“Who are You? Who Who, Who Who”

The Title above is in the Chorus of a Seventies song by the “Who” if written in the fall of 1940, I would be singing it as I was being held upside down by my ankles.  There I was dangling head down being shaken like a Pepper or Salt shaker  until the intense burning between my shoulder blades suddenly ceased.

But let’s leave me in that predicament for the moment and calendar forward to the spring of 1948 when Mother received a letter from her ex-husband, my Dad, inviting me to spend the summer with him and his wife at their home in Redondo Beach California.  Bear in mind that I had known intelligence revealing who my Father was or how I would respond to him.  Mother always confident in her actions prepared and sent me off on the Journey of a Life Time.  This California summer was followed by additional three summers that spurred Winters of anticipation with a lot of “California Dreaming” many years before the “Mamas and the Papas” made it famous.

These summer vacations introduced me to Airplanes and the thrill of Flying.  Dad you see was the Chief Maintenance Officer for the Los Angles Airport hub of American Airlines.  He sent me Non-Revenue Tickets (Free Tickets) and I would fly on American’s famed DC 6 aircraft unescorted at the age of Eleven.  As Irony would have it fourteen years later in 1962 I would be working for the same company, Douglas Aircraft, that built those DC-6′s and in the very same Santa Monica factory. Only now instead of building Aircraft I would be building the Jigs and Fixtures used to assemble the Saturn S-IV rocket that one day carried the Astronauts to the moon.

Those four summers exposed me to the wonderful world that California proudly boasted and promoted.  Because of my Dad I was able go places and meet people that would never happen in my other life back home.   Two occasions standing out were one, the California premier of Lowell Thomas’s travelogue filmed in Cinerama, the precursor to today’s IMAX.  It was at the famed “RKO Pantages” theater that we viewed the revolutionary film.  I can still feel myself holding on to the seat to keep from falling off the Roller Coaster ride portion of the film.  All this is old hat today but in 1952 this was unbelievably exciting. The second was when I met “Glen Davis”.  Mr “Outside” of West Point Army football fame.  Doc Blanchard and Glen Davis, Mr Inside and Mr Outside, both Heisman Trophy winners and the most exciting men in College sports in the mid 1940′s.

Mr. Outside, Glen Davis<------------------>Mr. Inside Doc Blanchard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heady days for a teenager getting his first taste of the outside world.  I never really bonded with my Dad.  He worked during the days and frankly drank rather heavily in the Evenings and on the Weekends.  But he did his best I suppose to expand my horizons to the larger World.  The First family picture of Dad with me is below.   I do not remember it or anything prior to the first summer with him in 1948.

 

None of this explains why I’m dangling by my ankles in the first paragraph does it?  The year is 1940.  The place is a bed bug ridden home on Tioga Street, Philadelphia, Penna.  I’m in the kitchen standing next to the sink.  My brother Clayton is talking to a Man across the room.  The Man is smoking and talking.  I haven’t a clue who he is until later when I discovered his identity as my Father.  He is visiting his family after  his divorce from my Mother.  I did notice however the Cigarette in his hand which was suddenly propelled by his thumb and forefinger  over my head to the sink that was intended for its’ burial.   Dad, as I’ll call him now, was a great Aircraft Mechanic but not much of a cigarette flicker it seems.  The cigarette butt hit wall behind the sink ricocheting back up landing on my scrawny neck then sliding down inside my shirt coming to a rest between my shoulder blades where it initiated a howling Indian war dance routine.   The Cigarette flicker I must admit was quick to my rescue by grabbing my ankles and hanging me upside shaking me till the smoldering butt exited leaving me with the much need relief.  So there you have it, a scene describing my actual first known meeting with my Dad.  And the irony of this post is that today, 10 am June 19, 2011, as I document this piece of family trivia is Father’s Day.   Go figure!

 

Who are you?  Who Who, Who Who

 

Young Man<——————————————-> Successful Man

Old Man<———————————————->Dying Man

 

I'm a 74 year old man who loves this new medium of Blogging. I am also an Senior Manager in Send Out Cards which gives me a superior method of relating to the world through Greeting Cards. I have met and enjoyed wonderful friends who support me and actually LIKE me which is very rewarding. My online presence is growing and if I can hang on to life I will reap the benefits of establishing a business that will comfort me when I get old. Mostly however I Blog about my life which for some strange reason is well received. Like most of us the future is scary and the remembrance of older days give a measure of comfort. So I continue to reveal the past with optimism that the future will some day be the comfort of somebody else.

Tags: American Airlines, Cinerama, DC-6, Doc Blanchard, Douglas Aircraft, Father's Day, Football, Glen Davis, Heisman Throphy, IMAX, Lowell Thomas, Nelson Schroeder, Pantages, Redondo Beach, The Who, West Point, Who are You?