December 8, 1980

There is no death-date outside of my parents’ that I wake up to like I do on this date, full alert, no cobwebs in my head, no…it’s December 8th, and I know I am heading straight to YouTube and Iceberg Radio and i-Tunes for the morning. There is no day except 9-11 I remember like December 8, 1980 where I can recall almost every movement I made the entire day, from the radio report, the talking with work friends, and the immediate post-work drive down I-69 to a record store in Time Corners, Fort Wayne, where I bought a vinyl “White Album”.
John Lennon, murdered, December 8, 1980.
http://youtu.be/qp9dc9im3-M

Documentary examines George Harrison

Documentary examines George Harrison

Thanks...July is so over

August will be better.

a painful tail, er... tale!

I also was hit by an errant ball once.
Back in the 1990s the Toledo Mud Hens still played at the old racetrack in Maumee at the fairgrounds, which years ago had been converted into a baseball stadium.
It is only 70 minutes from home, so I attended games sporadically.
One Sunday I had organized a family outing at the place, Ned Skeldon Stadium it was called.
Everyone drove in from different directions, and I was standing outside the gate waiting for the families to converge and we could all go in together.
The games were broadcast and I had my radio on because everyone was late. I remember it well…Frank “The Cat” Catalanotto fouled one over the grandstand roof…I heard a WATCH OUT! and I covered my head, sort of figuring out the baseball might be heading my way , as I had heard that Frank had fouled one over the roof…just then a sharp pain…I had been hit square in the butt!
There was a bicycle posse out there, kids who patrolled the area to get those foul balls, and a kid got my baseball.
Yes, everyone showed up just after this, and I told my tail, er …tale. heh heh
I don’t think they believed my story, except my wife, because I showed her my bruised cheek. And no, she did not kiss it to make it better. Of course not. :)

Rivethead by Ben Hamper

When I was done with the army and heading to school at what is now IUPUFW I think,and illness caused me to lose my part time job and I couldn’t devise a way to live on no money, I set my sights on getting into a union plant instead, and a year later was hired into a UAW factory. I never even tried any temporary foreman jobs but I jumped at every union job I could get, and I served a long time as a shop steward and I was a local trustee for two terms also.
Also, I couldn’t get enough of the history of US labor, and I read everything I could find on the Reuther brothers and all the histories of the great labor movement . It was heady stuff to me, but I must report I was so far left , so in tune with the spirit of the early days, I was alone, except for one other young up-and-comer, who ended up being an international rep for the union .
With my background then, I want to tell you about my favorite worker-book, by a former worker in Pontiac named Ben Hamper.
Michael Moore put Ben on the cover of Mother Jones magazine during the very short stay Moore had out there.
After much critical acclaim , Ben’s story of life on the assembly line became a book called “Rivethead”.
To read it today would be awkward; much has changed since the book was published. Things just are not done like they were done in Ben’s time on the line. However, as a historical look at the assembly lines of the 1980s, this is the book for you to read.
http://www.amazon.com/Rivethead-Tales-Assembly-Ben-Hamper/dp/0446394009/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311917665&sr=1-1#reader_0446394009

drill baby drill...into my head!

Ever since I was a small child until I was a middle aged adult , it was COMMUNISM COMMUNISM COMMUNISM , every day, drilled into my head by schools, media, and friends and acquaintances as well as strangers . Communism was bad and we were all to rally to send ourselves or our loved ones anywhere it took to smash communism, which was bad.
Bad things were "communistic".
Well, when I was a kid I loved Robin Hood, and when, as an adult, I read about communism and found it to be a wonderful concept, just like Robin Hood.
Well! My friends were totally appalled ! "Yes, it looks good on paper, but..." and "it won't, can't ever work in the USA..."

Then just like the monsoon rain instantly stopping in Vietnam, communism dropped from the vernacular. When was the last time you even heard the word?

Terrorism became the watchword as well as the catchword. Terrorism was why George Bush 43 emptied the US Treasury to bomb and kill thousands of Iraqi citizens and innocent children, we were told. Rumsfeld had proof, Colin Powell vouched for the presence of phantom-weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the war continues, this war based on total lies, as the USA is now totally a bankrupt nation.
Afghanistan is another crazy war that is squeezing every last planeload of cash out of US treasure stores.

So let us review: Communism , we were told, was defeated by Ronald Reagan or some such story. In reality, Communism kicked our ass and handed it to us by throwing us out of Vietnam in complete disgrace to the USA.

Terrorism got us to give all our money to it, to fight it until we have nothing left to fight with; terrorism won also.

What will be next; what word will inspire us to drive ourselves to the poor house?

How's the heat? Today, it's the humidity. I am sick of it.