Pat Summerall

Pat Summerall was born in Lake City, Florida on May 10, 1930.  He played football, basketball, baseball and tennis at his local high school, Columbia.

Summerall attended the University of Arkansas where he played football for three years.  Besides playing tight end on offense and defensive end, he was also the team's place kicker for field goals and extra points.

After being drafted by the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), Summerall played five years for the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals and four years for the New York football Giants.  He was primarily known for his placekicking ability.  Summerall used the straight ahead approach instead of the soccer style which everybody currently uses and has used for many years.

After the 1961 season, Summerall retired from football and moved into a very successful broadcasting career.  He became an analyst for NFL games, a position he held for forty years.  

The highlight of Summerall's football career occurred on December 14, 1958 at Yankee Stadium.  It was the regular season finale against the Cleveland Browns.  The Giants trailed the Eastern Conference's first place Browns by one game and needed a victory to force a one-game playoff to determine who would play the Baltimore (now Indianapolis) Colts in the NFL championship game (pre-Super Bowl).

As the game was winding down, the score was tied at 10-10.  Such a final result (there was no overtime during the regular season) would benefit the Browns.  They would be Eastern Conference champion.  

The Giants were able to edge into Cleveland's territory.  On fourth down, with swirling winds and snow falling, Summerall went out on the field to attempt a 49 yard field goal to give the Giants the win and force a playoff game against the Browns the following Sunday.

Summerall made the kick and became a sports legend.  The Giants beat the Browns the following weekend (10-0), but lost to the Colts in the first NFL championship overtime game two weeks later (23-17).

Pat Summerall died in Dallas, Texas on April 16, 2013 (ten years ago).  

    

JESSI

 In July 1962, I spent two weeks at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.  It was the summer before my senior year at Oswego High School (OHS).  I was there to participate in the Junior Engineers and Scientists Summer Institute (JESSI).  Perhaps this program was a reaction to Sputnik (1957).  

What was a future accountant doing there with engineers and scientists?  

My parents were filling my head with the point of view that a liberal arts education (like my brother Joel got at Dartmouth College) was wasteful.   Better to invest your time to study something that would lead directly to a job or a career (like my brother Paul did studying civil engineering at Penn).  

Not using my imagination, I decided that I, too, would study engineering at Penn, if I was accepted.

Another benefit of spending two weeks at Clarkson was to experience the freedom of being away from my mother, a preview of what would happen the following year when I would begin my college education.  At almost seventeen years-of-age, I was so ready to leave home.

We were housed in Clarkson dormitories and my roommate was a very likeable sort.  We got along great.  He was also from a small town in New York State.

Monday through Friday, we had introductory classes in various engineering and science courses taught by Clarkson professors.  I remember one such who walked to the blackboard, turning his back to the class, and wrote on it for the entirety of the class.  No communication, eye to eye.  Great teaching technique! 

On the weekend, we could walk into downtown Potsdam and look around.  Not much to see.  A little smaller than Oswego.  

Met a JESSI classmate in town from Rhode Island.  He bragged about his fake ID (no photos then) and his plan to seduce a local girl who would not be able to trace him in case she wanted to (or needed to).  You meet all kinds.  

In the fall, I studied Chemistry at OHS and lost my appetite for engineering.  After I was accepted at Penn, I saw they had a business curriculum and switched to it.  From there I was required to take a year of accounting and the rest of my professional life is history.

In a Lonely Place

 In a Lonely Place is a 1950 film noir drama which starred Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame.  Dix (Bogart) is a struggling Hollywood screenwriter, while Laurel (Grahame) is a neighbor of his who lives on the opposite side of the courtyard of their apartment complex.

One night, Dix invites a hat-check girl at a nightclub he was at to come home with him to help him with a screenplay he may write.  When they arrive at his apartment complex, they pass Laurel.  

At the end of the evening, Dix puts the hat-check girl in a taxi to take her home.  The next morning, he is questioned by the police as the hat-check girl was found murdered.  

However, Laurel provides an alibi for Dix as she saw the hat-check girl leave his apartment.  Afterwards, the two of them strike up a conversation where an attraction is evident.  

Dix and Laurel fall in love, but she becomes worried as she learns of his violent behavior.  She starts to believe that Dix may have murdered the hat-check girl.  

Dix asks Laurel to marry him.  She accepts, but only because she is afraid of his reaction if she turns him down.  

Later, Dix tries to strangle her when he sees that she has taken off her engagement ring.  He eventually calms down before ending her life.  

Just then, Dix receives a phone call from the police reporting that the hat-check girl's boyfriend confessed to her murder.  However, it is too late to salvage Dix's relationship with Laurel.

There is one amusing scene when Dix is preparing for the two of them to eat a grapefruit for breakfast.  He straightens out the curved grapefruit knife unaware of its purpose.  

I first noticed the beautiful actress Gloria Grahame in the 1946 classic film It Was a Wonderful Life.  She plays Violet, a friend of George Bailey's (James Stewart).

In one memorable scene, Violet walks past George, Bert the cop (Ward Bond) and Ernie the taxi driver (Frank Faylen) in a very flirtatious manner.  A pedestrian is almost hit by a car as he was staring at Violet.  Bert then says, "I think I'll go home and see what the wife's doing."

Gloria Grahame was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1947 film Crossfire.  She lost out to Celeste Holm in Gentlemen's Agreement.  However, Grahame won the award with the 1952 film, The Bad and The Beautiful.

Sadly, Grahame died of cancer in 1981 at the age of fifty-seven.  That was the same year that Natalie Wood (at 43), Richard Boone (at 63), William Holden (at 63), Melvin Douglas (at 80) and my father also died (at 80).

            

Abraham's Son, Chapter 15

 INT. ABRAHAM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

ABRAHAM opens bedroom door and he and SARA enter.  He turns on light.

SARA:  Nice.  Bigger than mine.  

ABRAHAM:  Why don't I put on fresh sheets.

SARA:  Good idea.

ABRAHAM finds fresh sheets and pillow cases and together he and SARA put them on mattress and pillows.  Then he puts blanket down at foot of bed.

ABRAHAM:  That's good.  I guess now we can get started.  (pause)  You know, this is very awkward for me.  I've made love to my wife and other women, but not like this.  This is different.

SARA:  Okay.  I think I need to take over here.  I've done this with guys I didn't even like.  I like you, ABRAHAM.  I like you a lot.  And I wanna help you do this.  First, take off your shoes and socks.

ABRAHAM sits on bed and removes his shoes and socks.  At same time, SARA flips off her shoes.  

SARA:  Okay, kill the light.

ABRAHAM turns off light, but there is enough light coming in through the window.

SARA:  We need music.

ABRAHAM:  The radio over there on my dresser.

SARA sees the radio, turns it on and finds some romantic music.

SARA:  You like that?

ABRAHAM:  Yeah!  That's nice.

SARA slowly starts doing a striptease.  She removes her skirt revealing her panties.  She has ABRAHAM's full attention.  She then takes off her blouse revealing her bra.

SARA:  You wanna take off your shirt or do you need help?

ABRAHAM takes off his shirt revealing his naked chest.  

SARA:  You don't look so bad for an old guy.  

SARA unhooks her bra and then playfully removes it revealing her breasts.

ABRAHAM:  You are beautiful, SARA.  

SARA approaches ABRAHAM and presses her body against his.  She kisses him gently on his lips.  He responds in kind.  

SARA:  Need help with your pants?

ABRAHAM:  No.  I can do that.

He removes his pants.  They are now down to their underpants and panties.

SARA:  Let's get in bed.

ABRAHAM and SARA lie down in bed, side by side, holding each other and kissing each other.  Each of them gradually start becoming more passionate.  Finally, they both remove their final garments and touch each other freely.  After some minutes of foreplay, ABRAHAM gets on top of SARA in the missionary position.  SARA wraps her legs around him.  He penetrates her and starts moving back and forth.  They moan.  Finally, there is a climax.  They both relax.  He remains on top of her.

ABRAHAM:  Am I too heavy?

SARA shakes her head no and kisses him on his lips.  She then pauses and breaks into a broad smile.

SARA:  Boy, you ain't over the hill.

They both laugh.

ABRAHAM:  Thank you for...

SARA:  Thank you?  Thank you.  That was fun.  How 'bout we do it again...in a few minutes.

ABRAHAM rolls over next to SARA.

ABRAHAM:  I'm an old man.  Once a night is all I'm good for.

SARA:  No problem.  (pause)  Let me put my head on your chest for a while and then I'll be on my way home.

ABRAHAM:  No, no, no, no.  Spend the night here with me.  And then I'll make you pancakes and coffee in the morning.  Please.

SARA:  Thanks.  You know, this'll be a first.  I've fucked a few guys, but never spent a whole night with one.

ABRAHAM:  We made love, SARA.  Don't forget.

SARA puts her head on ABRAHAM's chest and soon falls asleep.  ABRAHAM thinks about his future child.

Las Vegas

One morning in the summer of 1972, my ex-wife Bonita and I got up from a motel in Gallup, New Mexico and headed west in our green Fiat 124 Sport Coupe towards Kingman, Arizona.  We never got there.

Once we drove across the state line, the fruit we had bought in Gallup was confiscated by Arizona authorities.  We forgot all about that when we stopped to see the magnificent Grand Canyon.  It took my breathe away.

As we continued heading west, Bonita noted on our road map that we weren't that far away from Las Vegas, Nevada.  So, we decided to spend the night there instead of Kingman.

We had dinner and enjoyed the show at Circus, Circus.  Then we entered a casino and I bet $1 (in cash) on a spin of a roulette wheel.  I lost and we left.  We found a cheap motel for our final night before arriving in California the next day.

Las Vegas was founded in 1905 as a small town that was a stopover for trains travelling between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, Utah.  The construction of the nearby Hoover Dam, started in 1931, brought thousands of workers into Las Vegas.  

Gambling was outlawed in Nevada but there were well-established  underground casinos in operation there.  Realizing that gambling would be profitable for local business, the Nevada state legislature legalized gambling at the local level also in 1931. 

Las Vegas was poised to begin its rise as the gaming capital of the world. The county were it is located (Clark) issued its first gambling license on March 19, 1931 (92 years ago). 

Tommy Hull was a business man who was granted the first license. He built El Rancho (hotel plus casino) in the area that came to be known as the Vegas Strip. 

Tommy Hull’s success brought many other business men to Las Vegas and many hotel casinos were built. The most famous of which, the Flamingo, was built by the famous mobster Bugsy Seigel.

In the 1970s the trend of turning hotel casinos into mega resorts brought more good fortunes for the city. Las Vegas was transformed from a gambling city into a family vacation spot because these resorts provided all sorts of entertainment aside from gambling.

However, to me, Las Vegas is "been there, done that."  Not interested in a return trip.

Nate's Birth

My first grandson, Nate David Gerstein, was born on March 9, 2007 (just turned 16) at Weill Cornell Medical Center on the upper east side of Manhattan.  And where was I at that memorable moment?  Not at the hospital.

When I was working in Manhattan (Seagram's and the Anti-Defamation League), I went to a dentist on Park Avenue.  He was the only male along with a harem of a number of women: hygienists, receptionists, assistants, bookkeepers, housekeepers, etc.

A few years after I stopped going to that dentist, I received a birthday gift from his office: a coupon for a free massage at an establishment nearby.  I saved the coupon for some time in the future.  

The future occurred in 2007.  My daughter Rachel was about to give birth for the first time.  I was at the hospital waiting for my first grandchild (sex unknown).  

I was told by Rachel's doctor that the birth would not occur for many hours and I should find something to occupy my time.  I followed this advice.

Since the massage establishment was not far from the hospital, I thought this would be a good time to use my birthday present.  So off I went.

I don't remember too much about the massage, only what happened afterwards.  I called Bonita (my ex-wife and Rachel's mother) to find out what was happening.  Well, it had already happened.  I missed the birth of Nate, my first grandson.  Mother and child doing fine, no thanks to me.  

Over the years, this event has become a family joke.  But, this error was not my fault.  To quote Rick from Casablanca, "I was misinformed."     

McLintock!

 McLintock! is a 1963 Western film starring John Wayne, his son Patrick, Maureen O'Hara and Stephanie Powers.

In the film, G. W. McLintock (John Wayne) is a wealthy rancher estranged (for unexplained reasons) from his wife Katherine (O'Hara).  Their daughter Becky (Powers) is returning home after finishing college in the East.  G. W. hires a young man named Dev (Patrick Wayne) to work on his ranch.

Katherine returns to the ranch as well to try to convince Becky to return with her back East.  There is friction between G. W. and Katherine as he would prefer Becky stay at his ranch.

Dev and Becky get into an argument when he accuses her of being a "trollop" for kissing her boyfriend before they are engaged.  With G. W.'s permission, Dev spanks Becky with a coal shovel.  

Later,  frustrated with her behavior, G. W. spanks his wife as well.  He was encouraged to do so by one of his friends with the following quote:  

"My father used to say, you raise your voice, (if) it doesn't do any good, it's time to raise your hand.  Talk to her (G. W.'s wife)?  Talking won't do any good."

This may have been good advice sixty years ago, but not today.  Hitting a woman?  No, no, no.  Because of this, McLintock! is my least favorite John Wayne movie.

This reminds me of a quote from the late actor Sean Connery about slapping women.  "(Women) can't leave it alone.  They want to have the last word and you give them the last word.  But they're not happy with the last word.  They want to say it again, and get into a really provocative situation.  Then, I think it's absolutely right (to slap a woman)."  Really?