book arrived.  

The coupon book never arrived.  I never returned to the bank.  Years later, with the car I never paid for falling apart, I junked it.  In 1992, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company was acquired by Chemical Bank (now known as JPMorgan Chase Bank), ceasing to exist.  Again, I was lucky, very lucky.  And I think, at 75 years of age, I still am.

Brevig Mission

 Brevig Mission is a very small village in western Alaska, bordering on the Bering Straits which separate that state from the Russian Federation.  It is named for the Norwegian Lutheran pastor who served the mission at the beginning of the 20th Century when it was founded.  In the 2010 Census, Brevig Mission had a population of 388 people, 90% of whom were from the Inuit tribe of indigenous people.

In 1918, Brevig Mission had a population of 80 people.  In only five days in November of that year, 72 of them died as a result of the so-called "Spanish flu."  Around the world about 50 million died over a two year period as a result of the deadliest pandemic in modern history.

"Lasting from February 1918 until April 1920, it infected about one-third of the world's population.  The first observations of the illness were documented in the United States in Fort Riley, Kansas and New York City, as well as in France, Germany and the United Kingdom."

"Historian Alfred W. Crosby stated in 2003 that the flu originated in Kansas.  In 2004, Author John M. Barry described a January 1918 outbreak in Haskell County, KS as the point of origin."  

As the USA, France, Germany and the UK were engaged at the time in The Great War (WWI),  their newspapers minimized reports of the influenza to maintain public morale.  However, in neutral Spain, news of the epidemic was so widespread, even King Alphonso XIII was gravely ill, that it gave rise to naming it the "Spanish Flu."

"As there were no antiviral drugs to treat the virus, and no antibiotics to treat the secondary bacterial infections, doctors would rely on a random assortment of medicines such as aspirin, quinine, castor oil and iodine."  

In the USA, between 500,000 to 800,000 people died as a result of the "Spanish Flu."  In Brazil, the number of fatalities was 300,000, including President Rodrigues Alves.  One of those American victims was Frederick Trump, a German immigrant and the grandfather of President Donald Trump.  

    

Betty, Girl Engineer

Growing up, one of my (and America's) favorite TV shows was Father Knows Best, a situation comedy (1954-1960) about the fictional middle-class Anderson family who lived in the fictional town of Springfield, somewhere in the American mid-west.  The title referred to the "head" of the family who seemed to know best or at least the rest of the family let him think he did.  The show was also popular in Brazil, dubbed into Portuguese (Papai Sabe Tudo).

Father Knows Best starred Robert Young (Jim, father, insurance salesman), Jane Wyatt (Margaret, mother, housewife), Elinor Donahue (Betty, teenage daughter), Billy Gray (Bud, teenage son) and Lauren Chapin (Kathy, young daughter).  I especially identified with Kathy as Lauren was almost exactly my age.  

I always wished my family would have been more like the Andersons.  Margaret, my mother's name, was the "voice of reason" who didn't hit her children like my mother, while Jim made time to be with and talk to his children, unlike my father.

Of the 203 episodes of Father Knows Best, the one I remember the most aired on Wednesday, April 11, 1956 (when I was 10 years-old), Betty, Girl Engineer, written by Roswell Rogers, with guest actor Roger Smith, who later starred in the series 77 Sunset Strip (1958-1964) and then was married to Ann-Margret (1967-2017).

The story: darling Betty signs up for a vocational program at her high school. Lots of girls are signing up for their chosen careers, and the counselor helps each of them write down "secretary". But Betty writes down "engineer" because she's good at math and did well on aptitude tests... and that's where the chaos begins!

She's assigned to work with a surveying crew for a week. Her family panics and tries to speak some "sense" into her. Her brother asks if she'll need chewing tobacco, her mother worries that she won't know whether to hang up "his" or "hers" towels in the bathroom, her father worries that he's losing his daughter.

At Betty's worksite her boss, Doyle Hobbs (Roger Smith), is an intolerant jerk. Doyle is a young upstart engineer who can't stop asking her what she's running from, or whether she's doing this to get back at her boyfriend. She challenges him, explaining that times change, women can vote now! And he says voting is just fine as long as you're home in time to cook supper, or something like that, and continues belittling her until she gives up and walks home.

To smooth things over, Doyle comes to Betty's house later with a box of chocolates.  He apologizes to her father that Betty seems like a nice girl, but boys want to be engineers so they can work hard and come home to girls that remind them of their mothers, and if girls start becoming engineers then what's the point?  Betty overhears this, runs upstairs, puts on a dress, and comes down to visit Doyle and agrees to go on a date with him.  And the whole family has a good laugh about how "silly" it would be for Betty to be an engineer.

As a ten year-old, this episode made me think.  Should girls be engineers?  That was a man's job...wasn't it?  Girls should be teachers, nurses, secretaries...right?

Gender stereotypes are hard to eradicate.  In the 1950s, there was a Society of Women Engineers.  Today, only about 13% of engineers in the USA are women, although in Brazil the number is closer to 50%.

I remember as an accounting major at Penn, my classmates were all male...or almost all.  One of my professors commented how cute it was that three of us were women.  What they must have felt?

When I started out my career as an accountant 53 years ago, there were almost no women accountants.  Today, 62% of accountants are female, while 50% of the full time staff at CPA firms are women.  That's progress!

A female friend from high school told me how difficult it was for her to become a doctor 50 years ago.  Today, 36% of doctors are women.  

When the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg entered Harvard Law School 64 years ago, she was one of 9 women out of a class of 500.  When my daughter went to the University of Pennsylvania Law School 23 years ago, women made up about half the class.  More progress.       

The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 political thriller, directed by John Frankenheimer, written by George Axelrod and which starred Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury and James Gregory.  Lansbury was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (won by Patty Duke for The Miracle Worker).

In the film, a platoon of American soldiers, including Captain Marco (Sinatra) and Sergeant Shaw (Harvey), are captured during the Korean War and brought to Manchuria (northeastern China) to undergo brainwashing by Russian and Chinese agents.  After three days, all but two of the soldiers (killed by Shaw under Chinese influence) are returned to American lines.  Unbeknownst to Shaw, he has been programmed to act as a sleeper-agent assassin for America's enemies.

Shaw's mother, Eleanor Iselin (Lansbury), is married to U.S. Senator John Iselin (Gregory), a prototype of Senator Joseph McCarthy (see post), who believes there are 57 known communists working in the Defense Department (but won't identify them by name).  He chooses the number 57 after looking at a bottle of Heinz ketchup.

Eleanor is also an American co-conspirator whose job it is to handle her son, the Chinese programmed assassin.  She's angry the Chinese chose her own son for this role and vows revenge.  

Eventually, Senator Iselin is selected as a major party's vice presidential candidate.  He and his wife will be at Madison Square Garden in New York, along with the presidential candidate, on the night the party's candidates will be officially nominated.  

Eleanor programs her son to assassinate the presidential candidate at the above event.  This would automatically make her husband the new presidential candidate with an excellent chance of becoming the next president of the United States and someone under the control of a foreign government.

However, Shaw kills his mother and Senator Iselin instead of what had been planned.  He dies a patriot after committing suicide.  

Is it possible Russia or China could put their own man/woman in the White House as portrayed in The Manchurian Candidate?    

High School, Chapter 10

After school Friday, I hurry home to take a shower.  This will be my first party at a girl's house.  I need to relax, but it ain't gonna be easy.

What to wear?  Don't want to look too nerdy.  Mom makes a suggestion.  Terrible!  Not that!

I have a quick bite to eat.  Not a lot.  Don't want to feel bloated, not starving either.

I pick out a few records to bring.  Hope Ann approves.

I'm on my way.  My stomach's in knots.  

I arrive at her door and knock.  Ann answers.  She's adorable, with make-up, a pretty, short dress and her hair dolled up.  She has a big smile on, warmly greeting me.

I enter her house.  Party's in her family's finished basement.  Nicely decorated for the occasion.  Cool!  

There's 12 of us, six boys and six girls.  I know about half of each and am introduced to the rest.  All the girls are cute, but Ann's the best.

There's pizza and Coke.  I eat a slice and take a sip.  

The music starts and everybody's hesitant at first.  Then, Ann says the girls should pick their partners for the first dance.  After, it will be the boys turn, but it can't be with the same partner.  Good idea.  By evening's end, I danced at least once with all the girls.  Ann's the best.  

After many records, we're all tired and we stop, eat, drink some more...and talk...and laugh.  Everybody's real nice...made some new friends...great party.

At night's end, when we're all leaving, Ann asks me to stick around for a minute.  What for, I don't know.  When we're finally alone, she puts her arms around my neck and gives me a kiss on my lips.  Holy cow!  

Something in my heart told me I must have you.    

Puerto Rico

Since the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1493 on behalf of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I, the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico was a colony of Spain.  However, that changed as a result of the Spanish-American War.

After antigovernment rioting broke out in Cuba (another Spanish colony) in January 1898, U.S. President William McKinley sent the battleship Maine to Havana harbor to protect American interests there.  On February 15, 1898, the Maine blew up under mysterious circumstances.  Of a crew of 355 officers and sailors, 261 were killed.  Influenced by "yellow journalism," the American public blamed Spain for the loss of life.  

On April 19, 1898, "the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution (signed by McKinley) recognizing Cuban independence and demanding Spanish withdrawal from the island.  The president was also granted the power to use military might to enforce the resolution.  Spain officially broke off relations with the United States on April 21, enabling Congress to declare on April 25 that a state of war existed between the two countries."

American troops landed in Cuba in June 1898.  The following month the Spanish fleet there was destroyed.  

McKinley then demanded the transfer of control over Puerto Rico as a condition for peace.  On July 25, 1898, some 18,000 U.S. troops landed in Guanica Bay in Puerto Rico.  On August 13, Spain agreed to all U.S. terms. 
   
On October 18, 1898 (122 years ago today), American soldiers raised the American flag in Puerto Rico, formalizing U.S. control of the island.

Since then, Puerto Rico has been a territory/commonwealth of the United States.  In 1917, as a result of the Jones Act (signed by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson), all Puerto Ricans born on or after April 25, 1898 were granted U.S. citizenship.  

In 1947, the U.S. Congress passed a law, signed by President Harry Truman, allowing Puerto Ricans the right to elect their own governor.  In 1948, Munoz Marin became the first popularly elected governor.  

On November 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate President Truman.  One was killed and the other served 29 years in federal prison before having his sentence commuted by President Jimmy Carter.

In a 2017 plebiscite, 97% of voters on the island chose for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state of the USA.  Its population is 3.2 million, larger than the states of Iowa, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kansas, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.  

I am a supporter of Puerto Rican statehood (along with that of the District of Columbia).  Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina opposes statehood because it would dilute GOP control of the United States Senate.  A good enough reason?    

    

Bill Mazeroski

Bill Mazeroski was born September 5, 1936 in Wheeling, West Virginia, but grew up in Rush Run, Ohio.  At seventeen years-of-age, he signed a professional baseball contract.  After two years playing in the minor leagues, Mazeroski was promoted to the majors and played sixteen years with the Pittsburgh Pirates before retiring in 1972.

However, let's go back to the afternoon of Thursday, October 13, 1960.  I was a sophomore at Oswego High School (OHS).  In the middle of the afternoon, I was scheduled to have a study hall.  At the same time, the seventh and deciding game of the World Series was being played at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.  

The OHS administration placed a black-and-white TV set on the stage in the school auditorium tuned to the World Series.  Any student with study hall was permitted to watch the game instead.  What a break!  

When I arrived in the auditorium, the game was in the fifth inning with the Pirates leading 4-1.  However, the Yankees quickly went in front (5-4) with the help of a Yogi Berra three-run homer (which TV announcer Mel Allen originally called a foul ball).  They added two more runs in the top of the eighth inning to give New York a 7-4 advantage needing only six outs to win their nineteenth World Series Championship.

Then in the bottom of the eighth, magic happened.  First, pinch hitter Gino Cimoli singled to center.  Next up, Bill Verdon hit a sure double play ground ball to shortstop Tony Kubek.  But, just before the ball arrived in his glove, it hit a pebble and ricocheted off his throat, causing (1) blood to fill his mouth and (2) difficulty for him to breathe.  The bottom line was two men on instead of two men out.

Dick Groat singled, scoring Cimoli, making the score 7-5.  Bob Skinner made a sacrifice bunt advancing Verdon to third base and Groat to second base with one out.  After Rocky Nelson made the second out, Roberto Clemente beat out an infield single, scoring Verdon from third.  The score was now 7-6, with two runners on base and two outs.  

Up came catcher Hal Smith who hit a dramatic three run home run to give the Pirates a 9-7 lead.  Pittsburgh was now three outs away from their first World Series championship since 1925.

Bobby Richardson led off the top of the ninth with a single.  Ex-Pirate Dale Long singled as well.  After Roger Maris made the first out, the great Mickey Mantle singled scoring Richardson, cutting the Pirate lead to 9-8.  Long went to third base and was replaced by Gil McDougald.  

Then Yogi Berra hit a sharp ground ball to first baseman Rocky Nelson who stepped on the bag to retire Berra for the second out and then attempted to eliminate Mantle to end the game and the World Series.  However, Mantle, in an amazing athletic move, avoided Nelson and returned to the safety of first base, allowing McDougald to score and tie the game at 9.  

In the bottom of the ninth, up came the previously mentioned Bill Mazeroski.  On the second pitch from Yankee pitcher Ralph Terry, he hit a home run over the left field wall giving the Pirates the championship.  

It was the first time a World Series ended on a home run.  It has happened only one other time since, Joe Carter for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993.

It was also the only time in my life I cut a class.  I stayed past the end of my study hall.  I was not about to miss watching the end of the greatest baseball game ever played.  

  

          

Shadow of a Doubt

Shadow of a Doubt is a 1943 psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and which starred Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotton.  It received one Academy Award nomination, Thornton Wilder (author of Our Town) for Best Original Motion Picture Story (won by William Saroyan for The Human Comedy).

In the film, Charlie (Wright) is a young woman living with her parents and younger siblings in the beautiful town of Santa Rosa, CA, 55 miles north of San Francisco with a population then of about 13,000.  She anxiously awaits the visit of her Uncle Charlie (Cotton), for whom she was named and whom she adores.

We learn early on that Uncle Charlie is suspected of being a serial killer, known as the Merry Widow Murderer.  A police detective tells Charlie what he knows, causing her to doubt her uncle.

Charlie notices Uncle Charlie's suspicious behavior, such as his cutting out an article about one of the murders from her father's newspaper.  Uncle Charlie gives Charlie an emerald ring with one of the murder victim's initials inside.  In addition, Uncle Charlie says the following:

 

"Women keep busy in towns like this. In the cities it's different. The cities are full of women, middle-aged widows, husbands dead, husbands who've spent their lives making fortunes, working and working. Then they die and leave their money to their wives. Their silly wives. And what do the wives do, these useless women? You see them in the hotels, the best hotels, every day by the thousands, drinking the money, eating the money, losing the money at bridge, playing all day and all night, smelling of money. Proud of their jewelry but of nothing else. Horrible, faded, fat, greedy women."

Charlie responds, "They're alive! They're human beings!"

Uncle Charlie retorts, "Are they? Are they, Charlie? Are they human or are they fat wheezing animals, hmm? And what happens to animals when they get too fat and too old?"

Charlie is afraid to say anything to her mother who also adores her brother.  However, she confronts her Uncle who then confesses he is a murder suspect, asking for Charlie's help and promising her he will soon leave Santa Rosa.  

Charlie agrees to help, but instead Uncle Charlie tries to kill her.  First, he cuts away some wooden steps on an outdoor staircase causing her to almost fall.  Then, Uncle Charlie traps his namesake in the family's garage with a car's motor running.  Finally, when he is leaving town,  Uncle Charlie tries to push his niece in front of an oncoming train.  Luckily, Charlie fights back and Uncle Charley becomes the victim.

Hitchcock considered Shadow of a Doubt to be his favorite film.  His daughter, Pat, said, "he loved the thought of bringing menace into a small town."  And not only into the town, but right into his own family's home as well.

High School, Chapter 9

I arrive at Delores's house an hour after school, ready to help the prettiest girl in the freshman class study for tomorrow's Portuguese quiz.  Earlier, when I got to my home, I took a quick shower and changed clothes.  I'm trying to act cool, but it won't be easy.

I ring the bell and soon her mother opens the door.

"Oh, hi, I'm Bennie.  Delores asked me to help her study...ah, with her homework."

Mother shouts: "Delores, your friend's here."

Delores:  "Tell him to come up."

Mother:  "Go on up."

I enter the house and slowly climb the stairs.  When I reach the top, I see Delores at the door of her bedroom.  She gives me a big smile.

Delores:  "Hiya, Bennie.  Come on in."

I enter and she closes the door behind me.  I have never been more nervous in my life.  Her hair, normally down by her shoulders, is piled on top of her head.  Delores has changed her clothes from school, now wearing a light blue t-shirt and a pair of tight-fitting yellow short shorts.  She's barefoot.

Delores:  "So, Bennie, teach me Portuguese.  I gotta pass tomorrow's quiz."

After a shaky start, we settle down and have a productive hour, some of which is spent in idle conversation to get to know each other better.  I can't believe my good fortune.  Afterwards, we have some cookies and milk in the kitchen.

More good news.  Delores gets 80% on the quiz (I get 100).  She is so happy, she kisses me on the cheek after class.

Oh, what a beautiful mornin'
Oh, what a beautiful day
I got a beautiful feelin'
Everything's goin' my way 

Carmen

I remember the evening of Monday, September 23, 1957 (63 years ago).  My father and I were glued to the radio broadcast of the middleweight (limit 160 lbs./72.5 kg.) championship fight between Sugar Ray Robinson (champion) and Carmen Basilio (contender and reigning welterweight [limit 147 lbs./66.8 kg.] champion).

Our interest in this particular 15 round boxing match was that Carmen (born April 2, 1927) lived in nearby Canastota, New York (a mere 55 miles/88 km from Oswego).  In other words, he was a local favorite.  

The contest took place "outdoors in a ballpark," Yankee Stadium in New York City.  We were listening as the fight was not televised.  Although we were in the same room, my father and I, as usual, didn't exchange too many words.  

At the end of the grueling match, two of the three judges awarded the victory and the middleweight championship to Carmen by scores of 9-5-1 & 8-6-1.  It turned out to be the pinnacle of his career.  Six months later Carmen lost the title back to Sugar Ray.  He tried to regain it three more times (against two different champions) over the next three years, but failed each time.

I saw Carmen once in person at the New York State Fair in Syracuse where he was offering to have his picture taken with you (for a fee).  We made eye contact, but no picture.

Thinking of Carmen made me recall a period (the 1950s) when there were many great Italian-American boxers.

1) Carmen Basilio (Carmine Basilio) won the Welterweight championship on June 10, 1955 when he knocked out Tony DeMarco, lost it March 14, 1956 on a decision to Johnny Saxton, but won it a second time when he knocked out Saxton September 12, 1956.

2) Willie Pep (Guglielmo Papaleo) won the Featherweight (limit 126 lbs. or 57 kg.) championship on November 20, 1942 with a decision over Chalky Wright.  He held the title until 1948 when he was knocked out by Sandy Sandler.  Pep won the title back from Sandler in 1949.  I saw him on TV lose on a second round TKO to Lulu Perez in 1954 (see Willie Pep).  
  
3) Rocky Marciano (Rocco Marchegiano) won the heavyweight (then more than 175 lbs./79 kg.) championship September 23, 1952 with a spectacular one punch knock out of Jersey Joe Walcott (see Arnold and Rocco).  He held the title until April 27, 1956 when he retired from boxing with a perfect record of 49-0.  Rocky is portrayed by Jon Favreau in the film Rocky Marciano.

4) Jake LaMotta (Giacobbe LaMotta) won the middleweight championship on June 16, 1949 with a TKO of the French fighter Marcel Cerdan.  He lost the title to Robinson on February 14, 1951.  LaMotta is portrayed by Robert De Niro in the film The Raging Bull.

5) Rocky Graziano (Thomas Rocco Barbella) won the middleweight championship on July 16, 1947 with a KO of Tony Zale.  He lost it back to Zale on June 10, 1948.  Rocky retired after his last fight in September 1952.  He is portrayed by Paul Newman in the film Somebody Up There Likes Me.

6) Joey Giardello (Carmine Tilelli), who fought throughout the 1950s, won the Middleweight championship on December 7, 1963 with a unanimous decision over the Nigerian fighter Dick Tiger.  I was an eyewitness that night (see Postponed).  He lost the title back to Tiger in 1965.  Giardello is portrayed by Ben Bray in the film The Hurricane.

7) Frank Cappuccino (Frank Capcino) had a long amateur boxing career, but a short professional one (winning all six of his fights).  After his retirement from boxing in 1955, he got a license to be the third man in the ring three years later.  In fifty years, Cappuccino refereed over 25,000 bouts including 94 world championship matches.     
     

Coup D'etat

On March 31 and April 1, 1964, the democratically elected Brazilian President Joao Goulart was overthrown in a coup d'etat by branches of the Brazilian military.  It would be twenty-one years before democracy was restored.    

The coup was supported by the United States government.  I heard an audio recording of President Lyndon Baines Johnson discussing his authorization for the use of American troops to invade Brazil if necessary to assist the new junta.  I'm glad it didn't happen.

My wife, Cristina Rolim, was a twelve year-old girl on those fateful days in her country's history, living in a city in the interior of the State of Sao Paulo.  I am thankful my country, the USA, has never had such an experience.

About six years later, a unit of Brazilian soldiers came to Cristina's home town looking for political subversives.  They camped out in a public square in the center of the city.  Many of them were young good-looking men of Cristina's age or a little older.

Selma, a friend of Cristina's, who had access to a car, invited Cristina and two other friends to go along with her for a joy ride.  It was 8:00 PM (and dark out) when the four girls drove off for an unforgettable experience.  

They went to the public square hoping to engage in conversation some of the young soldiers camped there.  Selma drove around and around the square several times before they finally got the young men's attention.  

Five soldiers then surrounded the car, one in front and two on each side.  They pointed their guns at each of the four girls.  Cristina was sitting in the back seat with a revolver aimed directly at her head.  I can't imagine!  

Each of the girls was asked for identification.  Cristina didn't have any with her, so soldiers escorted her home.  She sneaked in hoping not to alert her parents who would have been very upset.  Cristina succeeded.  The girls were warned not to return to the square.  And they didn't.  

Their joy ride didn't turn out the way they hoped.  At least today Cristina can laugh about her adventure in the back seat of a car when she was just eighteen years-old.       
  

How to Murder Your Wife

How to Murder Your Wife is a 1965 comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Virna Lisi.  In the film, Stanley (Lemmon) is a cartoonist whose comic strip Bash Brannigan, a James Bond type secret agent, "is syndicated in 463 newspapers (in the funny papers) from Bangor, ME to Honolulu."  He is a confirmed bachelor who lives in a townhouse in Manhattan with his butler.

At a bachelor party at his men's club, Stanley, while drunk, meets and weds an Italian beauty queen (Lisi) who is hired to come out of a cake.  When he sobers up, his immediate reaction is to get a divorce.  The next morning Stanley learns from his lawyer that, under New York State law, getting one is not a simple matter (I learned that lesson years ago as well).

Stanley's world is turned upside down.  His butler leaves him.  Stanley gains weight from his wife's delicious Italian cooking.  She redecorates their townhouse.  And his comic strip goes from secret agent to henpecked husband.  Stanley/Bash wants a change.  But how?

Stanley/Bash devises a plan to murder his wife and get away with it.  At a party at his home, Stanley gives her a "mickey" and she passes out.  He carries her to their bedroom and then takes a store mannequin (which looks just like his wife) he purchased and dumps it into a building site next door where cement will be poured over it the next day.  No body, no murder conviction?  Right?

When Stanley's wife wakes up from the "mickey," she sees the strip he drew of the above perfect murder and believes he doesn't love her.  Does he?  She leaves home without a trace.

Suspicious of the comic strip and her disappearance, the police and the DA believe not only Bash, but Stanley as well, murdered his missing wife.  He is arrested and tried.

In his defense, Stanley asks the members of his all male, married jury, if they could make their wives disappear (and no one would ever know), would they?  He asks them to imagine their lives if not married?  Stanley tells them that, not only would they have more money to spend on themselves, but they would be able to take advantage of all the girls, girls, girls out there waiting for them.  

That reminds me of the male fantasy of the swinging bachelor such as TV's Bob Collins (Love That Bob, 1955), a Hollywood photographer, and Sam Malone (Cheers, 1982), a Boston bar owner/bartender, who carry little black books full of names and phone numbers of beautiful, young, single women who are just sitting at home waiting for men to call them up for dates. 

Stanley said that "for too long, men have allowed themselves to be bullied, coddled, mothered and tyrannized by their wives and made to feel like feeble-minded idiots.  If one man can get away with murdering his wife (femicide?), other wives will fear their husbands (sounds like what Don Corleone said to Bonasera).  Acquit me on the grounds of justifiable homicide."  And the jury did just that.

This film from fifty-five years ago uses a now outdated story line.  At one point, Stanley says to a woman, "You're a woman and as such, your opinions mean nothing to me."  Feminists would eat that up.  His membership at a men-only club (do they still exist?) would be deemed not politically correct.  Today, most all cartoon strips are posted online, not in newspapers, and cartoonists make a lot less money.  Michael Corleone said his son is "three years-old and can read the funny papers."  Do they still exist?

I don't get the premise of How to Murder Your Wife.  Stanley marries a beautiful, young, sexy woman, who adores him, hugs him and kisses him incessantly.  She cooks well for him and takes care of his home.  And all he wants is to be a bachelor again, living with his butler.  Go, figure!

I think some heterosexual men just don't like women (misogyny?).  They use them as play things, but prefer the company of other heterosexual men:  here, Stanley's butler and his men-only club.  Personally, I enjoy the company of women.  





  

High School, Chapter 8

When it rains, it pours.  When I arrive at school Thursday morning, I see Delores and Ann standing near each other at the student entrance.  They don't know each other, but they have something in common.  They are both waving for me to come over.  What a dilemma!

As I approach Delores and Ann, they start unilaterally walking towards me.  The three of us finally converge.  What to do?  I don't want to show favoritism to either.  So...

Bennie:  Hi, girls.  What's goin' on?

They both start talking at the same time and then stop.  I try to help.

Bennie:  Okay, who goes first?

Delores:  I will.

Ann grimaces.

Delores:  You know we got a Portuguese quiz tomorrow.  Come over to my house after school and help me study.  Okay?

Bennie:  Okay.

Delores:  Thanks.  See ya!

She quickly exits the scene.

Ann:  Who was that?

Bennie:  A girl in my Portuguese class.

Ann:  So I gathered.  Say Bennie, I'm having a party at my house tomorrow night at 7:30.  Can you come?  Please say yes.

Bennie:  Yes.  Can I bring anything? 

Ann:  Just some dance records, if you'd like.  See ya.

I'm on cloud nine the rest of the day.  And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.


  

Proclamation of Rebellion

On August 23, 1775 (245 years ago today) King George III of England issued a Proclamation of Rebellion.  It read in part:

Whereas many of our subjects in divers parts of our Colonies and Plantations in North America, misled by dangerous and ill designing men, and forgetting the allegiance which they owe to the power that has protected and supported them; after various disorderly acts committed in disturbance of the publick peace, to the obstruction of lawful commerce, and to the oppression of our loyal subjects carrying on the same; have at length proceeded to open and avowed rebellion, by arraying themselves in a hostile manner, to withstand the execution of the law, and traitorously preparing, ordering and levying war against us: And whereas, there is reason to apprehend that such rebellion hath been much promoted and encouraged by the traitorous correspondence, counsels and comfort of divers wicked and desperate persons within this Realm.

King George was especially referring to events in the Colony of Massachusetts.  

After more than a century and a half of rule from the other side of the Atlantic, a significant portion of the inhabitants of British North America saw their future prosperity depending on independence.  However, it would be another 316 days until such desire was formalized in writing in Philadelphia.

What events led George to issue such Proclamation?  On April 19, 1775, 700 British soldiers (Redcoats) marched from Boston to Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts to confiscate guns and ammunition being stockpiled by local citizens for the purpose of opposing the Crown.  3,500 of such citizens (minutemen) were waiting for the Redcoats.  Fighting in the two cities and on the British retreat back to Boston left a total of 340 casualties on both sides.

In the aftermath of the above fighting, the rebellious forces laid siege to the British occupied City of Boston.  It lasted for almost a year before the city was abandoned by the Redcoats.  However, the two sides did meet in armed conflict at the nearby Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.  There were 1,400 casualties in one day of fighting.  

The rebellious citizen soldiers, heavily armed, had proved on the above two occasions that they could stand up to the strongest army in the world.  It would be eight years until independence was won.      

Baseball's G.O.A.T.

So, who is baseball's greatest of all time (G.O.A.T.)?  I love Willie Mays who has been my favorite player my whole life.  He is clearly the greatest living baseball player, but the greatest of all time is clearly George Herman (Babe) Ruth.

Babe Ruth was born February 6, 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland.  As his parents were of German ancestry, he spoke German growing up (similar to Donald Trump's father).  At seven years of age, Ruth attended St. Mary's Industrial School for boys where he fell under the tutelage of Brother Matthias Boutlier, the school's Prefect of Discipline plus baseball coach and who became his mentor/role model.

At nineteen, Babe Ruth signed a professional baseball contract with the local Baltimore Orioles.  He excelled as both a powerful hitter and an adept pitcher.  

On July 4, 1914, facing financial difficulties, the Oriole owner sold Babe Ruth's contract (plus those of two other players) to the Boston Red Sox for $25,000 (about $648,000 today).  He became one of their best players for six years.  

On January 6, 1920, the Red Sox owner sold Babe Ruth's contract to the New York Yankees for $100,000 (almost $1,300,000 today).  He became a legend.  

After playing 15 years with the Yankees, Babe Ruth played one final season (1935) back in Boston, this time with the National League's Braves.

Babe Ruth's career record as a pitcher is 94 wins and 46 losses with an earned run average (ERA) of 2.28 (runs per 9 inning game), including 17 shutouts, with 488 strikeouts (twice as many as walks allowed).  He gave up only 10 home runs in 163 games.  Babe Ruth also pitched a no-hitter.    

In the 1916 and 1918 World Series, Babe Ruth won 3 games (giving up only 3 runs in total), helping the Red Sox to two championships.  His statistics are very good and he could have become one of baseball's best pitchers, but he stopped pitching and instead became one of baseball's greatest hitters.

In 22 years as a player, Babe Ruth collected 2,873 hits, including 714 home runs, with 2,241 runs batted in (RBI) and a career batting average of .342.  He also was walked by opposing pitchers 2,062 times.

Appearing with the Yankees in seven World Series, Babe Ruth helped them win four times, getting 41 hits, including 15 home runs and 30 runs batted in.  

The bottom line you can glean from the above statistics is that Babe Ruth was both a great pitcher and a great hitter.  Nobody else in the history of the game can make that statement.  

Babe Ruth sadly died of esophageal cancer on August 16, 1948 (seventy-two years ago today) at the age of only fifty-three.            

Joey

From 1951 until 1960, Gabe Paul was the General Manager of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.  During that same period his nephew Joe (Joey) Paul from Rochester, New York, spent his summers at Camp Eagle Cove (see post) near Inlet, New York.  I was a bunk mate of his in 1955 when we were ten years-old (only 65 years ago).

Years later, Joe contributed photos from Eagle Cove during his time there to an Internet website about the camp.  I was in some of the photos and I was among his fellow-campers whose names he remembered.  When I first googled my name, I found the Camp Eagle Cove website which included photos of me during those years.  

In 2006, Joe and I exchanged emails.  He (a graduate of SUNY at Buffalo) was living in San Ramon, California, still working as an in house counsel for a Houston based energy company.  Joe kept the above photos while he moved around the country, from Columbus to Boston to Salt Lake City to Pasadena to Pleasanton (CA) to San Ramon.  "I never left them behind," he said.

Joe recently wrote me that he is now retired and has settled in Carlsbad, CA, which is located between San Diego and Los Angeles.

However, one day in 1955 I almost killed Joey.  All the boys in cabin #8 were resting after lunch, unsupervised.  He was (as I recall) picking on me.  Why me?  My bad attitude (being at Eagle Cove was not my idea) made me a target for abuse from the rest of my bunk-mates who enjoyed the camp.   

Being picked on at camp was not unusual for me.  However, this time I reached a breaking point.  We got into a wrestling match.  I got the upper hand, put Joey in a choke hold and he started complaining he couldn't breathe (sound familiar?).  I released him when he promised not to pick on me again.  

Joey almost immediately started to do it again and again I got him in a choke hold.  I added more pressure this time.  Thankfully, I released him and this time he kept his promise, at least for a while.  I'm convinced I could've killed him.  Thankfully for both of us, I didn't.

The last time I saw Joey was 1959 when we were together in the most advanced camper lodge (fourteen year-olds), named for the Siwanoy tribe.  A photo of that group was at the Camp Eagle Cove website which is now sadly gone.  

  

  

A Few Good Men

A Few Good Men is a 1992 military court room drama produced and directed by Rob Reiner, screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and starring, among others, Jack Nicholson.  The film received four Academy Award nominations (winning none) including Best Picture (won by Unforgiven) and Best Supporting Actor (Nicholson, but won by Gene Hackman in Unforgiven).

Nicholson portrays Colonel Nathan Jessep, United States Marine Corp., stationed at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.  He has a sub-standard soldier in his unit, Private First Class William Santiago.  Jessep orders a "Code Red," an illegal violent punishment of Santiago intended to improve his performance.  

Unfortunately, the Code Red, administered by Lance Corporal Harold Dawson and Private First Class Loudon Downey, turns fatal.  Jessep then concocts a cover-up leading to a general court martial of only Dawson and Downey, charging them with murder.

At the court martial, Jessep is called as a witness by the defense.  Instead of pleading the Fifth Amendment, Jessep attempts to convince the court as to the correctness of his decision to issue the Code Red.         

"We live in a world that has walls and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns.  Who's gonna do it?  You?  You, Lt. Weinberg?

I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.  You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines.  You have that luxury.  You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives.  And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

You don't want the truth, because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall.  You need me on that wall.

We use words like honor, code, loyalty.  We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something.  You use them as a punchline.  I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.  I would rather you just said thank you."

In other words, according to Jessep, the ends justify the means.  Do they?  

High School, Chapter 7

My favorite high school class is Portuguese.  I chose it over French, Spanish and Italian.  It sounds so exotic and it doesn't hurt the teacher, Ms. Sousa, is young and pretty.  

It's kind of cool to talk to somebody in another language.  I really like it.  

My answers to the first weekly quiz:  

Eu gosto de sorvete = I like ice cream

Eu gosto dos meus amigos = I like my friends

domingo = Sunday

segunda-feira = Monday

rio = river

rua = street

uva = grape

ovo = egg

um/uma = one

dois/duas = two

I got 100% on the quiz.  Poor Delores flunked.  When she saw my score, she gave me a look different from the one she gave me last week.  Before we left class today, Delores asked for my help with the homework.  I guess I'm not a bug after all.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.



  

Doc Holliday

Dr. John Henry Holliday was born August 14, 1851 in Griffin, Georgia.  At age 19, he went to Philadelphia to study dentistry at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, now part of my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania.  

After he graduated in 1872, Holliday moved to St. Louis to begin his dental practice.  Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, then an incurable disease.  

Holliday was advised that living in a drier, warmer climate would slow the deterioration of his health.  Following this guidance, he moved to Dallas, where he attempted to practice dentistry.  However, his frequent coughing spells made working as such almost impossible.  

To earn money, Holliday took up gambling, which was illegal in the State of Texas.  To stay out of trouble, he moved to Denver, Colorado where he became a faro dealer.

Holliday subsequently relocated to Cheyenne, Wyoming, Deadwood, South Dakota and Fort Griffin, Texas, all the while plying his trade as a professional gambler.  It was in Fort Griffin where he met and befriended the legendary lawman, Wyatt Earp.  

On July 19, 1879 (141 years ago today), while living in Las Vegas, New Mexico, Doc Holliday shot and killed a man for the first time, for wrecking his bar.  He subsequently proceeded to Dodge City, Kansas where Wyatt Earp was the local Marshal.

On October 26, 1881, Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp plus Earp's two brothers, Morgan and Virgil, participated in the most famous gunfight in the history of the West, at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.  They were opposed by five cowboys, Billy Claiborne, Ike and Billy Clanton in addition to Tom and Frank McLaury.

There are at least six different movies which depict the above gunfight and six different actors who portray Doc Holliday in them.  

My Darling Clementine (1946) with Victor Mature.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) with Kirk Douglas
Hour of the Gun (1967) with Jason Robards
Doc (1971) with Stacy Keach
Tombstone (1993) with Val Kilmer
Wyatt Earp (1994) with Dennis Quaid

Doc Holliday survived the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but not his tuberculosis.  He died in Glenwood Springs, Colorado on November 8, 1887 at the age of 36, but he is not forgotten.                   

Detroit

On Monday, May 17, 1967, I reached another milestone in my life.  I graduated with a B. S. in Economics degree from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce of the University of Pennsylvania.  (Donald Trump graduated the following year.)  

Afterwards, I returned to Oswego and my parent's home to await my status from the local draft board.  My student deferment had ended.  My gastroenterologist had forwarded his diagnosis of my ulcerative colitis to the draft board.  I was hoping it would quickly review the diagnosis and free me from worrying about being drafted by the Army and sent to Vietnam.

A week or two later, I got impatient to start the rest of my life which included getting a job, finding an apartment, buying a car and meeting women.  I decided Detroit would be a good place to go as my brother Ted lived there with his wife Joy, a native of the area.

Eventually, I received a 1Y designation from the draft board.  I would be eligible to be called up if the USA were invaded.  Not likely!  

I found a job as an auditor with the CPA firm Ernst & Ernst at their office on West Fort Street in downtown Detroit.  Unfortunately for me, I had zero training in this area of accounting.  However, I learned much as I was assigned to several different audit managers who needed me to work with several different clients.

With the help of my sister-in-law, I had dates with a number of women, but none appealed to me until I met Bonnie Sobol on the night of July 5, 1967.  I remember because that was the day I was supposed to report for duty at Lackland Air Force Base outside of San Antonio, Texas as an Officer Candidate (cancelled because of my colitis).  I liked her enough to begin dating regularly.  

Going out with Bonnie (who years later decided to go by her real name of Bonita) was a little problematic.  She worked as a waitress at Carl's Chop House, a popular and premier restaurant located on Grand River (street) in Detroit.  I picked her up late at night at Carl's when her shift ended.

Eighteen days after I met Bonnie (about 53 years ago), on early Sunday morning, July 23, a race riot broke out in Detroit.  "The precipitating event was a police raid of an unlicensed, after-hours bar then known as a blind pig, on the city's Near West Side. It exploded into one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in American history, lasting five days and surpassing the violence and property destruction of Detroit's 1943 race riot 24 years earlier."

"Governor George W. Romney ordered the Michigan Army National Guard into Detroit to help end the disturbance.  Later, at the request of the Governor, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent in the United States Army's 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The result was 43 dead, 1,189 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed."

I remember calling Bonnie later that Sunday to see if she was alright since she was working while the rioting was ongoing.  She told me rioters had entered the restaurant and, in the melee, one of her legs was broken.  After my initial shock, Bonnie told me it was a joke.  Very funny!

I recall that week walking in downtown Detroit to my office, passing heavily armed federal troops.  I hope I never again see them patrolling a US city.