Philip on sun 3 jun 01
Somewhere here...I have the yellowing News Paper clipping, from 1948 or so,
where a Great Great Aunt of mine, having immigrated to the U.S. from the
Ukraine, or from just where, I am not presently sure, but... a couple years
before, having 'got' here, went to night school, and learned English (or
'enough' English, anyway...) learned the names of the Presidents, and the
State Capitals, and the Bill of Rights, and... and all the rest, and got her
Citizenship, for having passed the 'tests' and taken the Pledge...and is
standing there shakeing hands on some Courthouse steps or other...being, as
she was, 102 years old...and looking like a little wizzened Bird...with a
babooshka on her head...wearing black...almost Nun-like...in Chicago...on an
Autumn day...in that big ol' 'Post-War' tomorrow everyone had waited
for...with a New 'Vee-Eight' Olds, parked next to the Curb...(somebody was
doing allright...)
I met, when I was just fourteen, a fellow who blessed me with some
conversation... about our interests and we talked about the World
and things we like...I asked him what he had been up to when he was
fourteen...and he said that he had been a 'Cabin Boy' on the 'Clipper
Ships'...going 'Around the Horn'...back and forth...hauling time-value
things,
Spices, some Textiles, Books and other Cargo...now my conversation with him
was in 1967...and it had been some time since the 'Clipper Ships' had plied
their ways to and fro...When World War One had busted loose, he was in his
late fifties, and his kids had had kids, and some of them were in on
it...He was a San Francisco
man...remembered the 'Great Fire and Quake' a plenty...I liked him...I went
home and cried.
Another fellow AND his Wife...(me seventeen now) he was a Piano Tuner and
technition...I was learning that stuff, and was happy to find a
knowledgable practicioner...we were in his basement which had garage doors
to the street...I could tell he was old, he had very nice 'Edwardian' Piano
Tools, and
just nice stuff in general...and at one point I asked him on his age...he
said he was
was 'one-oh-one'.
There was some racket and some hollering from the upstairs...he checks his
watch, says he has to go do something for a minute...be right back...I ask,
is everything allright?
He says it is time for him to go upstairs and fix his mom her afternoon
'Tea'...and that she gets a little cranky if it is not on time...(she WAS
making some fuss!...later he tells me, she'd had
him when she was fourteen...an adventuresome young gal, it turns
out...plenty of 'spunk' )...I believed him.
One more...I was fourteen, and I worked then in an antiquarian
Bookstore in San Carlos, California...there was a customer I had seen
several times...spoken with in small ways... but not spoken
with much beyond that...I liked him...one day he says 'That cigarette you
just lit sure smells
good!'
(it was a Players "Navy Cut" - straight 'Virginia')...and I say, "May I
offer you one?" (Yes, people stilll 'smoked' in those days...IN
'Bookstores'...)
He says no, but thank you, and that he had given them up recently, and
sometimes enjoys the aroma...he leans over...says 'Ahhhhhhh....'
We end up talking about our interests...at that time I was very interested
in 19th Century 'U.F.O' contactee stories, interactions...Animal related,
transactional and other related exigencies...the 'Airships'...and NOBODY
knew anything about THAT forgotten business in l968... unless thay HAD seen
them 'when'...or nobody I'd heard of anyway...and I'd seek out the
incidental mentions in Scientific Journals,
Transcripts of the Royal Society, Smithsonian and Meteorological reports
and so
on...and had gone through plenty of old Books, believe you me!...looking for
those 'Treasures'...News-Papers when I could find 'em...
I mention as how I am interested in the 'Airships', and did he recall
hearing much on them, back when...
Well...he says that as a young man, in (I forget the Town...) Iowa
('Eye-oh-way')
they had seen something of the 'Airships' sometimes...some times in the
daylight...like a big chubby 'cee-gar'...lined with portholes and some
stubby wings...and mysterious in its conspicous serenity and self conscious
'presence' and all...and sometimes putting out that
rythmic humming-buzz kind of sound...skimming the tree-tops...or a little
better, and that
sometimes at night...that bright pillar-of-light what would come down...move
startelingly, this way and instantly that...just TOO damn 'bright'...
..and the Horses would murmer and jostle...and be 'nervous'...and the Dogs
would wimper or
bark with their tails tucked under and walking backwards with
uneasyness...skittish...his dad cradleing a Shot-Gun...on the
porch...watching...keeping the 'kids' inside...his Mom trying to keep the
kids distracted or keep their nose prints off the parlour windows...
That was in 1892-93...'Eye-oh-way'...
I wish I had done more on that...'then'...that and other things...Folks what
had maybe "Shook the Hand of John L.Sullivan", been AT 'Wounded Knee' on
one 'side' ot the other...mostly the 'other' I suppose...Seen the 'Columbian
Exhibition'...so many
things...gone for good now...good bad or otherwise...by now, there is likely
no
one left who could tell of these things...who had seen them...in the
eighteen-eighties...'nineties...oohs...teens even by now...getting thin.
No more Veterans Of the 'Spanish-American War'...or the Anglo-Boer
War...some few left what worked on the 'Panama-Canal'...or of the Marines
what went to Nicaragua, in '23?...brought back 'Hammocks' (AND
malaria...)...I used to have one...from that...a Hammock...
.and a lot of People saw them...the 'Airships' that is...
Mayor of Oakland, California saw them...many people did...all across the
Country...then it stopped...or changed to some other way-of-things...
Forgotten...died with 'em...the memories of those things...and so much
'else'
as well...that they seen...did...were...the continuities, skinnied down to
the small end of nothing.
The last 'Pensioner' to recieve monthly 'Pension-Checks' from the Department
of the Interior, for service in the 'Revolutionary War', was a Mrs.
Palmeter, I believe, died April of Nineteen - and -Twelve...I guess, married
a Veteran...there are maybe
People still alive who knew her...
Seargent Alvin York's Daughter is reputed
to live near here...
I stayed in a basement up near Salt Lake, where Philo T.
Farnsworth once lived...did his 'tinkering'...neighbor remembered
him...looked like 'That guy in Taxi..."
..there are still SOME 'links'
possible...not much, but some...so much is...gone...allways, the river flows
on...
So...
Many things...
Among which...some of their 'Good work' can just be to talk with a boy or a
girl, with a young Man or Woman...
sometimes...grace them with that compliment...
Or not...but I am glad for what I got...in that regard...
Sure...
Philip
Las Vegas...
> Diane wrote:
>
> . Is it possible to continue
> > to do good/important work after the age
> > of 60???
>
> Hi Diane....YES, at least.....good FOR me, and important TO me.
>
> Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think you would only ask that if you're
under
> age 60. It's just a number. IMO.
>
> Ann Brink in CA
>
>
>
> >
>
>
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