Celebrities are full of stories about their exploits, their famous friends, who they mix with, who they work with. It’s often to do with the size of their billing, or their latest agent’s gaffes. Then there are the less famous. People like me, with stories more down to earth, but, I think, more interesting, unless you’re a fan follower.
This is by way of saying that I went to a play the other evening, at the East-West Theatre downtown, a play called “Wrinkles”. Couldn’t believe what I saw, for there, playing the lead, was my old fellow worker at, of all places, First National City Bank, Park Avenue, N.Y. 5th floor. The year was 1963, the place the computer room, midnight to 8 am shift, Burroughs check sorting machine. His name – Sab Shimono. I remember him as a delicate, shy, self-effacing youngster, wrestling with the machine just as I was.
I met him after the curtain came down, and we swapped a few stories in the car-park. He has developed into a splendid actor, and reached an age of maturity reflected in his command of the stage.
I plan to see more of Sab.
To Fly Again…
Denied to me now, I’m afraid; Judge Gold caused me to lose my Piper Cherokee 6.
However, that didn’t stop me from encouraging my son Ben to learn to fly it, and later – to keep him out of trouble and stop being a waiter – to consider a career in aviation. That he did, became an instructor, married one of his students, and now flies international for Delta. We don’t connect any more, but I hope he’s minding his Ps and Qs.
Went to the Huntington Library the other day with my first son Jonathan, and noticed the upcoming exhibit featuring the development of U.S. Aviation, from its beginnings to the present. What a glorious story that is!
Indeed, I whiled away the last ten dead years doodling for Wikipedia, and researched and wrote the story of the now defunct and forgotten Glendale Airport, which was once the gateway to the West Coast. Frequented by the likes of Howard Hughes, Amelia Earhart, and the black Tuskegee Airmen, it later served as the training ground and repair station for thousands of WWII airmen and their fighting machines. The surviving classically designed control tower, surrounded by humdrum factories and warehouses, was acquired by the Walt Disney company, with headquarters nearby. There many a movie was shot, and its current lack of maintenance and continued state of disrepair is quite shocking. Shame on you, Walt Disney! May one wish that the company and Glendale city provide funds and jobs to restore it?
Here, read this, it has such stories to tell. Grand Central Airport, Glendale
At these times of hardship, us oldsters like to harken back to not so very long ago, to the years when America was industrious in manufacturing, and provided jobs for all. When we were the New World, a shining light of hope for the less advantaged.
Perhaps our memories will help motivate and energize today’s youngsters to recapture the pride we’ve lost. Pondering our history, at least they’ll get some perspective.
Posted in A SPACE FOR NOSTALGIA, COMMENTARY-Passing parade