Tales of the Brass Monkey Oldies But Goodies II (See previous post)

Tales of the Gold/Brass Monkey

Another of those dusty memories came to me while I was lying around thinking so I bought a DVD set of the 1982 television production of its version of Indiana Jones.

When the pilot was being made as Tales of the Brass Monkey, it was discovered that there is a bar in the Far East called The Brass Monkey. To avoid legal difficulties, they changed the name to Gold.  In the first episode, a supposedly solid gold statue of a monkey is discovered. Turned out it's really brass. Sneaky way to infer gold for brass.

Tales of the Gold Monkey is an action adventure, international intrigue, exotic locals, handsome leading man, central casting sidekick, beautiful woman and a dog that communicates with one bark for yes, two barks for no. Or vice versa, it depends on how the dog feels.

Oldies But Goodies

Oldies But Goodies

Back in the dark ages, when I was an adolescent, the afternoon matinees were 25 cents, which got you in and a box of popcorn. The local bijou was just around the corner, on Vernor Ave., from where I was living in Detroit. I’m sure it is long gone.

The matinees were serials like Don Winslow of the Navy, The Shadow, Terry and the Pirates, Drums of Fu Manchu, Adventures of Red Ryder and much much more. Since this was the late 40’s, films of the second war to end all wars were still being made with the usual villains. I can still picture the evil mad Nazi doctor with the electric zap machine confounding the inept G-men until the last episode.

All good things must come to an end like cartoons at the beginning of a film and double features. However, I recently was able to purchase a video of an old TV show from the 1950’s. Some of you are thinking how quaint there was film last century. It’s true, even some was in color, or what passes for color.

M&M's trip to San Francico

The M&M's went up to the City today to see the places we misses three weeks ago when I twisted my ankle at the Marine Corps Ball the night before. So, at 9:30am, off we went up Hwy 1 in misty fog.

Pre Obituary for a buddy that''s not dead yet

 

DUANES PRE-OBIT written as of March 2014

As the time of my life has gone on and I've related experiences with those that were there I've learned to preface my memories with "Well, the way I remember it was..."  The following falls into those parameters.

TEEN YEARS

I have known Duane Warner since I was just about 14 and he almost a year older.  When my family bought a Dairy Queen in Ann Arbor Michigan about 1955 or 56, we moved there from the Detroit area and had a house built about a block away from where Duane lived.

COWBOY

12 O'clock High

COWBOY

When I was growing up I wanted to be a cowboy.  The movie cowboys of the 40's had morphed into the cowboys of the 50's.  The 40's had Johnny Mack Brown, Tim McCoy Tim Keene Buck Jones, and Bob Steele, even Buster Crabbe, John Wayne and Robert Taylor who went on into the 50's and beyond.

OLDER THEN DIRT

Older then dirt is a saying that I'm beginning to feel akin to. Today I changed out the faucet and drain in the bathroom.  It's only an exchange of parts, just the faucet and the drain unit. Piece of cake.

Removal of the old faucet was easy.  Laying on my back at the bottom of cabinet pushing into my shoulder, reaching up with tools to undo nuts took about an hour. Lack of the proper tools made getting to the nuts on the faucet impossible.  A sharp chisel took care of the plastic nuts.

Typhoons and Memories

 

1961 The Jungles of SouthEast Asia

Just a walk in the jungle

Ahh, the good ole days in French Indo-China.  Wading through rice paddies, fording rivers thick with leeches the size of banana slugs, feet so wet they begin to peel away the calluses earned in boot camp.  Backpack shoulder straps digging into your shoulders, canteens banging against your butt, weapons getting heavier the more the rain come down.  Boots sink into the mud and make sucking sound as they are wrenched out and into the next spot of mud.  Utilities so wet that sweat stains wash away. What isn't wet is dripping. 

In those days I smoked and kept my cigarettes in a two part plastic case.  They would still get damp so packs of matches were useless.  Only the Zippo lighter would work in the rain under a canopy of palm trees and bamboo.  Would have made a great commercial...huddled under a poncho, trying to keep the cigarette from being put out by the rain dripping off of everything, but the Zippo works.