Breakfast '67

 

From: Chuck Darling

Re: Breakfast 

 

Today I am 67.

 

This breakfast view

is BEFORE.

 

Not AFTER...

 

Later I found a bit of salad,

an inch of hot dog,

some oriental soup,

and about. 6 oz of milk.

 

And a bit of orange rind.

 

At Starbucks, a nice clerk

gave me a birthday coffee.

 

***

 

60 years ago I was seven.

 

My dad had died on the day

the Beatles came to America.

At 38.

 

My Uncle worked for an

Aircraft Engineering Company,

and he flew our family from

Buffalo to San Diego, to

cheer us up.

 

We changed from a noisy

propeller plane to a jet in

Chicago.

 

I was amazed at the Rocky Mountains, how they stretched

from horizon to horizon...

In all directions !

I had imagined them to be a ridge of mountains, not horizon to horizon mountains !

 

I considered the struggles

of the westward pioneers,

crossing such a mountainous

land...

 

And the difficulties of building

Railroads from Coast to Coast.

 

Uncle Bert took us to Disneyland.

 

The Main Street Bandleader

noticed me sitting on the curb

watching, with my bandaged knee from a trip on a Buffalo sidewalk while trying to reach an Ice Cream Truck, before he pulled away.

 

The Bandleader let me direct

the band.

 

They followed my direction

on the Mickey Mouse Theme,

slowing down for the spelled

name portion, as I heard on

The Mouseketeers Club.

 

I remember the WD-40 aroma

of Uncle Bert's garage, where

my cousin Chris was building

a pipe-framed Dune Buggy from

scratch. He went on to become

quite an engineer, both mechanical and aerospace.

 

His brother Paul was 6'7".

He was took me for an

"exciting ride" on the 

California Freeway, on his

Kawasaki Bighorn 250 dirt bike.

 

Years later, after I was working

at Osmose, using an Intel Inboard386 system, one of

the first in Buffalo, I learned

that Paul was working for

Intel, on an associate's degree,

managing the setup of an Intel

Plant in Ireland...

 

Meanwhile I could hardly

find a job in Buffalo, after

6 years of University...

 

Uncle Bert's job was eliminated

after 20 years, because the

Supersonic Transport Systems

were abandoned.

 

Most of Aerospace lost its

shirts in that fiasco, because

they were all heavily invested

in going Supersonic.

 

He had no job offers for 6 months, then 3 in one day.

All required him to move

to another city, so, he did,

selling his Chula Vista ranch

with its orange, lemon, lime, fig,

and grapefruit trees.

 

He later went back to San Diego

when he heard his old home

was listed, but the property values had tripled, and he couldn't possibly afford it,

since his new job, doing the

same work, paid half of his

old salary.

 

I once was passed over

as a Technical Writer for

a Radar firm.

 

Why?

 

Because "I knew too much..."

 

About 40 years ago.

 

Huh.

 

Life in America !

 

       Los Angeles

    May 6th, 2024

                   C.E.D.

 

Gee ...

It's quiet as a library in here...

 

 

[ChuckADV JpiCedar]

 

 

 

 

[ This page built with JPICedar v. j022924a Mon, 5-6-2024 Time : 11:30a]

 

PS.

IBM had an ambitious line

of computers in the '60's.

The 360 Series.

 

Multiply 360 x π ...

 

I first learned programming

on an IBM 1130.

 

PPS.

 

I find that it's hard to get accurate search data on the

Gospels, from online sources...

 

Even the KJV bible that I am

repairing leaves THE GOSPEL

out of its verse finder !

 

"Forgiveness" has no Gospel

References...

 

I guess they don't want you

to know !

 

Click on the image to

Download a zip file

of Gospel Texts.

 

Use RAR or some other

Zip utility to decompress it.

 

Do your own searches !

 

Offline !

 

Happy Birthday !