I am trying to write more and worry less about the intangibles we all have in life. As you get older and begin noticing the endings of lives around you it becomes clear that you too, will vanish without a trace like so many before you.
And yes, there is a God. A kind and loving, a supremely merciful one. What that means is once you trust that there is a God who can and does intervene, you can improve your life no matter what station or situation you were presented with.
Impossible situations has become the standard. Bouncing from one catastrophe to the next is the norm. Ask for help and you will get help. Maybe not the exact help you were expecting but you will notice, many times, problems resolve themselves. That is a great thing in and of itself. It all starts with forgiveness.
When I was 17 I wanted to go to sea. I really wanted to go because there was nothing in New Orleans. I knew that. The only way out was to run away to sea.
New Orleans is known as a bustling seaport. At that time it was the second largest port in the USA. I wanted to sign on as a merchant marine. In those days, it was possible to do this with the help of other seaman.
They told me to go to Mary's Tavern in the Irish Channel which is dangerous most of the time. Once there, you go to the second floor and ask for replacement seaman's papers. You say you lost everything.
Despite all the coaching even this was too much for me to be successful. I am a terrible liar. Needless to say, I was too skinny, too soft, too something they didn't like about me.
I retreated to the bar when a big man sat down beside me. He opened his jacket. I glanced over and saw blood on his shirt. I found out he is a Detective and had just been shot by some perp. I said to him, "you need to get that looked after." He said he needed to get drunk first then he will go to the Emergency Room.
Small caliber pistols called Saturday Night Specials were rampant in New Orleans at the time. Two shots of Irish whiskey and he was off. I left with no direction home.
Sonny was no help either. He was practically the only merchant mariner I knew. Frank and Ellen had introduced me to him. He stood watch at night on the bridge of his ship usually stoned or drunk as it sailed the 7 seas. Sonny and Iris were an item since he had money and she had none. Iris was a flower child from San Francisco with flowers in her hair.
Sonny was no help either. He was practically the only merchant mariner I knew. Frank and Ellen had introduced me to him. He stood watch at night on the bridge of his ship usually stoned or drunk as it sailed the 7 seas. Sonny and Iris were an item since he had money and she had none. Iris was a flower child from San Francisco with flowers in her hair.
This is what I wanted. I wanted the money, the girl and the sports car back then. A seaman could bring home foreign items. And like Sonny were junkies.
New Orleans saw a lot of heroin brought in by regular AB seaman who are cleared by the Captain to go ashore. Glad that has changed now. A junkie's life is a short life.
Charlie graduated like me from John McDonogh Sr.High home of the Trojans. The same Trojans that won City Championship three times in a row thanks to Bruce Mc Que the fullback who was unafraid and trampled people into the dirt. Here come the high steppa.
Charlie Wong was so much smarter than I was. Better study habits make the scholar. I hung out with him as much as he would allow. His family owned the proverbial Chinese laundry on Elysian Fields near the UNO campus. We both enrolled at UNO.
One night, he invited me to come to the small observatory in the Science Building for a look at the heavens. He knew of my portable reflecting telescope and wanted me to see a real telescope.
I remember it clearly. The image of Saturn is firmly etched in my brain, slightly tilted and very tiny in the aperture. This was my first glimpse of a planet. All I had ever seen was the moon. I did make a full study of the moon since the Saturn boosters were being assembled at Michaud out on Highway 90 for the moonshot.
One of my Scouting buddies' Dad worked in telemetry there. Boeing contracted for much of this work. They sent their best from Seattle. The moon launch was the goal.
This is the fall of 1967. I was in Dallas at SMU July 1969 when Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. We watched it live on TV in the Student Union lounge. What a moment of pride for all those thousands of people who worked to get him there.
Bill B. wanted to be part of our group so we let him in. We were Scouts and this is what Scouts do. Helping others become better at life by living with them and showing them the ropes, so to speak. One cold Saturday morning we drove down to Plaquemines Parish for a little shotgun practice. Plaquemines means persimmons in the native language.
Bill B. wanted to be part of our group so we let him in. We were Scouts and this is what Scouts do. Helping others become better at life by living with them and showing them the ropes, so to speak. One cold Saturday morning we drove down to Plaquemines Parish for a little shotgun practice. Plaquemines means persimmons in the native language.
We were walking along the levee talking about game birds when all of a sudden Bill's automatic shotgun goes off not a foot in front of my foot leaving a neat smoking circle of dirt. This left an indelible image in my psyche about gun safety. He apologized and we continued on. Shaken and unnerved but still talking with the little puffs of condensed water vapor coming from all of us. Woof.
We heard about the pirouge races in Belle Chase and we were determined to go see it for ourselves. We were startled to see racing pirouges were slender affairs that barely touched the water. They always said you could float one of these craft in a heavy dew.
We heard about the pirouge races in Belle Chase and we were determined to go see it for ourselves. We were startled to see racing pirouges were slender affairs that barely touched the water. They always said you could float one of these craft in a heavy dew.
These super long home builds were manned by a Cajun whose gift was strength through strength. He simply willed that boat to a speedy finish. These were time trials, not racing in the purest sense. If there ever was a sport of drag racing pirouges, this would be it.
Even in those days, long before we were interested in the solar system as a nation, I heard a philosophy about how we as a planet acquired the oceans. They were saying that the water came from Mars when it had oceans in the very old scriptures of Tibet. They simply evaporated from Mars and condensed on earth. I never understood how this was possible. Did the ocean travel through the vacuum of space? Maybe as a giant droplet splooshed here in one great inundation. After the fact is really difficult to prove so it will remain just a theory. It had to come from somewhere.
Even in those days, long before we were interested in the solar system as a nation, I heard a philosophy about how we as a planet acquired the oceans. They were saying that the water came from Mars when it had oceans in the very old scriptures of Tibet. They simply evaporated from Mars and condensed on earth. I never understood how this was possible. Did the ocean travel through the vacuum of space? Maybe as a giant droplet splooshed here in one great inundation. After the fact is really difficult to prove so it will remain just a theory. It had to come from somewhere.
Demasiadas armas en América ahora. Es sólo que no quiero que me tiro por cualquier persona.
"Levanten los manos" is what you will hear in Mexico if there is a problem.
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