1964

No one can mention the 1964 New York World's Fair without mentioning the fact that Walt Disney arguably had designed the best pavilions at the Fair. Walt and his team of imagineers were not the only attraction designers at the 1964 World's Fair, but no one seems to mention any of the others.

Some of these attractions are now at Disneyland and Walt Disney World where customers are still enjoying them today. One ironic note is that the UNICEF Pavilion, It's a Small World, was sponsored by Pepsi at the 1964 World's Fair and today the only thing served on the Disney parks are Coca-Cola products, go figure! Can you imagine in 1964 going to see Mr. Lincoln speaks where an animatronic figure of Mr. Lincoln is actually speaking to you. To put this in perspective, not only were there no home computers, iPods, iPads and not even a Sony Walkman in those days. It was the era of transistor radios and only 2 to 3 television stations available, that is if you were in a bigger city. Now you see a robot that seems to be speaking directly to you. How could anyone have imagined in those days the marvels that are the Disney parks of today! The parks have improved from those early days of Disneyland to what they are today. Just try to imagine in 1964, riding in one of the brand-new 1964 Ford cars through the marvels of Spaceship Earth, Energy, Horizons and Motion. That's what the patrons at the 1964 World's Fair found themselves doing in the Ford Pavilion.
Instead of getting into a gondola, dune buggy or Peter Pan's pirate ship, you got into a car that was towed around the exhibits of the Ford Pavilion as if on an assembly line. Imagine this, the first scene you see in the ride when you're in Energy at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center is of large dinosaurs eating as your cars align themselves for the trip through Energy. That is one of the scenes you would have seen in the Ford Pavilion designed by the Walt Disney engineers.

I can’t help but talk a little about The Carousel of Progress. To me, the design of a theatre that the stage stays still, and the audience rotates around the various stages, was purely genius! The talents of Richard and Robert Sherman songs for both the Carousel of Progress and It’s a Small World,

made them more enjoyable. The Carousel of Progress takes you on a trip with a family from the turn of the 20th century to the early Sixties. Now, however, at Walt Disney World, the Carousel of Progress ends its show with the turn of the 21st century.

Mary Blair’s artistic flair inspired the UNICEF Pavilion, It's a Small World, with dolls representing the children of the world uniting in song and welcoming the travelers at the 64 World's Fair to their specific countries of the world. The brilliance and the genius of Walt Disney and his Imagineers is more appreciated by those of us who lived through the “computerless” age of the 1960s. We don't take what we see at Walt Disney World for granted because at the time most of this technology had to be invented by Walt Disney and his staff of talented artists and engineers.

What reminded me of Walt and the 1964 World’s Fair

was that I found a small two picture hologram that would have been made for a ring or necklace that shows the emblem of the 1964 World’s Fair and, if you turn it slightly to one side or the other, then it will show the words 1964 World’s Fair. This made me nostalgic and want to share just a touch of the memories of my childhood and Walt.

The Great Airways Junior High School Sideburns Scandal of 1971

I woke up that morning in our very small house, in my very small bedroom, to my very small life. Little did I know life was about to change as I knew it. I was 15 years old, 6 foot tall, about 175 pounds and had naturally curly hair for which all of the older and bigger kids had always made fun of me and bullied me about my hair, even though in retrospect, none the kids were actually bigger than me. So you see, I could never grow my hair long like the rest of my friends, but I did do one thing most of them couldn’t, I could grow my side burns like Elvis Presley, so I did. I got up and had a little bit of breakfast, never was a fan of breakfast, ran out the door and on my way to school I went. I could throw a rock from my house at the school and hit it dead center, so it was nothing but a hop, skip and a jump to the front door of my school.

I set in homeroom and listened to all the announcements of the day.  Finally the bell rang to go to our first class. As I was walking to the stairway that led up to my first period class, one of our coaches came over to me and asked me to follow him. My coaches were usually reasonable and friendly people that I would do just about anything for. We went into the main office up at the front desk. The two other coaches, the principal and the school secretary were all there. Our head coach spoke to me about the fact he had asked me to cut my sideburns last Friday and gave me the weekend to do so. I explained to him that I thought he did not have the right to ask me to do so and that I would not do so. He explained that he also told me that if I didn't, he would cut them. I replied that I hated to go against what he wanted me to do, but he was not going to cut my sideburns. All four of them grabbed me and held me down while one of them shaved off my sideburns. I fought up to the last minute with all my heart, but realizing that they had a razor and that they were about to put it to my face, I decided to use a wiser head at this particular time and allow them to cut my sideburns in protest. The first thing I did was not to go to my class like I was told to do, but I went to the phone in the hallway outside of our gymnasium and in front of our cafeteria

and called my parents. My mother answered the phone and my father was not there at the time so I explained to her what had just transpired. She told me to go back to the office and wait there until she got there and I was not to tell anyone anything. I thought, oh no I'm in trouble now, she sounded so mad. So fearing the wrath of my mother, I went straight to the office and sat down. The secretary asked me “what are you doing back in here”. I told her I was unable to explain to her why, but that it would soon be apparent why I was back in there, all this time waiting for my mother to get ready and walk the short distance to my school. I was terrified now, not only would I have had the embarrassment of having my sideburns forcibly cut off, but now my mother was coming up there to have me punished even worse possibly, a paddling with one of the baseball bats that the coaches had our shop teacher plane down into a paddle with holes drilled up and down it to make it hurt even worse. I know that doesn't sound much like a punishment but unless you have ever had one of our coaches or our principal paddle you with the Louisville slugger, you've never endured pain. I was so afraid that the other kids would have seen me in the hall crying like a baby. I had not been able to stop crying since they forcibly cut off my sideburns. You see, they made me feel like I fit in with the other kids my age, most of them had long hair which was the fad at the time and because I was so afraid that if I grew my hair long I would look like Shirley Temple and that would just give the rest of the older boys even more ammunition to tease and bully me about something so personal. Unless you've endured that kind of humiliation, you just don't know how traumatizing that is to a young boy. I don't think I could even impress upon you the importance of those sideburns at that time of my life. As I said at the beginning, life as I knew it was now over. I had nothing to tie me to the other kids and make me just a tiny bit as mod or up with the fads as they were. I know a lot of you probably don't remember but being accepted by your peers at that age is probably the most important thing in the world, well at least at that time in my life, but before I tell anymore about this story I have to explain something to you about my mother. Thinking about it now, I don't think that I had ever seen my mother go against the system. She was always very compliant with the rules. She never made waves and always played the games strictly by the rules. She taught us that it was better follow the rules even if you didn't like because if it was the way you were supposed to do it because it would just make life so much less complicated and easier just to comply. Now that I've told you that,the door to our school office had one of those hydraulic closers that would not allow it to be opened fast so that it would close slowly. Bang! the door flew opened very quickly and smacked the back side of the glass wall. I thought it was truly going to break. My mother stopped and slammed her hands on the counter that surrounded the inner office area and told our secretary that she wanted all of the coaches and our principal there right now! The secretary explained to my mother that they had classes and she didn't think that they would be able to come right now. My mother slammed her hands back down on the counter again and said “they had time to do this to my son, they'll have time to see me now! Get them here now! If you don't, I'll go drag them up here!” Our principal stepped out of his office and up to the front counter

where my mother was and told her “Mrs House, you need to calm down and let us talk this over in a rational manner”. My mother explained to him “I don't find what you and the coaches’ have done was very rational so you need to have them up here now! No one's going to do this to my son without my permission”. The Principal said “I’ll get them up here and I'll explain it all for you”. He quickly went back to his office and all three coaches came through the door and back to his office. The principal came back up and asked my mother to come back there and I went back with her. “We don’t need you to come back now” said the principal. My mother responded to that  “Oh yes, he's going to be here. We was here when you did this and you're going to allow him to hear what I have to say.” They started to explain to my mother that they had asked me to cut my sideburns. She stopped them in midsentence and said “number one, you don't have the right to ask him to cut his sideburns when you have kids on your teams that have their hair grown down to their” bottoms, and my mother used a more descriptive term that I had never heard her use before to describe their bottoms. She said “further more, if it was some type of clothing or something that could be removed and replaced, I would not be upset but you actually altered my son’s physical appearance without my permission. If you ever touch one hair on his body anywhere without my permission and without me present, you will have to deal with me in a more physical manner. Do you understand what I'm telling you”. Our head coach explained that she didn't understand, “we have repeatedly asked him to cut the sideburns because they're not becoming of someone his age”. I saw her face get extremely red and she, with a quivering voice of extreme anger, answered him, “God gave him the ability to grow sideburns at his age. I personally think it was because he's unable to grow his hair long like the other kids. He only wants to grow his sideburns so that he would fit in with the other kids, yet you're going to try and take that away from him. Don't misunderstand me, if you had come to me instead of taking it upon yourself to do what you did, I would've cut his sideburns until we would've had time to talk to you about it and see if we could come to a better understanding but you didn't do that. You went above my authority as parent to allow my son to either grow his hair long or have painted toenails or grow his sideburns. You as teachers, coaches and administrators don't have that right. Only a parent has that right and again I'm going to tell you, if you ever touch one hair on his head, on his feet or on his cheek, you will have to answer to me and I don't think any of you would like to be a part of that scenario. Do you understand me”. I thought, my God my mother is defending me, that's never happened in my entire life. I was so proud to be her son at that moment because she was my hero, my knight in shining armor that had come to my rescue. She also told them that because of their actions, I would grow my sideburns and they wouldn't have anything at all to say about it unless they made the rest of the players on the various sports teams cut their hair. She told them if they did that she would feel that I would have to be obliged to cut my sideburns. I had no disagreements with that if all the athletes look the same.  Then why would I have the right to complain. She turned and looked at me and noticed that my face was drenched and burnt red from crying and told me to go and wash my face off in the boys rest room. I think she also did this so that she could have a private conversation without me present.  I went straight out to the closest boys restroom and washed off my face in cold water which made me feel somewhat better, but I was still going to be embarrassed because all of the other kids would notice that I didn't have my sideburns. I went back up to the office where my mother was waiting on me and she asked if I was all right and I said yes and I explained to her how I felt about the other kids seeing me without my sideburns. She told me that it would be okay, that sideburns grow back out and that I was not to worry about it anymore. That's easier said than done. I know it doesn't sound like much to you all but it was a traumatic experience to me. The people that I had looked up to for guidance and comfort had just done the most horrible thing they could do to me. They had removed my dignity. I have forgiven them but I have not forgotten. As I passed all my friends in the hall who were going down to their third period classes, they must have noticed that my head was hanging down and I wasn’t saying hello to everyone as usually did so they were coming up to me and asking if I was okay and telling me to have a great day. That made it a little easier to take what they had done to me, but I had yet to see my girlfriend at that time. I would have been so embarrassed to let her see me this way that instead of going the way I normally got to my third period class, I took the stairs on the opposite side of the hallway to go to my next class. I did everything in my power to keep her from seeing me that day and it worked. But unfortunately, that night my phone rang and it was her, she was mad at me because I had avoided her. She knew I had avoided her and she was so concerned as to how I was that she wanted to comfort me and I robbed her of that chance. You live and you learn maybe. I should have sought her out and let her tell me how badly she felt for me but the one person I did not need to hear that from was her. It would've made the hurt and embarrassment even more so before I had a night to sleep on it and come to terms with my situation. I grew my sideburns back and we won our division in football the next year, the final game where we defeated Sheffield Junior High School. I had gotten back on the bus and was sitting there and I heard two students from Sheffield complaining that that one kid was over 6 foot tall and looked like he had just gotten back from Vietnam and “did you see those sideburns. He has to be older than he is supposed to be to play junior high school football.  We should protest this game”. Oh, last but not least, most - if not all - of those that made fun of my curly hair are now bald.  The sweet smell of success! Look who's the only one smiling

How I Became a World Traveler

                            How I Became a World Traveler

I loved it when my family went to “Kristal” in Memphis to pick up a family pack of Kristals. It’s a small square burger much like “White Castle” burgers. Then we would go to the airport to watch all the planes that were coming and going and eat our burgers. We parked alongside one of the larger runways, just off of Airways Boulevard, past Winchester near Grovehaven Drive. It wasn’t an official parking spot but it was graveled and everyone seemed to do it. I was only about 5 or 6 years old at the time. You could see planes from all over the world taking off and landing just yards away at Memphis International Airport from that vantage point. You could see such iconic airplanes as the Lockheed Constellation, the historic DC-3, DC-4’s, Lockheed Electras and the first truly luxury passenger jet, the Boing 707. You rarely see these kind of planes anymore except in a museum, and that’s another reason for my travels. I remember also doing this when I was a teenager walking all the way from my house across the interstate and sitting on a picnic table that someone had put there. I would sit for hours and just watch the huge jets taking off and landing. You could see planes from all over the world coming to Memphis bringing people back from their exotic adventures from faraway lands. Guess it’s the mystery and the history of the journey, as well as the places you go to. My Uncle and Aunt would bring over slides of their trips from the places that I had read about and they would tell me about the people, the food and the history. This is when I first laid eyes on the people of the Hawaiian islands. The Kodak Hula Show was the best and most elaborate free Hula Show put on by the Kodak film company in Kapiolani Park in Waikiki. The performers weren’t just professional dancers in the sense that they were native Hawaiian men and women that loved to share their culture in the dance, music and song of the islands known as Hawaii. Unfortunately, the Kodak Hula Show is no longer being performed.  At Airways Junior High School, I was not the stellar student in most of my classes. I didn’t even like school much, however, my history and geography classes were the best! Our teachers did their best to unlock our minds to what had gone on before us. They made us memorize dates and things, but when I read the history books, they made me want to be the explorer. I tried to imagine what it would be like to sail on an ocean voyage to the New World in small sail powered vessels, braving the harsh waves and weather of the Atlantic Ocean in the 15^th century. Sometimes I think the journey is more exciting than the destination. Walking the streets of Paris, France seems to be a throwback to the days that I walked the streets of Memphis, TN without a care in the world for my safety and all of the amazing new and wondrous sights that awaited around the next corner, the Louvre, the Eifel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral. Walking on the left bank as so many  of the masters of art and literature had done before me.  I would imagine as we walked the streets of London and passed by 221B Baker Street that I was Sherlock Holmes searching for Jack the Ripper. The game’s afoot. I could just imagine the ghost of Ann Boleyn walking the grounds of the Tower of London. Seeing the bar wenches serving pints to the locals in a London public house. I always wanted to experience the land where my family was from, the British Isles. You know if you really want to get bitten by the travel bug, take a trip to Egypt. Just imagine the pharaohs ruling over their people, the Pyramids and the Sphinx coming to life before your eyes, the archaeologists trying to unearth the next great find in the Valley of the Kings, cruising up the Nile as if we were on Cleopatra’s barge, back to the reality of Cairo of today and Egypt and its people.  It's not that I always had traveling on my mind but I was a day dreamer. I was “Walter Mitty” in my mind in all of the imagined adventures of travelling the world. I remember Elvis once made a speech where he spoke about the fact that he read the comic book and he became a hero of that comic book. I was very much like the young Elvis in that way. I could watch a movie like Charlie Chan and become the “number one son” desperately wanting to help his father solve the murder or become Dr. Watson with Sherlock Holmes trying to solve the case. Istanbul is the gateway to the Orient with the city of spies and mystery and wonder and something totally exotic as in Ian Fleming’s “From Russia with Love” with me as James Bond 007. But in all of this, there were the surroundings, the sets, the places, the cities and the countries where it was happening.  I always thought that I would never ever have the ability to do any traveling but, when I met my wonderful wife at the Gates of Graceland, I found a kindred soul who also had the wanderlust of the world in her heart, so with her help, we set out on the journeys of the “UK Adventures”(Ursula & Keith). We have travelled to exotic islands, island nations, German Romantic Roads, rivers toward medieval destinations, gateways to the Orient and, last but not least, the cradle of civilization. Most people say they never have the money to travel. What most people spend for a trip to Walt Disney World or a couple of trips to Myrtle Beach and all of the money wasted on cigarettes, and other vices could absolutely finance any trip to Europe, Africa or Asia. I don't mean to say that you have to struggle to have these trips but, for some of us, these will be a trip of only once in a lifetime. What would life be if you don't follow your dreams.

I want to just take a minute to thank a newly found friend from The “Disney Nerds Podcast” and the “Disney Nerds” Facebook page and the owner and administrator of Once Upon A Time Travel. I personally and my wife both have used Once Upon A Time Travel and found it to be more than adequate for our needs, whether you're taking a trip to Walt Disney World for which Jimmy Horne is especially suited or any other Disney destination or cruise. He also can help you with any travel plans anywhere in the world. You know as well as I do, it's always nice to work with someone just like yourself who knows and understands what you want and need. I highly recommend Once Upon A Time Travel. They are a NO FEE agency. I will put in a link for you.  https://www.facebook.com/onceuponatimetravelllc

Spin and Marty with Keith House

Production started on June 28, 1955 at the Golden Oak Ranch and the first episode aired on November 11, 1955 on the Mickey Mouse Club on the ABC network. The Mickey Mouse Club played in all time zones from 5pm to 6pm. I know I have written about Spin and Marty before but I just can't help boring you with a little more information. Adventures of Spin and Marty ran as a serial on the Mickey Mouse Club and was the story of Marty Markham, a spoiled rich kid reared by an elderly grandmother, that goes to summer camp. It wasn't just any old “dirty” camp, it was a dude ranch for boys. The misadventures that followed his arrival at the Triple R Ranch made for a delightful tale of a group of young boys coming of age. Not only were there the Adventures of Spin and Marty, but there were two more additions, Further Adventures of Spin and Marty and the New Adventures of Spin and Marty. The serials were based on the 1942 novel Marty Markham by Lawrence Edward Watkin and the screenplay was written by Jackson Gillis.

Just imagine, you're a young boy in the mid-50’s to the early 60’s when one of the top ambitions of a young boy is to be a cowboy. These boys were living the dream on their summer vacation. It would've been a very dull story if there wasn't some comic relief and, in this story, the adults have most of the comic relief leaving the drama to the boys. The boys did get into some comical situations as well. Action also exists within this story. There's even a boxing match between the two star characters. By the end of this story, the cowpokes of the Triple R Ranch are even experienced enough to participate in the rodeo match with a rival ranch.

The cast starred Tim Considine as Spin Evans, David Stollery as Marty Markham, Roy Bancroft as Mr. Logan, Harry Carey Jr. as Bill Burnett, Lenny Greer as Ollie, Pat O'Malley as Perkins and a great cast of boys as Spin and Marty’s fellow cowpokes. The Further Adventures of Spin and Marty added one new cast member that most of you might know as Moochie, played by Kevin Corcoran (who had his own serial about Pop Warner Football). But he, of course, was up to his old tricks of getting in trouble not once but several times in the course of the serial, and the tenderfoot was saved by the boys of the Triple R Ranch. Even in the New Adventures of  Spin and Marty, our heroes find themselves in deep trouble with no way out until Annette and Darlene come to their rescue.  Yes, that's right, girls were added to the third serial. All three are extremely good and may seem a little dated but, I promise you, they are well worth watching. My wife and I will watch all the episodes in one sitting. I know a lot of you out there just won't give an old black and white TV series a chance, but the innocence of the 50s and the truly wide-eyed wonderment that these young men in this production give it is an absolutely timeless hopeful quality. If only life was really ever like that and, even more, I wish life was like that today. It may be because of my age but it seems like the world is just going so fast that taking just a few minutes a day watching the Mickey Mouse Club’s Spin and Marty takes me back to a time when we enjoyed the minute more than the day. From this tenderfoot to you, find a copy and watch what life really should be all about. Definitely a must own for a Disney library of videos try out Adventures of Spin and Marty.

A couple of years ago I had the great pleasure of meeting Tim Considine David Stollery, The Spin and Marty. I talked to Tim  about the fact that I was a simulator enthusiast and that his son had designed and built a flight simulator chassis that gives movement to the simulation experience. He said, that his son had designed it for automotive simulation such as racing but it could be adapted to flight simulation. David Stollery a car designer himself had designed cars for Toyota in the 60s and 70s. It's always a little awkward meeting your childhood heroes. What do you talk about, what do you say without sounding like a total idiot. I hope I didn't scare them to death, but I loved every minute and every second I had to talk to them. They were great people! I hope sometime we could do it again. If you ever get the chance to see your childhood heroes do it. It will be an experience you never forget. Thank you to Tim Considine and David Stollery and the entire cast and crew and the Walt Disney Studios that worked on the adventures of Spin and Marty. Thank You!

Foul Play

Foul Play

I really liked baseball, but as I said before many times, I was not very good at it. So I tried other things, like turning the lights on and off at the park close to my house, Charjean park. I also had to keep score for the ladies soft ball games one night a week. The Memphis Park Commission also needed umpires as well, so I took the test and became an umpire. This also wasn’t the best job for me. The one game that I can’t seem to forget was the one that made me quit umpiring. It was a playoff game and the two teams were unevenly matched. The better team had 4 runs by the second inning to ZERO. A young man came up to bat that looked like he would have been more comfortable reading a book and he gave me the impression that was where he really wanted to be right now. He was very nervous and sweat was dripping from his forehead and it was hot that day so I shook off my concern and announced “Play Ball”. The first pitch was low and outside, ball one, but the young man was crowding the plate and he almost fell over trying to get his shoulders to the same level as the ball. I was even more concerned now, what was he up to or was I over thinking this. The next pitch was chest high but way outside. The young batter this time leaned in and reached out with his hands but not in a way that anyone could have swung at the pitch. I noticed that he had closed his eyes as if a nurse was about to give him a shot with a needle and he almost broke his neck to try to keep from falling. The next pitch was looking like a perfect strike but the young batter moved in to the pitch and closed his eyes in the same manner. He dropped his arm right in the way of the pitch and made no attempt to get out of the way and his eyes were still closed tight right before the ball hit him in his arm. The position he was in when the ball hit him was one no one could have even tried to swing a bat to hit the ball with.  It was how you would be positioned if you wanted to be hit by the pitch. I yelled “OUT”!  Before I could get my mask off, the coach from the team that was in the field was all over me and yelling at me and the coach of the young batter was also joining in and everyone in the stands. I have always closed down when I get upset, even to this day. I wanted to eject the coach for allowing or teaching a player to put his or her safety in jeopardy for a game. But I could not think clearly, so I looked at both coaches and said loudly to both of them “ a batter cannot intentionally block the plate and he is out, Play ball or forfeit the game”.  After the game was over the next day I went to the park commission and quit. I have always since that day gone over in my mind everything I saw and did. Was I wrong for calling him out? I have finally come to terms with what I did and I have only one regret. It is that I did not throw the batter’s coach out of the park and try to have him banned from coaching little league for life. What do you think? 

We are the Ed Sullivan generation. What I mean is that more than any other generation we were exposed to all sorts of culture and entertainment through the magical medium of television. For instance how many people up to tour time had seen an Opera at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City? Ed Sullivan Show had Met Stars on all most every Sunday and when PBS came along we were put into a front row set at the Met for a real full-length Opera at the Met. Do you remember the day the world was changed by four mop top boys from Liverpool, it happened in our living rooms. The argument can be made that with the Internet culture of our kids today they have faster access to more cultural activities and more entertainment than we could possibly have ever dreamed of. There is one catch to that, we were a captive audience, there was only four TV channels and the great outdoors. The Internet is so vast and so full of the information and life but you have to go search for it. Most kids today well grab a video game and they're gone for hours. They don't get the exercise that they need. You see sometimes you have to be force fed things like the opera, books and plays that kids aren't really interested in today. Where we had no choice to either watch Ed Sullivan show or Lawrence Welk or go outside.unfortunately the Internet genie is out of the bottle and there over 300 channels TV channels of absolutely nothing fit to watch. I long for the days of the Wonderful World Walt Disney or for Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. I even remember the days when families had picnics together, if nowhere else at Charjean Park. Also, though it's hard to imagine, our parents taught us stuff like how to use a hand saw, a hammer. My grandmother once even taught me how to bake biscuits. I know all of us have grandchildren now so remember how those memories are the ones you cherish, so please don't forget to pass them on. It is your culture and their birth rite. 

I woke up in my small bed room, jumped to my feet realizing it was Saturday. I had to get ready quickly before the rest of our gang left me behind. We were going rabbit hunting in the fields between the expressway and our houses. The grass grew taller than we were by several feet. We would mash down the grass into squares sort of like crop circles to make our forts. We were pretending that we were in the jungles of Borneo. Of course, none of us knew exactly where Borneo was and the rabbits we were hunting were the tigers that threatened our village. Surprisingly enough there were quite a large number of rabbits there and we would hunt them in several packs in various directions hoping we might actually get one and have it for dinner. Luckily enough for the rabbit, they were smarter than a seven year old and we never seemed to catch one of them. As usual this day, we had no luck in our tiger hunt so we decided to walk over to Ketchum and all the way down Ketchum to where it ended past all the houses and go over into Nonconnah, the heart of the African delta, or at least as close you can get to it in Memphis. I know this sounds childish but to young boy growing up in Memphis, this was exploring the wild world at its best. There was a river, lakes, and marshland with all kinds of beasties. We found crawfish, rabbits, squirrels, possums, raccoons and fish. We did our best to rid our communities of these varments, but luckily for them, we had no clue how to do it, but we had the greatest time of our lives trying. If our parents had known that we had gone underneath the viaducts, past the expressway, into the Nonconnah creek area, we wouldn’t have been able to sit down for weeks, so we swore ourselves to silence so we could enjoy the best time of our lives. When we weren’t interested in hunting, we would grab our bikes, towels from the linen cabinet, and bandit masks and play Batman and Robin throughout the green apple orchard at the end of Durby before you got to Charjean Park. We would dig ditches as if we were trying to build the Panama Canal and Mrs. Miller would make us cover them up because the little kids would fall into them and kill themselves. The little kids were always ruining our fun. The green apple trees were always fun to climb, they weren’t extremely high, the branches were sturdy and far apart. I don’t know how long the apple orchard had been abandoned, but they seemed to have been there forever until they were bulldozed under for the new Junior High School, but they were one of the greatest sources of summer fun while they lasted, not to mention the occasional stomach aches. It was the time of the original G.I. Joe and every one of us guys on the street had one. We played war as if our lives and our community depended no us and G.I. Joe was tough and strong and never let us down, until all the girls brought out their Barbie dolls, and G.I. Joe melted at their feet. The truth is, we were astonished that the girls really wanted to associate with us. Those times were so innocent and pure that we explored every avenue of making them less innocent and less pure with no concept of why. Most of us now would love to recapture those innocent days for our grandchildren. I feel sorry for them that they don’t have the Borneo jungle field of grass and the Nonconnah African river delta, not to mention the green apple forest of no return to enhance their childhood imaginations as we did. I have heard people say that there is magic when neighborhoods become extended families and Hogwarts has nothing on the castle of Charjean.

Okay, I've been asked how I met my wife and how I became a world traveler. So here goes - (Part 1). I know that the story of how I met my wife is kind of farfetched, but it is true. I had divorced my first wife and I had the bills to prove it.In the summer of 1979 I took a part-time job with the Howard Johnson's on Elvis Presley Blvd. to help make ends meet. I was a bellhop and the driver of the hotel’s van. I would pick up guests from the airport which included pilots and stewardesses and especially tourists from all over the United States and the world coming to see Elvis Presley's home, Graceland. This was just two years after Elvis’s death. There were several women that came to Memphis from New York in a group and they were staying at the Howard Johnson’s Hotel. They complained that there was no way for them to be able to find all of the Elvis related sites in Memphis and, since I was extremely bored because I had moved back with my parents on Durby and really had nothing to do, I volunteered to take them to some of the sites that they otherwise would not get to see. That evening, after we had explored the Elvis sites, we went back to Graceland and, as they were browsing around, I noticed that they had a book called the gates of Graceland which was written by one of Elvis's cousins, Harold, who was a guard at the gates of Graceland. As I was asking him if he would autograph their copies of his book there came a loud commotion on the curb in front of the gates. He excused himself and went to see what the disturbance was. I followed him out of curiosity and I saw a young man that had his boots in his hand. He drew back with one of the boots, hitting Harold across the temple. Harold fell onto the curb and was hurt and trying to keep his gun covered so the assailant would not be able to access it. The young man drew back the boot again like he was about to strike Harold, whose head was on the concrete, again. I just could not let this happen. He was a friend of mine and I could not let someone hurt him. I pushed the assailant into the street doing a spinning reverse side kick and a back fist. The kick surprised him but I don't think it hurt him much. The back fist hit it’s mark across his temple and down he went. He got up and threw his boots at me and took off running. I followed him onto Elvis Presley Blvd. after I found out that they had called the police and had found out that Harold was OK. I kept my distance but kept him in sight. A squad car pulled alongside of me and asked what seemed to be the trouble. I told the officer that the two guys in front of me were who he was looking for. He pulled over to the curb in front of them and put both of them in the squad car. The one young man had not participated in the verbal altercation in the beginning that caused the guard to go down to see what the commotion was about, nor was he a participant in the assault, so the police let him go. They arrested the assailant. Now that all this was over, the ladies invited me to dinner as a payment for taking them around town. One of the ladies had a son about my age and we got along well, so I decided I would take them up on their offer and went with them to the Howard Johnson's Restaurant. We saw these two pretty young girls, set behind us. I poked the young man in the side and asked him to help me get their attention by talking about the fight at Graceland. I really have no recollection of what we said but it got the girls attention. Ann and Ursula were the two girls and they started talking with us because they had witnessed the whole incident. They were standing inside the gates up the hill. Ann was a tall skinny blonde girl that had an Ann Murray style haircut which a lot of girls had at the time. Ursula was shorter and very curvaceous, with curly short dark brown hair and I had noticed that she had one green eye and one Hazel colored eye. This intrigued me and she was extremely cute. So I asked what they were doing the next day and they told me they were going to a concert at Ellis Auditorium downtown that was for all of the Elvis fans in town. I didn't have a ticket so there was no way that I could follow her there so I believe I arranged to meet her later that evening. Needless to say, by the end of that week I was smitten. After they left for home, I wrote both her and Ann. Ann wrote back but Ursula didn't. I didn't think much more about it.
By the summer of 1980, I had gone to work at Tom Bell Chevrolet doing miscellaneous automotive and automotive electrical work. This particular day, I had gone to lunch just a little early and when I came back there was a white Z28 Camaro with an orange stripe and Canadian tags in my stall. The passenger side door was open. I looked at the car closely because I knew it looked like Ann’s car from the summer before and, if it had Ontario Canada plates, it would’ve had to have been her car. I was getting a tad bit excited wondering if it could possibly be Ann and if Ursula would be with her? Looking at my work order, I noticed that the passenger door window was the problem. The passenger door was the one that was open and the window would not work from either the driver’s or the passenger side and it was a Canadian made car for Canada so it had no air conditioning. It was about 100° in the shade in Memphis at that time and expected to get hotter. So who's ever car it was needed the window to work. I found it was the switch on the passenger side had shorted out causing it not to work. I replaced the switch and the window rolled up and down from both the driver’s and passenger side. The reason I explained that it was the passenger’s side window was because it would have been Ursula's window and, sure enough, into the dealership walked the two young girls that I had met last summer, Ann and Ursula. I'm a firm believer in fate and this coincidence was, in my opinion, fate. I went up to them excitedly saying to Ann “how are you doing and, I'm sorry, I don't remember your name” speaking to Ursula because my feelings were still smarting from no response to my letters. We all remarked what an amazing coincidence it was us meeting like this again. This summer I had no intentions of letting her get out of my sight and we did everything together. By the end of that week we both were smitten and she was complaining about how this relationship could not work, there was too much distance between us. We did keep in contact for at least half the winter and then it kind of went away.
The next summer, Rick Sparks and I were working on his racecar and had started racing yet at West Memphis Arkansas. One early evening after finishing the race, Sherry Waters went ahead of us to open the gates into my parents backyard where we parked the racecar because Rick’s house had no place to store it. When we got there she stopped us immediately and said that the two girls that I had met at the hotel, where she and I both had worked at that time, had driven by the house. So I took this is another sign and went looking for them. Of course I did find and we spent that summer not just getting smitten with each other but falling deeply in love. Later that year, I and a young man Ann had met that summer drove up to Canada to see them and again everything with Ursula was magic. I could not believe that a beautiful girl was so into me. No other girl had ever cared that much and I could feel that it was the best relationship I had ever had. I was scared as to what my family would think and excited also to tell them about her. My family was always negative about everything but somehow not this time. Unfortunately I had to ask her to marry me over the phone, long distance relationship you know. So that Christmas I took my first airplane ride. Notice I said my first airplane ride ever and went to propose to her in person. I racked my brain for something to do that might be romantic and, being a man, I decided what if I had one big tin can that had several smaller tin cans that she would have to open with a can opener to get to her engagement ring. I thought it was romantic, problem being she didn't know we needed a can opener and I didn't bring one with me so it took a while before she could see that I was serious. Just to let you know, she did say yes and we were engaged on New Year’s Eve 1981 and were married July 17, 1982. If you don’t already know it, that was an historic date, Disneyland opened it’s gates for the very first time on July 17th, 1955.
Stay tuned for Part 2 and how I became a world traveler.