This blog was named after a long lost blogger pal of mine. It was created so my other blogger pals and I from the Awful Truth can avoid the twitards and have meaningful and intelligent conversations.
WARNING: This is a Twilight, Paris Hilton, Lilo & Kardouchian free no zone. Any posts regarding the aforementioned will be promptly deleted and the poster will be blocked from making any further comments. Thank you for your cooperation.
jake gyllenhaul aka toothy tile
Friday, April 8, 2011
happy time/memory/event/happenstance
tell us your most happy memory or event or time in your life.
Too many to mention. But I'll talk about one I've been thinking about lately.
The morning after Obama was elected President, I was flying to Los Angeles to visit my daughter, her family, and my son. I remember thinking how tired I would be for the trip after being up half the night watching the results come in. So as the call came out on the local news that the entire downtown Millenium Park was filling up with people anticipating the results, I didn't go because I needed to be up so early in the morning. Darn it! I thought.
But as soon as I hit O'Hare Airport that morning it was clear that I had walked into the center of it all. The airport was full of camera crews lugging huge camera equipment, some going home and others coming in, along with hordes of international correspondents and people who had flown in just for that rally. There were weary people everywhere, carrying banners, and posters, and wearing large Obama buttons. It was thrilling.
On my flight there were at least three separate groups with Obama posters, hats, and the whole wardrobe. As I talked to them over the first hour they had all been volunteers working the campaign and had wrapped up in Chicago before flying home. It was like a flying party. What a wonderful circumstance. We were on a flight with individual TV sets at each seat and even though everyone had headsets you could see people watching the morning news across the plane, everyone with big smiles on their faces.
That was one of my happiest days as well! Never thought a Black man would be President and I felt the world was rejoicing with us.
Another time was the day we gave away our vehicle GPS (before cellphones had them). That voice that kept bossing me around and didn't know where to go anyway was gone! No more fights in the car about whether to listen to it or not! Jeepers, I was sooooo happy.
It's hard to find just one single event that was pure, unadulterated joy!
Many that were very happy, however. Like getting through our wedding (which I really don't remember but that I know happened because I've been shown photos) without a certain ex of my husband showing up to make trouble. Bitch, please.
If the murder of "my victim" is ever solved (and it could be), that would be it for sure!
Gee, lfj, you could have been on the six o'clock news if you had thrown down with your husband's ex at the wedding. But probably for the best that you didn't. Cake flying everywhere, champagne glasses crashing to the ground. Still....
Trust me when I say I wouldn't have stood a chance against her. Not only was she lots taller and stronger, but she was waaaaayy lots crazier.
As it turned out, it was a very sedate and lovely affair. And she was literally over 1,000 miles away making someone else miserable (the poor bastard), or being hysterical, or whatever other insane thing she could think of to do.
I'm alive, just turning inward like I always do when I can't deal with something. Thank you all for you uplifting and wonderful words. My girl is holding her own, ate like a champ today! Bright eyed and bushy tailed for one more day.
The first great day was finding itty bitty Chloe under the parked car outside my house. The next great one was my first wedding. The next, next great one was my second wedding.
But the topper was the day my baby was born! I couldn't believe that I cooked something that perfect and special! LOL, I'm always associating things with food-
my happiest days were my college days...they could have been more happier had i'd not been so serious about making good grades. as if those grades ever did me any good.
my happiest day, like Judes, is when i rescued Bruno from the shelter.
and, it goes w/o saying that happiness also arrived when i met lfj (aka itsjake), Tisha, Judes and the Rocster. you all are and will always be very special to me.
I wouldn't say it was my happiest, because I was too star struck. It was the evening Teddy called me on the phone for the first time. I couldn't believe I was actually talking to waiting4godot!
Tackling a "new" case (which are always old) creates enormous happiness for me, but also guilt that the death of someone else is involved. I'm sure that they would've preferred that I not be happy if it meant they had not been murdered.
Happiness is so random. Today, I found in the compost bin two pots of mums we threw in last fall because dirt and plants were frozen to the sides. The mums are starting to sprout! Hope springs eternal in the Spring (but why does it have to be so bright?)
Also, it makes me very happy that I live plop in the middle of nowhere. Not in a city and not in much of a town. Expanses around me full of nuanced beauty.
I've been trying to reply here several times today. Each time I finish typing my message I get a "blog failure" message. So now I'm a failure here too.
Mums are a particularly hardy plant. But the most sturdy are daylilies. I once left a bit of a division on the ground over the winter, having forgotten about it and found it greening up in Spring despite having laid there all winter. I love daylilies for that reason and because they are so beautiful when they bloom. I have dozens of varieties. I'd have more but after putting 1/2 of both of front and back yard to garden, I've run out of room.
So you can see, I'm a gardener. Some people garden for effect and hate it, others do it out of a type of weird fanaticism. Call us aficionados. It's kinder. I remember when I was a young person attending my first perennial sale at a botanical garden. There were old people, young people, and plenty in between. People dressed down and some curiously dressed up. I remember smiling at the sight of an old man dressed in ancient coveralls, with the calloused hands of an old farmer, deep in discussion with a nattily dressed couple of gay men comparing their experiences with a particular variety of plant. I knew right then I had found my people. For pure democracy and fraternity, look to a garden center.
The corner of my garden is showing signs of growing crowded, and a dance is being organized.
I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
daylilies are one of my favorite flowers and i just love poppies. Ric and I have so many plants in the house (including some beautiful orchids) that it takes hours to water them each week. it was sunny and 81 degrees here yesterday. Ric and i spent most of the day perusing the garden centers planning our spring plant regimen.
I do have that one special moment, I tried to post that last week but got the "blog failure" message you did and gave up...now this is a test, if I can post this then I'll post my best moment.
The moment I experienced unbridled & unmatched joy like none other was when the wheels left the tarmac at Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam, airport to return stateside. Of course there's a little more to the story than that... Four of us traveled to the out processing center outside of Saigon. When we arrived and checked in we found out the only way we would know when out flight would leave was via the PA system. We agreed that at least one of us would be awake at all times so we wouldn't miss the announcement for our flight...if only it were so simple. You probably guessed by now that somehow all four of us missed the PA announcement and by the time we found out about it it was too late to get on it. We thought, not that big a deal as we surely be on the next flight. Hah! We went to the main office and talked with a Staff Sargent about when we would leave and he said he would let us know shortly. We took a seat (hey it was air conditioned in there!) but he told us he would send someone later and that was our message to leave. Well, 4 hours went by, no flight. We went back to the office and was told again he would let us know when we were leaving. We pointed out a flight had already left that we should have been and he told us he wouldn't bump someone because we screwed up. That's when I started to worry about this clown. We waited another 4 hours and another group left without us - WTF??? We went to see this clown again, he wasn't there but the next clown said we were on "hold" for the next flight. Really, we have seen tow flights leave already that we should have on. The second clown said he could do nothing about it and we would have to wait for clown number one to return. So we saw ANOTHER group leave at the ten hour mark so we went back to the office but instead of talking to this jerk we got into to see the Captain in charge. We told him our plight and he literally jumped straight up and screamed for the jerk Sargent. He told him in no uncertain terms we should have been on the next flight out and this JERK had the nerve to tell him he was "teaching us a lesson"! Well that just incensed the Captain even more and promised this clown some sever disciplinary action. I always hoped he sent this clown out into the bush but who knows. Anyway, the Captain put us on the next flight that was leaving in two hours, personally drove us to the airport and after checking with three senior officers (2 Colonels & one 2 star General) made certain we boarded first. He also made the clown Sargent carry our bags on board and apologize to us in front of the senior officers. Guy was stuttering so bad by then I thought he would wet his pants! Finally, we rolled down the runway and lifted off, and because it was night, we could see tracer rounds being fired not too far away. At that point we went bonkers, throwing pillows etc. around the cabin (the flight attendants told us later everybody did that) and flew away from "The Nam". To top it off the senior officers brought us a beer (enlisted men such as us didn't usually receive that perk on flights)and the rest, as they say, is history. The next best moment was touching down at SFO realizing we had made it back and then eventually, after a 30 day leave, it was off to Germany! TMI, I'm sure but the back story just seems pertinent to me.
well frazzle, another blog failure, hmmm. I'll try again - Yeah, I loved those scenes in the movie as I was fresh out of the Army when it came out. Overall, I was very lucky in my tour as most of my time was spent "in the rear with the gear". I was a photo lab tech working in a portable darkroom processing mainly aerial photographs. The war still managed to find me and I'll never forget the sight, sounds and smell of the ravages of war on the human body, theirs and ours. Vietnam is such a beautiful country (IMHO) and was so difficult to reconcile that with the brutality and ugliness of the war. It soon became clear to me that our being there wasn't necessarily in the country's best interest. The lifestyle was completely different and honestly I don't think it mattered that much if the government (which was notoriously corrupt, along with their Army) was based on the US democracy style or communist style. I see that in today's upheavals in the Middle East, the cultures are just so different from ours and so many don't appreciate that. Didn't mean to meander down any kind of political track, just thinking out loud....
On another subject - does anyone happen to watch Dr. Who? I usually don't but I noticed in the previews the new season (at least the opening episode) features location shooting in a couple of my favorite areas of the west; Monument Valley and Valley of the Gods. It also appears they filmed around Lake Powell up there. Spectacularly beautiful and very different terrain. A lot old westerns were filmed in and around Monument Valley (also some scenes from Back to The Future, part 2) and Forrest Gump stopped running with Monument Valley in the background. Valley of the Gods is about 20 miles north of Monument Valley and while the formations aren't as large as in Monument Valley, it has the advantage of no residents. Monument Valley being in the Navajo reservation does have residents scattered around so you can't just go everywhere you feel like as in Valley of the Gods. I don't know if any of you saw an awful movie called Vertical Limit but if you did, the opening scene where the dad falls 1000 feet to his demise, was filmed in valley of the Gods.
Didn't John Ford film nearly every movie in Monument Valley?
As a little girl, I was taken to a "Chuck Wagon Dinner" in the Garden of the Gods. The showpiece of the evening was an "Indian" pantomiming The Lord's Prayer. Hmmmmmm.
Leaving Vietnam was a real contrast to the comic (yes really) way I was introduced to the country. I was part of an aerial surveillance unit that formed up in the states and traveled as a group to Vietnam. We flew into Da Nang and boarded "cattle car" trucks (very large open trailers with sides that held about 50 or 60 people each). Our final destination was the Marine/Army airfield (as depicted in Full Metal Jacket and yes there is areal China Beach) around 10 to 15 miles from the airport. As we turned on the approach road to the airfield there were two working girls standing by the roadway that gave us a free look at their wares. They both pulled up their tops and swung their boobies around then turned around and lifted up their short skirts to shows their cute bare buns - we absolutely roared with laughter as THAT was about the last thing we expected. Actually we were very worried about being ambushed as we were in open trailers but instead we were treated to two very beautiful girls showing off their stuff. Turns out they did that every time you would go by them. They got a lot of business from the base but not from me - I was concerned about STD's even then!
I've been told by my cop-former-Marine pals that the first half of "Full Metal Jacket" is the closest one can come to Basic Training without actually going through it. What a movie!
LFJ, strange u should mention Full Metal Jacket which is one of my top 5 favorite movies - in fact, i instant downloaded it on Netflix just last nite and watched it again!!!
Was never in the armed forces. Just missed the draft which was good as i probably would have fled to Canada. But i thank you for serving Roc and glad that you made it thru it all alive and unscatched. I remember the first time i saw the Viet Nam memorial...i was blown away. And to think that all those men and women gave up their lives for a war that should never have happened.
Isn't it so strange and interesting that all of us know and like the same movies, actors, songs, etc.? Wonder what it was that drew us to AT and then to each other?
If this was a movie script we would have all been visited by space aliens at one time in our past, and be now slowing walking toward the same spot to find each other, and them.
movie siggestion (on DVD): Before Night Falls starring Javier Bardem (great performance) based on the autobiography of gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas. good film - Ric was able to add a lot to it and he loved seeing seome of the places he grew-up.
There can't be two such movies, so I've seen this. It's been a while but I was very impressed. I didn't know who Javier was at the time so I was surprised to see now that he is the star. He is a hell of an actor.
yea Tisha, this in an old movie (2000) - of interest...Johnny Depp played two minor roles in it as a transvestite and a prison warden. also, Sean Penn was supposedlly in it too although i could not spot him in the film.
Well, I just tried to post a gigantic story and I got a blog failure notice. Sorry guys, don't have time to repost it now. Love to you all, have a great day. Will talk to you all via email I hope-
Too many to mention. But I'll talk about one I've been thinking about lately.
ReplyDeleteThe morning after Obama was elected President, I was flying to Los Angeles to visit my daughter, her family, and my son. I remember thinking how tired I would be for the trip after being up half the night watching the results come in. So as the call came out on the local news that the entire downtown Millenium Park was filling up with people anticipating the results, I didn't go because I needed to be up so early in the morning. Darn it! I thought.
But as soon as I hit O'Hare Airport that morning it was clear that I had walked into the center of it all. The airport was full of camera crews lugging huge camera equipment, some going home and others coming in, along with hordes of international correspondents and people who had flown in just for that rally. There were weary people everywhere, carrying banners, and posters, and wearing large Obama buttons. It was thrilling.
On my flight there were at least three separate groups with Obama posters, hats, and the whole wardrobe. As I talked to them over the first hour they had all been volunteers working the campaign and had wrapped up in Chicago before flying home. It was like a flying party. What a wonderful circumstance. We were on a flight with individual TV sets at each seat and even though everyone had headsets you could see people watching the morning news across the plane, everyone with big smiles on their faces.
That was one of my happiest days as well! Never thought a Black man would be President and I felt the world was rejoicing with us.
ReplyDeleteAnother time was the day we gave away our vehicle GPS (before cellphones had them). That voice that kept bossing me around and didn't know where to go anyway was gone! No more fights in the car about whether to listen to it or not! Jeepers, I was sooooo happy.
It's hard to find just one single event that was pure, unadulterated joy!
Many that were very happy, however. Like getting through our wedding (which I really don't remember but that I know happened because I've been shown photos) without a certain ex of my husband showing up to make trouble. Bitch, please.
If the murder of "my victim" is ever solved (and it could be), that would be it for sure!
Gee, lfj, you could have been on the six o'clock news if you had thrown down with your husband's ex at the wedding. But probably for the best that you didn't. Cake flying everywhere, champagne glasses crashing to the ground. Still....
ReplyDeleteTrust me when I say I wouldn't have stood a chance against her. Not only was she lots taller and stronger, but she was waaaaayy lots crazier.
ReplyDeleteAs it turned out, it was a very sedate and lovely affair. And she was literally over 1,000 miles away making someone else miserable (the poor bastard), or being hysterical, or whatever other insane thing she could think of to do.
Has anyone heard from Judes?
ReplyDeleteHeard this morning.
ReplyDeleteI'm alive, just turning inward like I always do when I can't deal with something. Thank you all for you uplifting and wonderful words. My girl is holding her own, ate like a champ today! Bright eyed and bushy tailed for one more day.
ReplyDeleteThe first great day was finding itty bitty Chloe under the parked car outside my house. The next great one was my first wedding. The next, next great one was my second wedding.
But the topper was the day my baby was born! I couldn't believe that I cooked something that perfect and special! LOL, I'm always associating things with food-
Good happy days, Judes. Stay strong, Chloe!
ReplyDeletemy happiest days were my college days...they could have been more happier had i'd not been so serious about making good grades. as if those grades ever did me any good.
ReplyDeletemy happiest day, like Judes, is when i rescued Bruno from the shelter.
and, it goes w/o saying that happiness also arrived when i met lfj (aka itsjake), Tisha, Judes and the Rocster. you all are and will always be very special to me.
and Judes, glad that Chloe is doing well.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say it was my happiest, because I was too star struck. It was the evening Teddy called me on the phone for the first time. I couldn't believe I was actually talking to waiting4godot!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it WAS a pretty great day when itsjake, Patricia and W4G let me onto the playground!!!
ReplyDelete:)
gosh Tisha, u makin' me blush!!!
ReplyDeleteand Tisha, we'll have to skype again soon!
ReplyDeleteand maybe i'll even show u my thumbs!!! lol
ReplyDeletecatching up on episodes of Weeds, one of my favorite shows.
ReplyDelete" . . . little houses made out of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same."
ReplyDeletei'm on season 5 - they done did away with the ticky-tack thing a while back. however, they always have a kewl song at the end of each episode.
ReplyDeleteoh, i forgot to add that one of my most happiest times is when i had my first orgasm...being the gentleman i am, i will spare u the details!
ReplyDeleteTackling a "new" case (which are always old) creates enormous happiness for me, but also guilt that the death of someone else is involved. I'm sure that they would've preferred that I not be happy if it meant they had not been murdered.
ReplyDeleteHappiness is so random. Today, I found in the compost bin two pots of mums we threw in last fall because dirt and plants were frozen to the sides. The mums are starting to sprout! Hope springs eternal in the Spring (but why does it have to be so bright?)
Also, it makes me very happy that I live plop in the middle of nowhere. Not in a city and not in much of a town. Expanses around me full of nuanced beauty.
I've been trying to reply here several times today. Each time I finish typing my message I get a "blog failure" message. So now I'm a failure here too.
ReplyDeleteOh sure, that short message went through.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I was trying to say, ahem....
Mums are a particularly hardy plant. But the most sturdy are daylilies. I once left a bit of a division on the ground over the winter, having forgotten about it and found it greening up in Spring despite having laid there all winter. I love daylilies for that reason and because they are so beautiful when they bloom. I have dozens of varieties. I'd have more but after putting 1/2 of both of front and back yard to garden, I've run out of room.
So you can see, I'm a gardener. Some people garden for effect and hate it, others do it out of a type of weird fanaticism. Call us aficionados. It's kinder. I remember when I was a young person attending my first perennial sale at a botanical garden. There were old people, young people, and plenty in between. People dressed down and some curiously dressed up. I remember smiling at the sight of an old man dressed in ancient coveralls, with the calloused hands of an old farmer, deep in discussion with a nattily dressed couple of gay men comparing their experiences with a particular variety of plant. I knew right then I had found my people. For pure democracy and fraternity, look to a garden center.
Candide: " . . . but let us cultivate our garden."
ReplyDeleteThe corner of my garden is showing signs of growing crowded, and a dance is being organized.
ReplyDeleteI wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
daylilies are one of my favorite flowers and i just love poppies. Ric and I have so many plants in the house (including some beautiful orchids) that it takes hours to water them each week. it was sunny and 81 degrees here yesterday. Ric and i spent most of the day perusing the garden centers planning our spring plant regimen.
ReplyDeleteRoc, no happy moments? I'd think this calls for one of your stunning free style poems, even if to refute the subject.
ReplyDeleteEver wake up with a certain song in your head that persists and persists?
ReplyDeleteToday for me it's "Sylvia's Mother."
I do have that one special moment, I tried to post that last week but got the "blog failure" message you did and gave up...now this is a test, if I can post this then I'll post my best moment.
ReplyDeletei wonder what's causing the "blog failure"?!?
ReplyDeleteThe moment I experienced unbridled & unmatched joy like none other was when the wheels left the tarmac at Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam, airport to return stateside.
ReplyDeleteOf course there's a little more to the story than that...
Four of us traveled to the out processing center outside of Saigon. When we arrived and checked in we found out the only way we would know when out flight would leave was via the PA system. We agreed that at least one of us would be awake at all times so we wouldn't miss the announcement for our flight...if only it were so simple.
You probably guessed by now that somehow all four of us missed the PA announcement and by the time we found out about it it was too late to get on it.
We thought, not that big a deal as we surely be on the next flight. Hah! We went to the main office and talked with a Staff Sargent about when we would leave and he said he would let us know shortly. We took a seat (hey it was air conditioned in there!) but he told us he would send someone later and that was our message to leave. Well, 4 hours went by, no flight. We went back to the office and was told again he would let us know when we were leaving. We pointed out a flight had already left that we should have been and he told us he wouldn't bump someone because we screwed up. That's when I started to worry about this clown. We waited another 4 hours and another group left without us - WTF???
We went to see this clown again, he wasn't there but the next clown said we were on "hold" for the next flight. Really, we have seen tow flights leave already that we should have on. The second clown said he could do nothing about it and we would have to wait for clown number one to return. So we saw ANOTHER group leave at the ten hour mark so we went back to the office but instead of talking to this jerk we got into to see the Captain in charge. We told him our plight and he literally jumped straight up and screamed for the jerk Sargent. He told him in no uncertain terms we should have been on the next flight out and this JERK had the nerve to tell him he was "teaching us a lesson"! Well that just incensed the Captain even more and promised this clown some sever disciplinary action. I always hoped he sent this clown out into the bush but who knows.
Anyway, the Captain put us on the next flight that was leaving in two hours, personally drove us to the airport and after checking with three senior officers (2 Colonels & one 2 star General) made certain we boarded first. He also made the clown Sargent carry our bags on board and apologize to us in front of the senior officers. Guy was stuttering so bad by then I thought he would wet his pants!
Finally, we rolled down the runway and lifted off, and because it was night, we could see tracer rounds being fired not too far away. At that point we went bonkers, throwing pillows etc. around the cabin (the flight attendants told us later everybody did that) and flew away from "The Nam". To top it off the senior officers brought us a beer (enlisted men such as us didn't usually receive that perk on flights)and the rest, as they say, is history. The next best moment was touching down at SFO realizing we had made it back and then eventually, after a 30 day leave, it was off to Germany! TMI, I'm sure but the back story just seems pertinent to me.
It must have been like waking from a horrible nightmare to get out of that hell hole safely. Can't imagine what you went through.
ReplyDeleteRemember the recurring character in the movie M*A*S*H who's always sitting in his Jeep saying, "Damned Army"?
No, no. Not TMI. I felt happy for you! Great story!
well frazzle, another blog failure, hmmm. I'll try again -
ReplyDeleteYeah, I loved those scenes in the movie as I was fresh out of the Army when it came out. Overall, I was very lucky in my tour as most of my time was spent "in the rear with the gear". I was a photo lab tech working in a portable darkroom processing mainly aerial photographs. The war still managed to find me and I'll never forget the sight, sounds and smell of the ravages of war on the human body, theirs and ours. Vietnam is such a beautiful country (IMHO) and was so difficult to reconcile that with the brutality and ugliness of the war. It soon became clear to me that our being there wasn't necessarily in the country's best interest. The lifestyle was completely different and honestly I don't think it mattered that much if the government (which was notoriously corrupt, along with their Army) was based on the US democracy style or communist style. I see that in today's upheavals in the Middle East, the cultures are just so different from ours and so many don't appreciate that. Didn't mean to meander down any kind of political track, just thinking out loud....
On another subject - does anyone happen to watch Dr. Who? I usually don't but I noticed in the previews the new season (at least the opening episode) features location shooting in a couple of my favorite areas of the west; Monument Valley and Valley of the Gods. It also appears they filmed around Lake Powell up there. Spectacularly beautiful and very different terrain. A lot old westerns were filmed in and around Monument Valley (also some scenes from Back to The Future, part 2) and Forrest Gump stopped running with Monument Valley in the background. Valley of the Gods is about 20 miles north of Monument Valley and while the formations aren't as large as in Monument Valley, it has the advantage of no residents. Monument Valley being in the Navajo reservation does have residents scattered around so you can't just go everywhere you feel like as in Valley of the Gods. I don't know if any of you saw an awful movie called Vertical Limit but if you did, the opening scene where the dad falls 1000 feet to his demise, was filmed in valley of the Gods.
ReplyDeleteThanks Roc. I tried to type more but it crapped out again.
ReplyDeleteDidn't John Ford film nearly every movie in Monument Valley?
ReplyDeleteAs a little girl, I was taken to a "Chuck Wagon Dinner" in the Garden of the Gods. The showpiece of the evening was an "Indian" pantomiming The Lord's Prayer. Hmmmmmm.
With you on Viet Nan, BTW.
Actually, I think he said, "Goddamned Army." With such resignation.
ReplyDeleteLeaving Vietnam was a real contrast to the comic (yes really) way I was introduced to the country.
ReplyDeleteI was part of an aerial surveillance unit that formed up in the states and traveled as a group to Vietnam. We flew into Da Nang and boarded "cattle car" trucks (very large open trailers with sides that held about 50 or 60 people each).
Our final destination was the Marine/Army airfield (as depicted in Full Metal Jacket and yes there is areal China Beach) around 10 to 15 miles from the airport.
As we turned on the approach road to the airfield there were two working girls standing by the roadway that gave us a free look at their wares. They both pulled up their tops and swung their boobies around then turned around and lifted up their short skirts to shows their cute bare buns - we absolutely roared with laughter as THAT was about the last thing we expected. Actually we were very worried about being ambushed as we were in open trailers but instead we were treated to two very beautiful girls showing off their stuff. Turns out they did that every time you would go by them. They got a lot of business from the base but not from me - I was concerned about STD's even then!
I've been told by my cop-former-Marine pals that the first half of "Full Metal Jacket" is the closest one can come to Basic Training without actually going through it. What a movie!
ReplyDeleteT&A -- what a great intro to a foreign country!
LFJ, strange u should mention Full Metal Jacket which is one of my top 5 favorite movies - in fact, i instant downloaded it on Netflix just last nite and watched it again!!!
ReplyDeleteWas never in the armed forces. Just missed the draft which was good as i probably would have fled to Canada. But i thank you for serving Roc and glad that you made it thru it all alive and unscatched. I remember the first time i saw the Viet Nam memorial...i was blown away. And to think that all those men and women gave up their lives for a war that should never have happened.
Isn't it so strange and interesting that all of us know and like the same movies, actors, songs, etc.? Wonder what it was that drew us to AT and then to each other?
ReplyDeleteIf this was a movie script we would have all been visited by space aliens at one time in our past, and be now slowing walking toward the same spot to find each other, and them.
ReplyDeletemovie siggestion (on DVD): Before Night Falls starring Javier Bardem (great performance) based on the autobiography of gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas. good film - Ric was able to add a lot to it and he loved seeing seome of the places he grew-up.
ReplyDeleteThere can't be two such movies, so I've seen this. It's been a while but I was very impressed. I didn't know who Javier was at the time so I was surprised to see now that he is the star. He is a hell of an actor.
ReplyDeleteyea Tisha, this in an old movie (2000) - of interest...Johnny Depp played two minor roles in it as a transvestite and a prison warden. also, Sean Penn was supposedlly in it too although i could not spot him in the film.
ReplyDeleteWell, I just tried to post a gigantic story and I got a blog failure notice. Sorry guys, don't have time to repost it now. Love to you all, have a great day. Will talk to you all via email I hope-
ReplyDelete:)