Illustration Friday: Sorry!

Sorry!
Originally uploaded by Olias444.

We used to play all kinds of board games, Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, etc...One of them was Sorry!

Can Danny eat over?

Tonite we had dinner the old fashioned way, well probably not 'old fashioned' in a real sense, but it is to me. We made dinner and instead of loading our plates buffet style and trekking into the living room to watch "Lost", we took the bowls and passed them around and served ourselves. So perhaps it wasn't completely 'old fashioned' because we would have eaten at the kitchen table, which I haven't done since I lived at home with my parents. Ever since I've lived on my own, my dinners have always been at the coffee table in front of the TV. This is nothing new, once in a great while my mom would set up the TV Trays if there was a special event, or a big time movie on, and we would eat in the living room. But most of the time we ate at the kitchen table, and we had our specific seats at the table. When I would stay with my cousins, it was the same way, we sat at the table and there was the entree, like roast or whatever, and side dishes like string beans, mashed potatoes, etc...
At our house, I can remember the main things we always had....round steak, beans, cooked spinach, that was because my dad loved round steak, which has never been my favorite, but that was his, so that's what we always had....We had other things of course, corn on the cob, potatoes come to mind...Once in awhile we would go get these chicken boxes from 'The Burger Bar' a nearby drive-in type of place that was the most delicious chicken I ever tasted...they were these pink boxes that has three pieces of chicken, fries, and a bowl of chili...it was wonderful, way better and not as greasy as KFC. I remember dipping the fries into the chili instead of the ketchup (catsup?)
When we first moved into the house on Doma Drive in San Jose, I started to make buddies with the kids around there that summer of 1964...a while later, my best buddy was Danny Pinone "The Other Danny" we called him...one day he came over and brought a note from his mom, it was an invitation from his mom for me to have dinner with them the next night. My mom wrote a note to her, thanking her, and gave it to the Other Danny...it was all so formal then!
So the next night, my parents made sure I was dressed up, hair combed...and my mom went on and on, "Remember, you are to be on your BEST behavior, ALWAYS say please and thank you, never reach, ASK for them to pass it to you..." It was like going on a job interview!...
So I rode my bike over there at 5:30, and there was the other Danny out front, playing catch with his older brother Eddie and his little brother David, still in their play clothes. We went into their garage, since dinner wouldn't be ready yet, we played ping pong. Then his dad opened the door (from the kitchen) He was large man, with a 'big' magnamous personality "Heyy! look at THIS guy! you going to the prom or something?" he said to me, we all laughed, but I instantly felt 'overdressed' and a bit self-conscious...
We all sat at the table, I remained quiet, which is part of my nature, but I also observed......I observed how traditional this family was. The dad obviously ruled the roost, and the mom ruled the kitchen, she had everything under control and made sure everyone washed up. The dad said, "Eddie, you start, pass this over to Danny and his friend Danny, ha!..." I think we had roast chicken and mashed potatoes, but I remember it was very good. It was traditional that way, where dishes were passed around and you take your helping. I observed their kitchen, the portrait of John F. Kennedy, the ceramic tile that said "Bless this house, oh Lord we pray, make it safe both night and day"...I also observed the dynamics of the family, they were very nice people, they talked about the events of each one's day. This is one thing I have never experienced, that is, growing up in a large family, with brothers and sisters. Anyway, little David said, "Danny's looking at everything everyone does..." everyone laughed, but it was true! the Observer was being observed!
So I rode home, and my mom had me write a thank you note. Later on we had the Other Danny over for dinner...I wonder what he thought about the round steak...I know he liked the Coke, "we don't get to have this at home!" So I realized back then, when you go eat over someone's house, you always experience something new, which is usually a treat.

War Games

I must first acknowledge the men and women overseas right now, especially in Iraq, Afganistan...doing their duty in hostile conditions...War is certainly not a game...it is Hell on Earth for those who experience it....Now that I'm older, I understand the seriousness and horror of War....it is something to be avoided at all costs.....
That said, when I was a kid in the 60's. War was cool....we didn't know about the horror, we just knew from movies like "The Great Escape" and "The Dirty Dozen", and TV shows like 'Combat' ... We played war all the time, but it was the World War Two scenario, when the bad guys were the Germans....and one group of kids would say, "okay we'll be the Germans, you guys go over there and we'll start..."
Where I grew up in San Jose, there were tons of open fields and orchards at the time, lots of hiding places and we would set up ambushes beforehand, like loading dirt into Baggie plastic bags and then climb some trees and Bomb the other guys...and then sometimes we'd get bombed, and you're sweating and it turns into mud...it was fun...I was always "Kirby" when we played Combat....
Bobby Novack always had the coolest toy guns, back then he had an arsenal of toy machine guns, the kind where you bring back the lever and just pull the trigger...dadadadadadadadoooow!
I wanted one of those guns! My parents were very speculative about the toys they would buy me, my dad was against toys, he thought I should just focus on working on the yard, he was strict...but my mom was more sympathetic, she would be generous and buy me certain toys, but she drew the line at the toy machine guns....
Aside from that, there were always the "Plastic Army Guys" in which I still have a fondness for, to this day they are sentries in my toothpick fort!
I think it was with THESE guys, that true creativity comes out....you can create whatever battle scenario you want, and it also can develop voice-over and sound-effect skills!
One of the funniest things, when me and my cousin Joe set up all these scenarios, we would dig these elaborate small forts in the ground and set up all these little army guys...."okay you ready?" then we'd turn the hose on and flood the army guys out, and the sound effects we would make!.....the machine-gun fire thusly:
Tommy Gun - "th th th th th th th th th th"....in small bursts...you have to make the noise from the tip of your tongue...
Large machine gun - "chuhcuchuchcuchcuchcuchcuc!"...this is harder, from the back of the tounge...
Rifles - "Panyo! Panyo!"
And then the War would be over when my aunt would walk out and say "Look at all this damn mud! What the hell are you kids doing?"

Bug in the House

When the ocean tide retreats, it leaves tidal pools, with many busy little creatures in there, like a complete society...living in the pools, they forget about the Sea....
I had a certain revelation as I chased around a small cricket in the house, who chirped and chirped.
In the past, my first reaction was to simply kill it...
But no, not this time, there were dozens of crickets out there, chirping for the first time and this one was simply stuck inside the house...I did not consider him (or her) an unsightly bug or a thing to be destroyed, but a thing that needed to be reunited with it's fellows outside.... I thought of the spider web near the back porch light, when a mosquito hawk flew by , and the spider host came out, and then went back in, welp, no dinner for him tonight. Such is their daily life, all these busy little creatures living their lives and their destinies. At the time I thought, I need to clean out all these damn bugs, just hose them all down....but then I thought, no...I won't be their 'Sea' this time, as long as they stay outside the house of course!....But in this incredible explosion of the bug's activity, and plants too, I have realized that as we chase out our own destinies, aren't we all just trying to do the same thing? Not to compare us sentient human beings with bugs or anything...but I was just happy for the cricket tonight. And then there's always my own Sea....

One more on Language

A few posts ago, I complained about people who post song lyrics...that they must mean a great deal to those that post them, but for some who read them, maybe not as much....well, I was mistaken at the time, song lyrics do mean a great deal, it's poetry.
Now I'm going to do something now...I'm posting a passage from a book!...
The book is called "London" by Edward Rutherford. He's a great author and storyteller who does incredible historical research. It's about the city of London, England from the time it was a small camp of hunter-gatherers, through Roman times, Elizabethan times, right up until modern times....anyway, I'm at the part where the English Language is taking shape....
After the Romans left around AD 400, for 200 hundred years the land was in turmoil...there was one leader, Artuirus, who held things together as people from Europe, namely Norway, Denmark, and Germany came over and settled there...this Arturius was the basis of the King Arthur legend.
Anyway, here's the passage from the book...two fisherman are sailing up the Thames river, and the older one is explaining the sights....
"That's Badric's Island, he said" in Anglo-Saxon, 'island' was pronounced like 'eye' so it came out 'Badric's Eye' which sounded like "Battersea"..."And over there, that's Chalk Island on the right" the sound Chelch Eye which made a sound roughly like 'Chelsea'...There were numerous settlements, a farm here, a settlement there. These too bore Saxon names like 'ham' for home, 'ton' for town...As they made their way upriver, he pointed out, "there's Fulla's-ham, and up there, there is Kensin's-ton!"
Well anyway, that's the passage...some of the main districts of London, one my favorite cities on earth...Battersea, Chelsea, Fullsham, and Kensington.
And so on goes the English language, of which we read, write, and speak.

Nope, just American

There was a movie starring Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges called "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" that came out in 1974...They were drifters, bank robbers...the scene when Eastwood climbs into the getaway car the exchange goes like this:
Eastwood: "What's your name, boy?"
Bridges: "Lightfoot"
Eastwood: "Lightfoot......you Indian?
Bridges: "Nope, just American"
I went to the barber the other day, he complained about the damn Mexicans who were taking over the area where he had his old barber shop. He asked, "what was you name again? your Last name"
I said "well my last name is Guerra"
"Is that Hispanic?"
I said yes, well we go back in California, many generations...and then he seemed relieved....then he started talking about the illegal immigrants, how they should all be shipped back...
This was before that huge march last Monday....and this is my personal opinion on this....
As a person with a Mexican background, I CANNOT relate at all, on many levels....to any of these people, I cannot relate to crossing borders, to leaving families, to standing in corners waiting for some guy in a pick up drive up and offer work....I cannot relate to free medicine, free social services at our tax payers expense...I can not relate to gang activity....
No... none of this....I don't think it's realistic to ship all 'mexicans' back...they are here to stay...and they are certainly not 'bad' people, they are human beings who just want the same things we all do.
My own dad would hire these guys...."hey, they're good workers, I don't give a damn, I'll pay them" He didn't care.
I admire the hell out of him for still speaking the language, and I try to too, but never as fluent as him.
I just wish they would try to assimilate more...at least learn English. When I travelled to other countries, I went out of my way to bring phrase books and at least make an attempt to communicate with the locals in their own language, however butchered it might be..."when in Rome" as they say....
Then one time when I was in Tulare visiting my parents, It dawned on me that there is a virual apartheid when it came to some of the Hispanic communities. They seem to live in enclaves where they have no desire or intention to learn English or assimilate in any way to American culture...this diappoints me... we went into a restaurant a gal came out..."que quedes coca?" (who's Coke is this?)
I had to ask, what country is this? I'm just an American.