Friday, April 17, 2015

The Gift Of A City


Don and Karen Simons gave me San Diego for my birthday.  Well, not the entire city.  Just the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, the Hotel Del Coronado, the Old Globe Theatre, Montgomery Field, a helicopter ride and a plate of Philippine noodles.  It was way too much loot to fit in my carry-on bag for the flight home to Sacramento.  I left everything as it was except for the noodles, which I ate.

Also included was a breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. Edward R. Murphy, Jr.  Mr. Murphy is a former Navy lieutenant.  He was also the education officer of the Subic Bay Naval Station in the Philippines in 1962 where he confined Seaman Browne  to the base until Seaman Browne passed a high school GED test, the tyrant.

Mr. Murphy later served as the executive officer of the USS Pueblo, the Navy spy ship captured by North Korea in international waters in 1968.   The 82 crewmen were imprisoned under medieval conditions for 11 months of physical and mental torture.  He co-authored a book about the experience:


http://www.amazon.com/Second-Command-Uncensored-Account-Capture/dp/0030850754

Mr, Murphy – he will always be Mr. Murphy to me.  Navy training takes lasting grip --  is also the recipient of the Navy Marine Corps medal for lifesaving.

Don and Karen Simons volunteer as tuxedo-clad ushers at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park, a replica of its London namesake where the son of a glove maker named William Shakespeare staged his plays.  The Simons thought it would be a socko idea if I volunteered to usher too. 

So packed my second hand tuxedo for the occasion, a performance of  Buyer And Cellar.  The premise is an out of work actor hired to perform as a dress shop clerk in a fake mall in Barbra Streisand’s basement where the estimable Ms. Streisand is the only customer and very picky one at that.  Her character is never seen.  Actor and author Jonathan Tollins is the only presence on the theatre-in-the-round stage for an hour and forty minutes of very funny monologue.  He was given a well earned standing ovation.

So, my thanks to Don and Karen Simons, Karen’s mother, Wanda, and the family’s feisty ball of white fluff, a pooch named Cody, for a week of the best birthday ever.




-o-


Comments?

Thanks so much for keeping me in the loop of your words. Whether they are old memories and fresh ones, I've found keeping memories written down to reread on occasion is a bit of reliving it that goes down well. Life isn't as much a plan for tomorrow as it is a whole bunch of memories of yesterday re-experienced at a certain age.

I hope you remember your great birthday present and that your fish lives plenty long to give you untold numbers of stares through the deep aquarium address he now shares with you. --- ZoZo

It’s already cut my toxic TV habit by 80%.

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Happy belated birthday.  By the way, have you named your fish? (Not that it'll come when you call it, but it seems it's the thing to do.)  - Beaty

I have.  Since it’s a Betta fighting fish, I’ve named him Rip Finley, Fish Ninja. 
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Good job, as usual.  – Bob

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Wonderful as always!  -- Juli

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Sounds like a great birthday!  Glad you had fun!  -- Shannon

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You lucky dog!!  -- Wht