What Would Jimmy Do?

We were having a few drinks the other day and, I’m not sure why, but the subject drifted to ancestors and to regrets. Not sure the two subjects are necessarily related, but…
Probably if you ask anyone what they regret when they look back at their lives, just about everyone could come up with at least a few things. If you’re really young, you might think about how you might avoid regrets in the future.

But if you’re anywhere near my age, no matter how happy you are, you have a lot of regrets. We’ve all made lots and lots of miscalculations over the years and probably a few big mistakes that really did make a difference in our lives.
I guess thinking about myself, my regrets basically fall into two categories: things I did that I wish I hadn’t done but did, and things I wish I had done but didn’t. If you think about it, just about everything can be put into one of those categories. At the risk of this becoming a really long blog, I won’t go into details…

I think a lot of people’s biggest regret is wasted time… it’s becoming readily apparent that a lot of things that I figured I’d probably do someday, will never get done. The older you get and you look back on all the truly pointless hours spent doing frivolous things, or “nothing,” it’s disturbing… that time you just can’t get back  and what were realistic possibilities are now pretty much out of the question.

I am a very happy and lucky guy. I’ve never really suffered or been challenged by some significant handicap or misfortune. As far as I know, there has never been any big injustice committed against me. I don’t want a “do-over.” But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t have done better. I really don’t believe it when people say they wouldn’t change a thing. Given the opportunity, I’d certainly change some things — I’d love to have met Claire earlier in my life, but that’s something I couldn’t, by myself, change.  But there are plenty of other things I did have the power to change… and didn’t. I could have spent more time listening and talking to my parents… I could have spent more time with my kids… I could have been nicer to a lot of people — but — I didn’t.
But of all the decisions I’ve made over the years, the most important decision I ever made I got exactly right and I will never have any regrets. She’s got a birthday coming up soon and I’m looking forward to celebrating with her.
— 30 —

We were in the car a few weeks ago and saw a license plate that read, “Nit Noy.” Claire said, “gee, I haven’t heard that expression since Vietnam — what did it mean?” Well, it means “little bit,” but it comes from Thailand, not Vietnam. It was used a lot in Vietnam, but it apparently was picked up by GIs while on R&R in Bangkok…

Well, that got me to thinking — when you live or spend time in a foreign country, you tend to pick up certain words or phrases and more or less integrate them into your “everyday speak” at least while you’re in that country. Often times those expression stick with you throughout life. There are a few that I picked up in Vietnam that I use today — some more often than others.

Just the other day I used the term “dinky dao” when referring to something I heard on the news. Dinky Dao means very crazy, or crazy in the head. I don’t know if it’s significant or not that I use that term more often than I did for a while.

Tori oi (pronounced, “choyee oyee”) is a Vietnamese exclamation that means, Good Heavens, or what the Hell, or actually it can mean just about anything the user wants it to mean. To make the exclamation even stronger, you can say Troi doc oi (choyee duck oyee)

These words and expression have become just a part of my vocabulary over the years. I don’t think about them being foreign expressions. But sometimes when I use them I remember being where I was when I started to use them…
In Vietnam, the streets were flooded with machines called cyclos — three wheeled motorized vehicles with a seat on the front. A cyclo that was pedal or foot powered was called a pedicab.
The Vietnamese currency was piasters — we referred to it as “P’s”
The local beer was known as Ba mui ba and was call beer 33 because the label had a big “33” on it. It may have been the worst tasting beer in the world. It was rumored to be spiked with formaldehyde, but I doubt it… it would have tasted better with formaldehyde.

Sometimes both Claire and myself use the expression ti ti, which means “small.”
I’m not sure if it was the national dish, but nuoc man (pronounced noouk mon) is synonymous with Vietnam – a fermented fish sauce.
The Vietnamese women wore a (usually silk) brightly colored long dress with slits up the side over sort of baggy silk trousers — it was called an Ao-Dai.
During the war, especially, Saigon Tea was pretty famous. It was colored water (sometimes soda) served in thimble-sized glasses… it was basically the price of a hostess’ company in a bar. The hostess got a commission on each drink.

But enough about the past — just thought it was interesting how a simple license plate can turn your mind back to times past. So I’ll just di di mau (dee-dee maow) which means go away or “haul ass.”
— 30 —

A couple of years ago, Kelly gave Claire and myself  books for Christmas. The weren’t books to read — they were books to write… They were entitled, “My Dad” and “My Mom.” Each page posed a question about yourself and your past… the idea being that when filled out, it would be like a mini history of your life.
It was a great idea and of course we haven’t written in either book. But wait, there’s a good reason. While the idea is terrific, each page is way too small to properly address the questions — and — the questions are generic, they don’t specifically apply to us.
We discussed this with Kelly and she agreed and intended to provide a more specific set of questions in a larger format. That hasn’t happened yet, either.

So — I thought I’d take a day or two to jot down some things that might (or might not) be of interest to Kelly and David and maybe even some day to Emily and Locke.
In no particular order, here’s some things I remember that made growing up almost 80 years ago different than today — not saying it was better, or worse — just different.

My parents never wore jeans, or “Levis” as I remember them being called — I’m sure they didn’t even own a pair. In fact I think I was probably in Jr. High before I got my first pair. They were dark blue and had bight orange stitches on all the seams. They also had shiny rivets on the pockets.
I don’t think my Dad ever owned a credit card… maybe my mom did in the later years, I’m not sure. The first credit card I owned was for gas. I got that when I was in my 20s.

We didn’t have a television set in our house until I was about 8 or 9 years old. There were no television stations in the state of Oklahoma until I was 8 or 9 years old. We had the first TV not only in Maysville but also the surrounding towns. It was very big with a very small screen — and, of course, black and white.

I was probably 21 or 22 years old before I tasted my first pizza. It was delivered in a truck — the truck was the whole pizza restaurant, they had an oven and counter and a window in the side where you paid for, and got your pizza. When you called, they came to your house (in my case it was where I worked) stopped at the curb and cooked your pizza — certainly couldn’t say it wasn’t fresh. I think you could get cheese and maybe pepperoni… I don’t remember any of the other “stuff.”

Speaking of food, there wasn’t any “fast food” when I was growing up. We ate at home. If it was a special occasion, we would go to a restaurant, except we called it a cafe. They just served food — like you’d get at home. There was no Italian, Mexican, French, etc. establishments. They just served food. I guess the first “fast food” place I can remember was Dairy Queen. Most everyone just went there for ice cream, but I think you could get a hot dog and maybe even a hamburger. You couldn’t go in though — you had to walk up to the window and order. Most people went back to their cars to eat.

And if you happened to want an alcoholic drink with your meal — forget it! When I was growing up, Oklahoma was a dry state. You couldn’t buy wine or any distilled beverage. It was possible to buy beer, but it was “3.2 beer,” only 3% alcohol content. Of course you couldn’t buy any beer on Sunday. In fact you couldn’t buy much of anything on Sunday… almost all the stores were closed.

We didn’t have “little league” anything. There were no organized sports for kids. If you wanted to play baseball or football or basketball, you found a bunch of kids and just played, It was only when you went to high school that organized sports were available. And soccer — never heard of it when I was young and when I did hear about it, it was a “girls” sport.

Outdoor play consisted of building forts, sliding down hills on pieces of cardboard and if we were lucky enough t ever get any snow, we had snowball fights and tried to build snowmen. We didn’t have skate boards, roller blades, or trail bikes or ATVs… I had a bicycle and I remember my granddad built me a wagon. I think I had pair of roller skates (with a key, not built onto shoes) but if you wanted to go roller skating, you went to a “roller rink.”

I never had a telephone, or radio, in my room. We had a telephone in the “hall” and a radio in the living room. The first phone I remember didn’t have any kind of dial — when you picked it up, the operator already knew who you were and would usually call you by name and ask who you wanted to talk to. Then she would connect you. Almost like a human Siri….

There was no kindergarten in Maysville — when you got to be six year old, you went to the first grade. And if your grades were good enough (we actually got grades, no S’s or U’s) at the end of the year, you were promoted to second grade… and so on. If you didn’t make good grades, you repeated that grade the following year — no one worried that someone that had to repeat a grade would be “ruined for life.” We actually had to do something to receive an award….

Of course we had no computers, or hand-held calculators. We had to memorize the multiplication or “times tables.” We were required to solve math problems using nothing but a pencil and paper!!

When I was young I had a job  as a paperboy. Just about all newspapers were delivered by boys (usually via bicycle) and most boys at one time or another, delivered newspapers. I delivered The Daily Oklahoman and I got to keep a few cents for every paper I delivered…but I had to collect the money from the customers on a weekly basis (I think.)

When you went to the movies, you never saw any of the cowboys, like the Lone Ranger or Gene Autry, actually kill anyone — they would just shoot the gun out of the bad guys hand. No blood and guts.

When we got sick, often the doctor would come to your house!! I’m not making this up….

If by any chance either one of my kids are reading this, they’re laughing like crazy. I think you have to have “been there,” to appreciate it. Since this post is getting pretty long, I’ll continue it later. Growing up today ain’t what it used to be….
— 30 —

The grandkids were out for Easter… hopefully they both had a good time. We dug out a couple of Hess toy trucks to entertain Locke. The trucks belonged to his dad and were in a box of Dave’s toys and things that he had in his room when he was young.
The trucks were a big hit — what little boy doesn’t like trucks? When our kids were little we bought them a toy truck at the a Hess gas station every year. They had a new model each year and they always had real lights that worked and they came with the batteries included. I don’t remember how many we had over the years, but it looks like we only have three left.

The first Hess truck was offered for sale in 1964 at Hess gas stations. It was a tanker truck — an authentic reproduction of the B Mac tanker truck. You could pick one up at Hess gas stations for $1.29 (including batteries.) Since 1964 Hess has sold a different model every year — always at their gas stations, until recently when it became possible to buy them online.
The Hess toy trucks were, and as far as I know, still are made by the Markx Toy Company. The ones we have were all made in Hong Kong. Our “collection” consists of the 1986 Hess Fire Truck, the 1987 Hess 19-Wheeler and the 1988 Hess truck made to haul a racing car — the car was included. The 1987 model started the tradition of the Hess trucks being detailed in white and green.

The Hess Corp. has sold their retail business to Marathon Petroleum, but a few stations still carry the Hess name and color scheme (green and white) and they continue to sell the trucks, beginning around Thanksgiving time every year.
Watching Locke play with the trucks brought back lots of memories of bygone days in our house.
— 30 —

Today is Good Friday. We went to church last evening and will go tonight and again on Easter Sunday. When I was a kid, “Easter” was on Sunday and we dressed up and went to church. I don’t remember any events or special days leading up to Easter. I heard of Lent and kind of knew what it was, but we didn’t “observe” it — same with Good Friday… I knew what Good Friday was, but there was no special observance of the day.

Easter wasn’t a particularly special holiday in our family — we were always happy for it to come around because it was sort of the beginning of spring. But, when I was a kid, like most special occasions, there were not really any “traditions” associated with Easter. You didn’t go to the mall to visit the Easter Bunny — that came after I was older… in fact malls came after I was older. I remember that we did usually color eggs, but I don’t remember participating in that activity much — it was usually done mostly by my mom. We usually did get a gift of some kind from the Easter Bunny — often times it was a live bunny, chick or duck. And we did go to church on Easter Sunday dressed, almost always, in some new clothes. We had a small family and I remember going to one of our grandparents’ house for Christmases and Thanksgivings but I don’t remember “family” gatherings on Easter.

So other than just rambling on about what I remember about Easter when I was young, I guess the point here is that we didn’t really have any Easter traditions. I don’t know that that’s either good or bad — it’s just the way it was. Of course if you think about it, traditions are really just the past. So maybe whatever we did could be considered a tradition. But I once heard that cultures grow on the vine of tradition… so based on that, I’d say we didn’t have Easter traditions, we just observed Easter.
No matter how you celebrate — Happy Easter.
— 30 —

We went out one evening this week to celebrate a friend’s birthday. During the conversation, we found out that she was originally from Tennessee. She remarked that often people didn’t understand her because she talked “southern.” As the conversation progressed, she didn’t come up with any words or phrases that were unfamiliar to to me. However, I told her I was from Oklahoma and there were a number of “Oklahoma phrases” that she had never heard.
One term that particularly fascinated her was the use of the word “turtle” to refer to the trunk of a car. When I was growing up, we always referred to the trunk of a car as the “turtle.” As far as I can tell, it seems to be a Texas/Oklahoma thing… most (older) people from that region are familiar with the term and some still use it.

Parts of cars, like everything else, I suppose, are called by different names in different parts of the country/world. We usually refer to the part of the car that covers the engine the hood, but the British use the term bonnet. Of course there are many others — fenders/mudguards, turn signals/indicators, license plate/registration plate, windshield/windscreen….
Why did the term “trunk” catch on? People that owned the earlier cars, used to strap travel chests, or trunks, to the back of their cars. Once the car makers started building cars with built-in rear compartments, there wasn’t any reason to travel with the trunks — the name seems to have stuck….

But back to the turtle — there are a few theories as why that word was chosen. If you’re as old as I am, you remember cars having “rumble seats.” It was a kind of concealed folding seat at the rear of the car. Rumble seats, when not being used for a seat, were often used for storage, so it was a bit like todays trunk. It was often called a turtle because it folded into the car like a turtle’s body parts.
Another possible explanation is that many of the older cars were designed with a sloping back and trunk section that resembled a “turtle.” The same similar styles today are referred to as “fastbacks.” Probably some marketing guy decided that fastback was much cooler than turtle.
I guess maybe that’s true fastback certainly conjures up a different image than turtle, but turtles are kind of cool too… we’ve all heard that a turtle only makes progress when he sticks his neck out — good advice when encouraging someone to take a chance. But I think I like turtles because they’re comfortable in their own shell….
— 30 —

Spoiler alert — brooms stand up all the time….
Back on 20 March I discussed possibly an urban legend that a broom would stand upright by itself on the day of the vernal equinox… I’d heard this for a few years and I tried it and it worked — the broom truly did stand alone.
I was (almost) a true believer. But my sharp scientific mind insisted that I try it again – when it wasn’t the equinox. I did, and guess what… it stands as good today as it did on the 20th of March. The picture at the right was taken today (April 4th). The broom had been “standing alone” for about half an hour.

I kind of really did want to believe there was some mysterious force (gravity?) involved, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Next thing you know I’ll probably discover that the Easter Bunny doesn’t hold true either — sigh…
— 30 —

Today is one of my favorite days — spring (astronomically speaking) arrived — at 6:38 a.m. EDT to exact. Even though meteorological spring begins on March 1 (and continues through May 31) today is the real deal. And boy am I ready for it… someone (sorry I don’t know who) expressed my feelings exactly when they wrote

I hate winter in the springtime
I hate winter in the fall
I hate winter in the summer, but
I hate winter in the winter most of all.

But anyhow, back to today — and the Vernal Equinox. At the Vernal Equinox, the sun crosses the celestial equator on its way north along the ecliptic. What this means is that all over the world, days and nights are (approximately) equal. The name equinox comes from Latin words that mean “equal night” — aequus (equal) and nox (night.)

On the equinox, earth’s two hemispheres are receiving the sun’s rays just about equally because the tilt of the earth is zero relative to the sun, so the earth’s axis doesn’t point toward or away from the sun.

Some people believe that you can stand a raw egg on its end on the equinox. I remember trying this a number of years ago — I’m not sure but I think it was possible, but maybe it would be possible other times, too. Maybe I’ll try it again this year… or maybe not.

I’ve also heard that during the equinox brooms will stand by themselves — straight up. I’ve never tried it, but I plan to later today… if it does work, I can assure you I’ll report on it here — maybe even with pictures.

Honestly, I’m skeptical about both brooms and eggs… I think they’re both a lot like people — unbalanced. Happy Vernal Equinox!!
— 30 —

UPDATE:
I tried the broom experiment… and it worked!
I’m not sure it wouldn’t work any other time, so I’ll wait a few weeks and try it again….
The picture at right was taken after the broom had been “standing” for about twenty minutes.
Amazing, or creepy or spooky or……

We’ve all heard the phrase, “beware of the Ides of March.” Mostly we associate it with the soothsayer’s warning to Julius Caesar… but the term didn’t originate with William Shakespeare. Way back when, the earliest Roman calendar consisted of ten months beginning with March (Martius.) That calendar was created around 753 B.C. by King Romulus and at the time, dates were expressed in relation to the lunar phase of the month using three “markers” — Kalends, Nones and Ides. The first phase of the moon (the new moon) was denoted by Kalends and signified the first day of the month. The first quarter moon fell on either the fifth or the seventh day of the month and was referred to as Nones. The full moon fell on either the 13th or 15th day of the month and was referred to as Ides. The Ides of March — March 15 — initially marked the first full moon of the new year. The Ides occurred on the 13th for some months, but on the 15th for March, May, July and October.

Those of us with a few years under our belt will remember that Income Taxes were due on the 15th of March; the due date was pushed back to the 15th of April a number of years ago. That used to be a good reason to beware and over the years a number of things have happened that makes one think there may be something to this Ides thing…

In 1939 Germany occupied Czechoslovakia; in 1971 the Ed Sullivan Show was cancelled by CBS; in 1988 NASA reported that the ozone layer over the Northern Hemisphere had been depleted three times faster than predicted; in 2003 the World Health Organization issued a heightened global alert for a new disease called SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome.)

And if that’s not enough, March 15th seems to be a particularly cruel day for weather. In 1941 a deadly blizzard hit the Great Plains and in 1952 the most rain to ever fall in a 24 hour period (73.62 inches) fell on the island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean.
And this morning on the Ides of March, guess what and how much is on the ground here in Shepherdstown?
— 30 —

We went out to eat this past week at one of our favorite restaurants. I got to thinking about over the years all the ‘favorite’ restaurants I’ve had. There’s probably too many to list so I decided list my “Top Ten.” I imagine most of them are no longer in business, or if they are, they wouldn’t make my top ten list today… and, if I made the list last week or next week, it would probably change a bit. But at least half of them would stay.

Kings Lodge (Hong Kong)
El Sombrero (Arlington, VA)
Cafe Renaissance (Vienna, VA)
The American Chinese Restaurant (Hong Kong)
China Paradise (Vienna, VA)
Oscars (Monrovia, Liberia)
Quite Cannon ( between Los Angeles and San Diego)
The Ship (Kuala Lumpur)
Dutch’s Daughter (Frederick, MD)
Kazu (Shepherdstown, WV)

So what makes a favorite restaurant? Not sure I can answer that question, but restaurants are important — usually the best ones, or our favorites are reserved for special occasions and our memories of those occasions almost always include those restaurants.
But I think a restaurant becomes a favorite because of who I was with or what was being celebrated.
— 30 —