|
Letters
From the Editor
|
"We're
going to Kansas City....Kansas City here we come.....They got some
crazy little women there and I'm goin' to get me one...Dah dah dah
dah de dah..."
Fats Domino, circa 1956.
Edison High School 1956. Just sitting in
the Hole in the Wall Cafe after school, smoking stale cigarettes
with my buds and listening to the Fat man wail.
Our hair was properly greased down with
Vaseline, lube oil, or whatever other concoction we could find to
set our locks in the proper DA (ducks ass) style.
This was back in the day when they had juke box controls in every booth. Just pluck in a nickel or 6 songs
for a quarter.
Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, The
Platters, Bill Haley and the Comets, ah bliss. No Elvis though. We
couldn't abide Elvis. Just a no talent hillbilly that for some
reason, all the girls dug.
Puffing on smokes, sipping on cherry
cokes, talking about chicks, sex, cars, sex, motorcycles, sex, Jayne
Mansfield movies, sex, and all the other things that get a 16 year
olds blood pumping....not that it took that much.
Huddling out at the curb was my trusty
'40 Merc convertible. Painted, by me, a deep purple color, with only
a little orange peel. It looked mean and threatening, from its
lowered front end with the Volkswagen tires, to the shaved trunk and
the "Slicks Auto Club" plaque on the rear bumper.
Later, we'd go out and rev up the stock
flathead engine and go bouncing down the street. the front end
bottoming out on every little dent in the road. If it wasn't raining
the top would be down. The guys in the back seat had the
responsibility of banging on the side of the car and making goofy
sounds whenever we passed a girl. The girls would, of course, ignore
us, but it really didn't matter. We wouldn't know what to do if
they'd have returned out pleasantries.
|
|
|
We'd drag the Main a few
times, and then head out to Dick's Drive-In, our favorite hangout.
Here we would sit for hours, smoking, drinking cokes, and watching
the parade of custom cars and hot rods passing through Dick's on
their way to nowhere...just crusin', killing time, passing the
night away. God
I miss those days.
Now Main street is a
skid row filled with wandering winos and sleeping bums , Dick's Drive-In has
transformed itself into a liquor store, my old Merc is a pile of
rust somewhere in a junk yard, and my friends are all old, just
sitting around remembering, and passing the night away.
"We're going to
Kansas City....Kansas City here we come.....They got some crazy
little women there and I'm goin' to get me one...Dah dah dah dah de
day..."
SEE YOU ALL IN KANSAS
CITY!!
Pecos
Reunion Raffle:
Jim Nelson, shipmate
and storekeeper for the Arizona Perch Base, USSVI, will
be donating shirts, no parking sign with dolphins, bath towels
with dolphins and other items that can be cleaned out of
inventory and raffled off. |
|
Guys, I've started
up a web site to sell some new designs I've made up for submariners:
decals, patches, bumper stickers, and t-shirts. Unfortunately, only
the decals are ready at this point, but the rest will follow.
Check 'em out at
www.dbforever.com
|
|
Final
Patrol:
