BoxRec

dagosd2000 wrote:AGING GRACIOUSLY

After making a couple of early posts and went for my morning constitutional. Just came back. Made a hot tea.Sweating a little. I'm on the keyboard.

With the gimpy hip, I'm down to walking. I go ,usually,for a walk around the small shopping center near where I live. As I was passing the Home Town Buffet.,I saw an old guy wearing the Red And Yellow Cap. He was struggling to put his walker in the back of the car. A woman with a page boy cut reddish hair was watching him. She was around my age.

I stopped my walk.
"My Dad was a Marine too,"I said to him."He was at Okinawa and Pelieau."
The old timer looked up bracing himself on the walker.He studied me.
"I was Ist Division.Guadacanal through Okinawa."
My lips started to quiver.
"My Dad was Ist Division. 5 Corps,"I said stumbling over my my words.
"Yeah,"the old man said.
I gave him a quick thumbs up and shook his hand. I looked at the woman. She was smiling warmly at me.

I continued my walk around the shopping center. About half way down the parking lot I looked back over my shoulder. The red headed woman was looking at me smiling still.

Thanks for sharing that Rog, I appreciate it. Some of us guys here like to talk about our dads and when we do so we do it with pride. I can always feel the pride you have in your father , Rog, when you write or mention him. Sometimes I have to read between the lines with you. Sometimes you down play it. Sometimes the very core of your story can be read in one line or one sentence. I read your stories loud and clear.

My own father's birthday will becoming up on the 16th. he would have been 86. He died at 57 on May 7th, 1981. Sometimes when I do write about him I wonder if everyone gets tired of hearing it but I write anyway. I think when it comes to our fathers we can't but help looking at them from a young boy's eyes. I know, at times, that's how I still see my father. Our father' were regular Joe's and yet in their own ways there was nothing regular about them.

Here's to all our Dads
Randy

dagosd2000 wrote:THE BAND AID CONCESSION

Me and my Dad would go at it a lot. I could never measure up to him. He wanted me to get into politics when I was younger. My mother knew what that meant. I never gave it a thought. My Father was so dynamic that when he was in a room full of people I couldn't talk. No use trying to add anything. I didn't want to compete. He would say things to people about me that were exagerrations. Always good things,but exagerrations.

However ,towards the end,when I could see that his body was giving out ,we got closer.He was listening more to his Glenn Miller music. I noticed that his memories drifted to his time in the Marine Corps.There were fewer and fewer mob stories. But my Father didn't go into any gory details of fighting in the Pacific. Most of the stories were humorous stories about boot camp. The friends he made. I found later a Christmas card that said "Merry Christmas Okinawa 1945." Inside were the names and addresses of his buddies. They were from all over.

When my father died,I looked up one of those Marine buddies. The guy's name was Dick Duffy. He lived in La Jolla. Everyone called him "Duffy." I asked Duffy about my Dad's experiences in the Pacific. Duffy told me that my Father was his"bodyguard." I guess Duffy wasn't a big guy and the others would try to pick on him. My Dad never let that happen.

My Dad was older than the others. He was a 28 year old boot. The other Marines were mostly in their teens. Duffy told me about how my Dad shot a Jap sniper who had Duffy in his crosshairs. How my Dad killed a Jap soldier with his bare hands and his K Bar knife who was raping an Okinawan girl.The girl's family bestowed my dad with many gifts including a gold spun obi sash.

After Okinawa was secured,the Marines weren't that joyfull. They were expecting to invade mainland Japan next. It took 3 months to win Okinawa.!2,000 Marines had lost their lives. Japan looked to be a mortal challenge.

Sitting with my Dad on Okinawa,Duffy looked at him and asked him what he thought.
"Duff.All I can tell you is I wish I could have had the Band Aid Concession on this island."

kikibalt wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:Randy....I know what you mean about pneumonia, I had it when I was 32 years old, was laid up for a month, word to the wise, don't think too much, you can go nuts thinking too much....

Frank
You sound like a man who's got it bad.Can't shake it lose. Thinking too much. I understand what you're saying.I've got it too.Started when I was a kid. Cursed from the get go.The panic went away for a long time(won't get into that reason here),but around 25 years ago it came back. Hasn't gone away. Some people won't understand that. They're the lucky ones. I get it early in the morning. You want to sleep in,but you're thinking too much . Every way you go, it's the worst case scenario. Sometimes I ball up into the fetal position. Feel paralyzed,but getting up is the best thing. Put one foot in front of the other and it gets better. Only thing is, you have to wake up early in the morning again.

I'll tell you something that worked with me. Hormone shots. All that seratonin uptake stuff the shrink gave me wore off. One day I read an article in Time magazine about how mens' testosterone levels drop with age. Similar to what women go through with menapause.Some doctors have been prescribing testosterone for older men.This is what that article was about. Take it too the bank.It worked immediately for me. The depression went away like that. The thing is I didn't go through a doc.Read up on it and then went to TJ to the drug store. For ten years the nightmare went away. Haven't taken the shots though in a couple of years. Thinking of the side effects. But now that the bad thoughts are coming back,I'm thinking side effects are a better trade off than going nuts.

Depression? no Roger, I never been depress, why?, because I don't let things bother me, never seen a shrink, closes to that was an old man that I used to work with who in the late '50 gave me some abvice, he seen that something was bothering me.
"Something bothering you son?" he said
"Yeah, I have a problem" I said
"Can the problem be fix?"
"Yes"
"So what are you worrying about it than?, fix it"

Than he gave me some abvice that I have taken to heart.

"Son, if you have a problem, be it money, woman, kids or any kind of problems, only two things can happen, either the problem can be fix or it can't, if it can be fix, why worry?, and if it can't be fix, why worry?, best to move on with your life and leave that problem behind"
And that how I have lived my life ever since, I don't worry about anything, which some times drives Connie nuts. I have cancer, I don't worry about it, worrying about is not going to cure it, so unless I'm feeling sick, I sleep like a baby.....

I've never been one to over worry, except when it comes to the kids. Depression? Sometimes I get the blues and then it passes. It's funny, Frank but Jeri gets the same way. She goes crazy because she thinks I don't worry about anything. My line to her is "When it's time to worry, then I'll worry". Same thing on the job. Sometimes some of the guys crew worry about the production schedule or some other thing going wrong. My line at work is "There are people here that get paid to worry and I'm not one of them".

All that being said, I have had a lot of thinking time lately but most of it has just been remembering the past. Sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes it's not such a good thing.

Randy

The original "Kid Galahad", AKA "The Fighting Bellhop" was on Turner Classic Movies the other night. It's a classic boxing movie with Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis and Wayne Morris. It doesn't get any better than this. Morris is the boxer, Robinson is the manager, Davis is Robinson's girl and Bogie is the rival gangster manager. They don't make'em like this anymore. It's been a few years since I last saw this movie. I had forgotten how good it was. I'm a big fan of the old movies, especially boxing and gangster movies.

Randy

Jeri and I are getting out of the house today. We're going to see "Everybody's fine" with Robert DeNiro. Supposed to be a good movie about a widowed father reconnecting with his grown kids. I'll let you know if it's worth the money...or not.

Randy

Randyman wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:AGING GRACIOUSLY

After making a couple of early posts and went for my morning constitutional. Just came back. Made a hot tea.Sweating a little. I'm on the keyboard.

With the gimpy hip, I'm down to walking. I go ,usually,for a walk around the small shopping center near where I live. As I was passing the Home Town Buffet.,I saw an old guy wearing the Red And Yellow Cap. He was struggling to put his walker in the back of the car. A woman with a page boy cut reddish hair was watching him. She was around my age.

I stopped my walk.
"My Dad was a Marine too,"I said to him."He was at Okinawa and Pelieau."
The old timer looked up bracing himself on the walker.He studied me.
"I was Ist Division.Guadacanal through Okinawa."
My lips started to quiver.
"My Dad was Ist Division. 5 Corps,"I said stumbling over my my words.
"Yeah,"the old man said.
I gave him a quick thumbs up and shook his hand. I looked at the woman. She was smiling warmly at me.

I continued my walk around the shopping center. About half way down the parking lot I looked back over my shoulder. The red headed woman was looking at me smiling still.

Thanks for sharing that Rog, I appreciate it. Some of us guys here like to talk about our dads and when we do so we do it with pride. I can always feel the pride you have in your father , Rog, when you write or mention him. Sometimes I have to read between the lines with you. Sometimes you down play it. Sometimes the very core of your story can be read in one line or one sentence. I read your stories loud and clear.

My own father's birthday will becoming up on the 16th. he would have been 86. He died at 57 on May 7th, 1981. Sometimes when I do write about him I wonder if everyone gets tired of hearing it but I write anyway. I think when it comes to our fathers we can't but help looking at them from a young boy's eyes. I know, at times, that's how I still see my father. Our father' were regular Joe's and yet in their own ways there was nothing regular about them.

Here's to all our Dads
Randy

Randy, my dad turns 86 on thursday, the 10th. Our fathers were born within a week of each other. And here is a little boxing trivia, Jackie McCoy would have turned 86 last month. My father is kind of like Jackie McCoy in size and personality. Your Dad, mine & Jackie were all born within days of each other.

To Mr. De La O, McCoy, & Farris . . . . 1923 was a good year!


-Rick

Randyman wrote:Jeri and I are getting out of the house today. We're going to see "Everybody's fine" with Robert DeNiro. Supposed to be a good movie about a widowed father reconnecting with his grown kids. I'll let you know if it's worth the money...or not.

Randy

Randy...Good article on Robert De Niro and the movie in today's LATimes.

Robert De Niro feels for the father in 'Everybody's Fine'
The emotions of fatherhood bound the actor to the Frank Goode character.



Robert De Niro and Drew Barrymore star in the road-trip comedy from Miramax. (Abbot Genser / Miramax Film)

By Glenn Whipp

December 5, 2009

In "Everybody's Fine," Robert De Niro plays a role that he has spent most of his adult life researching out of the public eye -- an imperfect father learning along the way.

Known for his meticulous preparation, De Niro didn't have to step far out of his own shoes to connect with the film's Frank Goode, a demanding dad who, now in his 60s, wants nothing more than to gather his four adult children around the same table.

"Bob's at that age where a lot of guys look back and think, 'Wow, that went quick . . . maybe I should have spent more time with the kids,' " says "Everybody's Fine" writer-director Kirk Jones. "He connected with Frank on a lot of levels, both in thinking back and moving ahead with trying to be a good father."

De Niro, fresh from a day spent shooting a third "Fockers" movie in Pasadena, doesn't dispute Jones' assessment.

"You're aware of time going by," De Niro, 66, says during an hourlong conversation in his Beverly Hills hotel suite. "My whole thing now is just to have the strength to keep my kids in line and get them to the point where they're independent and self-reliant. I want to make sure my kids know I'm there, and you've got to have the stamina to do that."

Dad and granddad

De Niro has five children, including 14-year-old twin sons Aaron and Julian and 11-year-old son Elliott. The youngest son lives in New York with De Niro and his wife, Grace Hightower. The twins split time between De Niro and their mother, Toukie Smith. De Niro also has two young grandchildren through his grown kids, daughter Drena and son Raphael.

"Everybody's in New York and, hopefully, my younger kids will go to college in New York and find something they want to do so they'll stay in the city," De Niro says. "I like the kids to be around. Last weekend, they were away and it was just my wife and I, and I don't know . . . it was a weird thing, in a way. I missed them. If they want to go to college here and live at home, I won't have a problem with that."

De Niro is as famous for his reticence as he is for his research, so his openness in talking about family and fatherhood rates as something of a surprise. Jones has been interviewed with De Niro while promoting the film, and has observed the actor's discomfort with the interview process firsthand. ("He's not a song-and-dance kind of guy," Jones says.) But when the conversation veers toward the themes of the movie, De Niro becomes almost chatty. Almost.

"We had a read-through in New York just before Bob committed, and it was incredibly emotional," Jones recalls. "A lot of people were in tears over this idea of loss and children, and Bob was one of them."

The loss De Niro's character feels in "Everybody's Fine" is both physical and spiritual. Frank Goode spent his adult life working double shifts for the local wire factory, providing the financial means for his four children to pursue their talents and dreams. Now retired and a widower, Frank belatedly realizes that it was always his late wife who kept the family connected. That job has fallen to him, making him see that he doesn't have the relationship with his children that he imagined.

In hindsight, De Niro says he wishes that Frank had come across as even more intense and demanding so that the audience would better understand the cause of some of the ambivalence his adult children felt toward him.

But then, De Niro notes that, in his own life, he struggles with striking a balance between pushing his kids and letting them find their own way.

"I'm not as good as I thought I would be about forcing them to do things," De Niro says. "I try to get them to realize that it's important to be consistent in things in order to be skilled at them. I find myself saying things like, 'You'll thank me later.' "

Here De Niro pauses, his facing breaking into a sly, mischievous grin. "Or . . . what's another one . . . 'Don't think anything you're going through, I haven't been through -- or more.' It's the 'or more' . . . ," De Niro throws up his hands. "You find yourself saying things you never thought you'd be saying."

Playing the truth

De Niro wasn't a good student, eventually dropping out of high school a few credits shy of a diploma so he could pursue acting full-time. His mother, an artist and an academic, tried to push him, De Niro says, but couldn't find the right buttons.

"I had already found my way into something I loved since I was a kid," De Niro says, referring, of course, to acting. He studied the Method approach under Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler and scuffled along for a good dozen years in off-Broadway and dinner theater shows, commercials, no-budget movies and a handful of Brian De Palma starter films before breaking through with the one-two punch of "Mean Streets" and "Bang the Drum Slowly" in 1973.

"You show up, you do the work and maybe you learn something," De Niro says of those formative years. "You're always just trying to be present and get to the truth of the moment. That has never changed. And it never stops being a challenge."

During the movie, Frank says that if he could do it again, he would "ask less of the kids." His feeling: "As long as they're happy, that would be OK."

Hearing that particular line again, De Niro darkens just a bit. It's the word "happiness." It's too ethereal, too ill-defined to suit his taste.

"You need a sense of purpose," De Niro says, leaning forward. "You find something you really love and then you follow through. You stick with it. Nothing is easy if you really want to do it well or feel good about yourself. You've got to work at it. And in that work, well . . . there's your happiness."

[email protected]

Rick Farris wrote:

Randyman wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:AGING GRACIOUSLY

After making a couple of early posts and went for my morning constitutional. Just came back. Made a hot tea.Sweating a little. I'm on the keyboard.

With the gimpy hip, I'm down to walking. I go ,usually,for a walk around the small shopping center near where I live. As I was passing the Home Town Buffet.,I saw an old guy wearing the Red And Yellow Cap. He was struggling to put his walker in the back of the car. A woman with a page boy cut reddish hair was watching him. She was around my age.

I stopped my walk.
"My Dad was a Marine too,"I said to him."He was at Okinawa and Pelieau."
The old timer looked up bracing himself on the walker.He studied me.
"I was Ist Division.Guadacanal through Okinawa."
My lips started to quiver.
"My Dad was Ist Division. 5 Corps,"I said stumbling over my my words.
"Yeah,"the old man said.
I gave him a quick thumbs up and shook his hand. I looked at the woman. She was smiling warmly at me.

I continued my walk around the shopping center. About half way down the parking lot I looked back over my shoulder. The red headed woman was looking at me smiling still.

Thanks for sharing that Rog, I appreciate it. Some of us guys here like to talk about our dads and when we do so we do it with pride. I can always feel the pride you have in your father , Rog, when you write or mention him. Sometimes I have to read between the lines with you. Sometimes you down play it. Sometimes the very core of your story can be read in one line or one sentence. I read your stories loud and clear.

My own father's birthday will becoming up on the 16th. he would have been 86. He died at 57 on May 7th, 1981. Sometimes when I do write about him I wonder if everyone gets tired of hearing it but I write anyway. I think when it comes to our fathers we can't but help looking at them from a young boy's eyes. I know, at times, that's how I still see my father. Our father' were regular Joe's and yet in their own ways there was nothing regular about them.

Here's to all our Dads
Randy

Randy, my dad turns 86 on thursday, the 10th. Our fathers were born within a week of each other. And here is a little boxing trivia, Jackie McCoy would have turned 86 last month. My father is kind of like Jackie McCoy in size and personality. Your Dad, mine & Jackie were all born within days of each other.

To Mr. De La O, McCoy, & Farris . . . . 1923 was a good year!


-Rick

Amen to that Rick and Happy birthday to your Dad. Dempsey was the champ when our Pops were born. McCoy was favorite of my father. I wonder if he knew how close they were in age.
It was a good year! That reminds me of Sinatra's song. Fitting for this topic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwv-DxOPhSc
"It was a very good year" by Frank Sinatra

Randy

Who was HW champ in 1913? the year my dad was born.

kikibalt wrote:

Randyman wrote:Jeri and I are getting out of the house today. We're going to see "Everybody's fine" with Robert DeNiro. Supposed to be a good movie about a widowed father reconnecting with his grown kids. I'll let you know if it's worth the money...or not.

Randy

Randy...Good article on Robert De Niro and the movie in today's LATimes.

Robert De Niro feels for the father in 'Everybody's Fine'
The emotions of fatherhood bound the actor to the Frank Goode character.



Robert De Niro and Drew Barrymore star in the road-trip comedy from Miramax. (Abbot Genser / Miramax Film)

By Glenn Whipp

December 5, 2009

In "Everybody's Fine," Robert De Niro plays a role that he has spent most of his adult life researching out of the public eye -- an imperfect father learning along the way.

Known for his meticulous preparation, De Niro didn't have to step far out of his own shoes to connect with the film's Frank Goode, a demanding dad who, now in his 60s, wants nothing more than to gather his four adult children around the same table.

"Bob's at that age where a lot of guys look back and think, 'Wow, that went quick . . . maybe I should have spent more time with the kids,' " says "Everybody's Fine" writer-director Kirk Jones. "He connected with Frank on a lot of levels, both in thinking back and moving ahead with trying to be a good father."

De Niro, fresh from a day spent shooting a third "Fockers" movie in Pasadena, doesn't dispute Jones' assessment.

"You're aware of time going by," De Niro, 66, says during an hourlong conversation in his Beverly Hills hotel suite. "My whole thing now is just to have the strength to keep my kids in line and get them to the point where they're independent and self-reliant. I want to make sure my kids know I'm there, and you've got to have the stamina to do that."

Dad and granddad

De Niro has five children, including 14-year-old twin sons Aaron and Julian and 11-year-old son Elliott. The youngest son lives in New York with De Niro and his wife, Grace Hightower. The twins split time between De Niro and their mother, Toukie Smith. De Niro also has two young grandchildren through his grown kids, daughter Drena and son Raphael.

"Everybody's in New York and, hopefully, my younger kids will go to college in New York and find something they want to do so they'll stay in the city," De Niro says. "I like the kids to be around. Last weekend, they were away and it was just my wife and I, and I don't know . . . it was a weird thing, in a way. I missed them. If they want to go to college here and live at home, I won't have a problem with that."

De Niro is as famous for his reticence as he is for his research, so his openness in talking about family and fatherhood rates as something of a surprise. Jones has been interviewed with De Niro while promoting the film, and has observed the actor's discomfort with the interview process firsthand. ("He's not a song-and-dance kind of guy," Jones says.) But when the conversation veers toward the themes of the movie, De Niro becomes almost chatty. Almost.

"We had a read-through in New York just before Bob committed, and it was incredibly emotional," Jones recalls. "A lot of people were in tears over this idea of loss and children, and Bob was one of them."

The loss De Niro's character feels in "Everybody's Fine" is both physical and spiritual. Frank Goode spent his adult life working double shifts for the local wire factory, providing the financial means for his four children to pursue their talents and dreams. Now retired and a widower, Frank belatedly realizes that it was always his late wife who kept the family connected. That job has fallen to him, making him see that he doesn't have the relationship with his children that he imagined.

In hindsight, De Niro says he wishes that Frank had come across as even more intense and demanding so that the audience would better understand the cause of some of the ambivalence his adult children felt toward him.

But then, De Niro notes that, in his own life, he struggles with striking a balance between pushing his kids and letting them find their own way.

"I'm not as good as I thought I would be about forcing them to do things," De Niro says. "I try to get them to realize that it's important to be consistent in things in order to be skilled at them. I find myself saying things like, 'You'll thank me later.' "

Here De Niro pauses, his facing breaking into a sly, mischievous grin. "Or . . . what's another one . . . 'Don't think anything you're going through, I haven't been through -- or more.' It's the 'or more' . . . ," De Niro throws up his hands. "You find yourself saying things you never thought you'd be saying."

Playing the truth

De Niro wasn't a good student, eventually dropping out of high school a few credits shy of a diploma so he could pursue acting full-time. His mother, an artist and an academic, tried to push him, De Niro says, but couldn't find the right buttons.

"I had already found my way into something I loved since I was a kid," De Niro says, referring, of course, to acting. He studied the Method approach under Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler and scuffled along for a good dozen years in off-Broadway and dinner theater shows, commercials, no-budget movies and a handful of Brian De Palma starter films before breaking through with the one-two punch of "Mean Streets" and "Bang the Drum Slowly" in 1973.

"You show up, you do the work and maybe you learn something," De Niro says of those formative years. "You're always just trying to be present and get to the truth of the moment. That has never changed. And it never stops being a challenge."

During the movie, Frank says that if he could do it again, he would "ask less of the kids." His feeling: "As long as they're happy, that would be OK."

Hearing that particular line again, De Niro darkens just a bit. It's the word "happiness." It's too ethereal, too ill-defined to suit his taste.

"You need a sense of purpose," De Niro says, leaning forward. "You find something you really love and then you follow through. You stick with it. Nothing is easy if you really want to do it well or feel good about yourself. You've got to work at it. And in that work, well . . . there's your happiness."

[email protected]

Thanks Frank! Some of what they speak about is how I have been feeling. Family is Numero Uno for me. When I have a chance to have all my kids and grandkids together at the dinner table, I'm at my happiest. This summer when my son was home was the first time in years that all of were together. Like any father worth his salt I just want what's best for my kids.

Now I'm really looking forward to the movie.

Randy

kikibalt wrote:Who was HW champ in 1913? the year my dad was born.

Jack Johnson, Heavyweight Champeen from 1908 to 1915.

That Barrymore profile is unmistakable.

dagosd2000 wrote:THE BAND AID CONCESSION

Me and my Dad would go at it a lot. I could never measure up to him. He wanted me to get into politics when I was younger. My mother knew what that meant. I never gave it a thought. My Father was so dynamic that when he was in a room full of people I couldn't talk. No use trying to add anything. I didn't want to compete. He would say things to people about me that were exagerrations. Always good things,but exagerrations.

However ,towards the end,when I could see that his body was giving out ,we got closer.He was listening more to his Glenn Miller music. I noticed that his memories drifted to his time in the Marine Corps.There were fewer and fewer mob stories. But my Father didn't go into any gory details of fighting in the Pacific. Most of the stories were humorous stories about boot camp. The friends he made. I found later a Christmas card that said "Merry Christmas Okinawa 1945." Inside were the names and addresses of his buddies. They were from all over.

When my father died,I looked up one of those Marine buddies. The guy's name was Dick Duffy. He lived in La Jolla. Everyone called him "Duffy." I asked Duffy about my Dad's experiences in the Pacific. Duffy told me that my Father was his"bodyguard." I guess Duffy wasn't a big guy and the others would try to pick on him. My Dad never let that happen.

My Dad was older than the others. He was a 28 year old boot. The other Marines were mostly in their teens. Duffy told me about how my Dad shot a Jap sniper who had Duffy in his crosshairs. How my Dad killed a Jap soldier with his bare hands and his K Bar knife who was raping an Okinawan girl.The girl's family bestowed my dad with many gifts including a gold spun obi sash.

After Okinawa was secured,the Marines weren't that joyfull. They were expecting to invade mainland Japan next. It took 3 months to win Okinawa.!2,000 Marines had lost their lives. Japan looked to be a mortal challenge.

Sitting with my Dad on Okinawa,Duffy looked at him and asked him what he thought.
"Duff.All I can tell you is I wish I could have had the Band Aid Concession on this island."

Roger . . . My father quit high school to join the Navy, actually the Sea Bees (spelling) and would work as a welder at Pearl Harbor after the attack. He said that our Pacific fleet would limp back into the harbor, one ship at a time, barely afloat. He and his crew would then patch up the battleships, destroyers and carriers and then they would be sent back out to battle. Some did not return. He also spent time on Midway Island, and this is the only time he really saw any combat. My dad did not boast of his role in the war, "On Midway, the Japs shelled us a couple of times, but that was the only real action I was to be a part of." He told me the guys who were at Pearl at the time of the attack, his Sea B buddies, were in the water trying to salvage the sinking ships as the bombs were being dropped. When he had free time, he would walk to the top of a hill over looking Pearl Harbor, and he'd just watch the ships as they'd hobble back into the harbor, like a battered boxer returning to his corner. They would come back with huge holes in the ships hull. They would patch them up as best they could, and he was amamzed they were able to go out and return without sinking. He says he'll never forget arriving on Midway Island. He said that as his ship approached the Island, you could not see it as it was very flat, no hills. He said you wouldn't see the Island, the first thing you'd see was a big water tower that was set right in the middle of the island. You knew then you'd reached Midway. My mother's brother, was a Marine killed in action at Guadacanal at age 19. Her other to brothers served in the Army, one in the Army Air Corps and the other regular Army.


-Rick Farris

Randyman wrote:

kikibalt wrote:Who was HW champ in 1913? the year my dad was born.

Jack Johnson, Heavyweight Champeen from 1908 to 1915.

Thanks Randy...

kikibalt wrote:

Randyman wrote:

kikibalt wrote:Who was HW champ in 1913? the year my dad was born.

Jack Johnson, Heavyweight Champeen from 1908 to 1915.

Thanks Randy...

You're welcome Frank. By the way, the great John L. Sullivan was the champ when my grandfather Santiago De La O was born in 1886. Tommy Burns was the champ when my grandpa Auggie (my mother's father) was born in 1907. Jeri's dad was born one year later in 1908, Burns was still champ.

Randyman wrote:

That Barrymore profile is unmistakable.

Yes it is, Randy. I have to say that Drew Barrymore is not only a great actress, but a person who is well liked and respected by everybody I know in the business.
After reading your post, Moni and I are headed for the theatre this afternoon, as well. I'm not certain what we'll see just yet, but the above film is definitly a possibility.



-Rick

Speaking of Dempsey, here's a couple of video highlights. I might have posted them before but Dempsey is always worth a second look.

Best of Jack Dempsey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_AsOroeb8w

Jack Dempsey: To Victory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmaPxa-eZss

Randy

Rick Farris wrote:

Randyman wrote:

That Barrymore profile is unmistakable.

Yes it is, Randy. I have to say that Drew Barrymore is not only a great actress, but a person who is well liked and respected by everybody I know in the business.
After reading your post, Moni and I are headed for the theatre this afternoon, as well. I'm not certain what we'll see just yet, but the above film is definitly a possibility.



-Rick

Randyman wrote:Speaking of Dempsey, here's a couple of video highlights. I might have posted them before but Dempsey is always worth a second look.

Best of Jack Dempsey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_AsOroeb8w

Jack Dempsey: To Victory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmaPxa-eZss

Randy

The thread is breathing pretty good today. More than I can say for USC. :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlGvuKSq7Wk

Song For My Father(for all our dads)

Horace Silver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G4fP6f8TjE

The Life I'm Living

Memphis Slim

dagosd2000 wrote:The thread is breathing pretty good today. More than I can say for USC. :(

I forgot about the game today. It must still be on. I'm going to check it out.
Doesn't sound good for Charlie and I.

Rick
Pete Carrol and Urban Meyer are singin' the blues tonight. These two will need plenty of this tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRxS7Q64xUQ

Black Coffee

Ella Fitzgerald

Courtsey Rick Farris



Proud To Be An American . . .

This past thursday, December 3rd, Monica was sworn in as an American citizen with more than 900 other immigrants.
The ceremony was held in Montebello, at the Quiet Cannon, in the same room where boxing matches are held on occasion.

This is something my wife has waited for since arriving in this country on December 4, 1995.
Monica left Brazil 1989, full of dreams that could not be realized in her country.

She first went to Portugal, then to France, and then Holland. Learning the language of each country she lived in.
Monica's true love is language, and she has always had a goal to learn to speak as many as she can fluently.
When she arived in America, her ultimate dream, she didn't speak a word of English. Today she speaks it fluently.

When we arrived at the Quiet Cannon, Monica was nervous, she had waited her entire life for this moment.
Watching the ceremony was a great experience for me, as an American. We tend to take things for granted in this country.
This was a reality check for me. Sometimes we don't appreciate just how much we have.
On this day, more than 900 new American citizens didn't need to be reminded of how great America is.

As I watched the ceremony from the guest area, I was deeply touched to see a dozen American military personnel recieve their citezenship.
Young men and women from all over the world, already in the U.S. military, were becoming citizens. This brought a tears to my eyes.
A video was played on a large screen in the front of the auditorium, a message from President Obama, welcoming the new Americans.

Monica had tears in her eyes thruout the ceremony. She had finally achieved her ultimate goal. Monica is now a proud American.
And I am proud of her. She is quite a lady. I guess I just got lucky.


-Rick Farris