New Old Photos

Every single month I have to submit to an inspection, of my room. At least, I tell myself, they don't do cavity searches.

This comes from living in subsidized housing. It's bad, but it's good. The good thing is that periodically I get ambitious and decide to really clean, instead of just find clever places to hide crap from the inspectors. This happened yesterday and today.

Which was bad, because I stirred up a lot of accumulated dust, which caused me to have an asthma attack, which necessitated a walk down to the Pioneer Clinic for a nebulizer and a new inhaler, but hey, it's all good, I have a new inhaler, and I found cool stuff in the dust.

The cool stuff were old photos I thought I had lost, and a little bit of old artwork. The latter is now up on Somewhat Art, the former will end up here eventually. I'll start with three of them.

I was going to talk about how, in 1955, my Father took me fishing. He went to the trouble of procuring a kiddie size rod and reel.

I caught a fish! It was a perch, just barely legal. It was a thrill until Dad told me how great he was going to taste knowing that I'd caught him myself. I didn't know the idea was to eat them. I thought we were going to keep him for a pet. Always the failures of communication.

This picture next was taken on April 4, 1955. It shows Dad hauling in trout that look paltry to me, but what would I know. The photographer was Corporal James H. Bissett, and this ran in the Fort Devens Dispatch, to prove that the fish were biting on opening day. Another note stamped onto the back of the photo says, "PLEASE CREDIT U.S. ARMY PHOTOGRAPH. The Department of the Army has no objection to the publication of this photograph. It's use in commercial advertisement must be approved by the PUBLIC INFORMATION DIVISION, OFFICE OF THE CHEF OF INFORMATION, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, THE PENTAGON, WASHINGTON 25, D.C." Good thing this site isn't commercial, that would be a pain. Anyway it was Dad's success that day that enabled him to get me to go fishing with him a week or two later. So now I know when that happened!


I also found the following outstanding picture that I'd even forgotten I'd ever had, of my fiancée Kathy making dream eyes at me, while I savor the moment. The picture was taken in Kindergarten on a day when a reporter from the Dispatch dropped in looking for human interest stories. This shot wasn't used in the paper but we got a copy anyway.


Finally, proof that I graduated Kindergarten. The class picture, less Kathy, who was out that day. I'm in the back row, third from your right. There we were the future of America. Note the coonskin cap on the guy directly in front of me. The future of America will remember the Alamo, and know Fess Parker was there.

History Lesson

Video Find of the Day

Watching this next video, what you have to understand, is, the attitude toward the subject (war in Vietnam) expressed by the narrator, is that of the general public at large, as of the time the newsreel was made, in 1967.



Watching this second video, what you have to understand, is, the attitude toward the subject (war in Vietnam) expressed by the singer, is NOT that of the general public at large, as of the time the concert (Woodstock) occurred, HOWEVER, what we know, is, people in general came around to it soon after.



So, comparing the two videos, representing the before and after attitudes, we learn that general attitudes can wheel about like a Chinese dragon with a tooth-ache. Let this inspire hope.

Joke Told on a Bus

Anitra and I were at the back of a bus downtown. I was telling her some stuff I saw on the Onion News Network that was funny. A Native American woman overheard us laughing about "Immigrants, the Human Cost" and after a few blocks, offered to tell a joke of her own, which went something like this:

A White Woman was fishing in a stream and having no luck. Then an Indian Woman sat down at her right and started fishing, and immediately hooked a big fish. She struggled and struggled with it and finally landed it.

The next day, the White Woman was fishing, and having no luck. The same Indian Woman sat down on her left, and immediately hooked a huge fish. She struggled and struggled and finally hauled it in.

The White Woman was amazed. She said to the Indian Woman, "You always catch a big fish, and I catch nothing. What's your secret?"

The Indian Woman said, "You took our land, you took our trees, you took away our languages, now you want our secrets? Oh, all right."

She went on, "When I wake up in the morning, I always look at my husband's cock. If it leans to the right, I go to the right when I come to fish, and I always catch a big one."

"But if my husband's cock leans to the left, I go to the left, because that's where the big fish will be."

The White Woman thought about that. Then she said, "But what if your husband's cock is straight up? What do you do then?"

The Indian Woman said, "Oh, on days like that, I don't go fishing."