our lady of mount carmel church, rancho cucamonga, ca w/photos

the old catholic church still stands where it has for as long as i can remember and was there even before i was born.  one of the oldest catholic churches in the area.  the church sits just steps away from the old padre winery.  while i was visiting padre winery the other day i stopped by the church as well.  the church was my grandparents back in the day.  they could walk there very easily and did several times a week.

our lady hasn’t held up as well as padre winery.  plenty of parishioners but not the well to do types of other parishes in cucamonga.  just your average work a day joes go to this church these days.  the salt of the earth types.  not unlike in the old days.  the old days, when the street that fronts it was smaller.  the intersection was also the home to some old stately eucalyptus trees.  long gone due to street widening projects and the addition of curb and gutters.

since the church stands so close to padre winery i’ve been by it many many times over the years.  though i hadn’t been inside of the church since june of 1968 or 1969.  the day of my grandfather’s funeral.  you would think i could remember the exact date but i was in a wisdom tooth extraction haze and all i really remember about the day was the huge cloud of incense drifting about my grandfather’s coffin.

i made it back inside the church the other day.  it was an odd experience at best.  there have been some changes and the floor is now carpeted.  i guess carpet is easier to maintain than the old hardwood floors.  the simple beauty of a very very old and small catholic church that served old italians and mexicans remains.

i miss, nona and nono, italian for grandmother and grandfather.  the little house they used to live is gone.  but the little church they worshiped in still stands.  stands like a memory of a long ago past.

our lady of mount carmel catholic church.

 

jmh

 

padre winery, rancho cucamonga, ca w/photos

the other day i finally got around to making a trip back to my childhood.  specifically, i had been wanting to take some photos of the old padre winery just down the road in rancho cucamonga, ca.  i’ve mentioned the winery in a few blogs and a fiction piece here but there were no photos in any of them.  so, what i thought i’d do was take some photos and stick them up here then sorta run the deal down one more time.

padre winery has been around since the late 1800’s.  and it was the first winery in california bonded by the feds allowing them to sell wine and brandy.  the original building is still standing.  amazingly enough even after all the semi sorta large earthquakes that have rumbled through the area.  i guess it gives testament to some thing or another.  over the years the winery has been owned and operated by a few different folks.  it has had a few other names as well.  but to us long time cucmongaites it was and always shall be, padre winery.  sadly, it no longer produces wine.  those days are long gone.

my mother’s parents lived in a house a few hundred yards west of the winery.  that old wonderful house with the root cellar, in which my grandfather made wine and vinegar, no longer stands.  my grandfather worked at padre winery up until the time he retired.  he’d been there for many years.  i spent a lot of time with my grandparents when i was a kid.  soaking up old world italy and wineries.  that is up until the time my folks thought i was old enough to manage on my own during the summer.  though soaking up stuff never ended.   

when my grandfather worked at padre it was owned by the vai brothers.  i loved walking over to the winery and wandering around looking at stuff.  perhaps more importantly smelling the wonderful smells that can only come from a winery.

these days the winery is owned by a local family that has long roots in the area.  wine roots.  they gave it a go trying to make it a producing winery over the years but money being what it is things never panned out.  padre winery is for sale.  there are a few businesses where the old redwood wine vats used to be and it’s kind of sad.  especially to me.  i worked at padre winery myself for a year or so back in the early to mid 70’s.  i’ve recounted that tale as here as well. 

i’d been by the winery a number of times over the years.  once even stopping with the brown eyed girl so she could see the place.  old padre winery.  at any rate, i was alone the other day as i wandered about taking these photos.  alone with my thoughts and my youth. 

as you will see there is still a beauty to the winery.  an elegance and charm not seen these days in much of any kind of architecture.  there was something else as well as i walked around.  something mystical and wonderful.  or maybe it was just the fact that padre winery has been around for years and years and saw a huge amount of wine in various stages pass through the grounds.  it was a smell.  the smell.  that wine smell.  a sour tart vinegary musty smell now.  but still a wine smell.  the old girl still has it.  a complete package other than the fact the wine itself is long gone.  the elegance and the smell have stuck to her and she wears them well.

i hope the old lady remains standing.  standing as a monument to old california and old cucamonga.  not swept into some re-development black hole and razed.  re-development.  the good old boy deal where the pols and hucksters make money hand over fist and we the people lose our history and magic that comes with the old things.  old wonderful places like padre winery.

padre winery and the old tasting room.

 

the old cellars.

the still where the lees and muck were processed into 180 proof alcohol.

the old girl still looking good.

jmh

stuff i don’t watch on tv anymore part 2

there’s plenty of stuff i don’t watch on tv anymore.  mostly it’s sports stuff but then of course there are plenty of other things on tv that are just beyond the pale bad as well.  however, i’m probably going to stick to sport stuff or semi sorta sports stuff for this.  just like in part 1.  for those that missed it.  you may want to take a look.  or maybe not.

as i said the last time, this is my list.  not necessarily your list.  or likes and dis-likes.  ok?  good.  so in no particular order.  onward.

my friend, triggerman brought up a couple in a comment he made in my other place.  two venues or sports i was going to bring up any the ways.  the first being, the X games.  ok.  yeah, i’m an old guy.  so what?  since when has skateboarding become a sport other than an annoying venal sin?  or jumping over stuff on a motorcycle?  or doing loopty loops on same said motorcycle?  trying to kill yourself while also trying to impress babes is pretty lame.  keep it off tv, please.  it’s stupid.

the olympics.  or as dfr and i call em, the old limp dicks.  i find it amazing that anyone watches the stuff anymore.  in particular stuff where you win or lose on some dumb ass paid off judges decision.  yes, there was a time years ago i would watch this lame tv presentation.  hours upon hours of the stuff.  no more.  the insipid up close and personal stuff sent me over the edge years ago.  why anyone would want to host this turkey is beyond me.  unless of course, it would be for the sole purpose of ripping off the rubes who actually show up to watch the insanity.  all that being said, i do enjoy watching curling and i eagerly await the winter festivities in vancouver so i can get my fix.  i’m serious.

bowling.  i’m not even sure if anybody even bothers to show this game anymore on tv.  they probably do and if they do i’m not watching it because earl anthony and dick weber are dead or are too old to make a decent score if they can still even play.  buy a wii game and bowl in your living room.  it’s fun and good exercise.  plus, no stinky used rental bowling shoes are required.  a plus if there ever was one.

poker.  ok.  i can sorta see skateboarding as a sport.  but a world series of poker?  world series implies sport.  poker is not a sport but a game and, well, why in god’s good name are you people watching other people play this game on tv?  barnum was right.  you are a sucker and you and many others are being born every minute.  then there’s the fact they are playing bleeding texas hold em.  a girls game for crying out loud.  wyatt earp didn’t play texas hold em.  count on it.  wild bill hickok wasn’t playing texas hold em when he was dealt that famous dead mans hand of aces and eights.  no sirree he was playing five card draw.  a man’s game.  a man’s game like five card stud or seven card stud.  simple.  if you watch poker on tv you need to find a life someplace and fast.

the tour de france.  there was a time a number of years ago i watched this turkey on the tube.  all the little girl crap about lance and his blood samples just wore me out.  i don’t watch anymore.  lance can run the table for the rest of his life for all i care.  big deal.  i don’t care.  the tv nonevent has spawned any number of lance wanna bees with their nasty ass biking costumes out clogging up road space all over this once great nation.  please, just get the hell out of my way and go ride your bike someplace else or i swear i’m liable to run over forty or fifty of you at one pop.  just kidding.  maybe.  but they are a menace and it’s because of the tour being on tv.  you dumb asses, would be much cooler if you put some playing cards or baseball cards on your spokes with a wooden clothes pin.  i would respect you more.  and take off that damn bike suit.

drag racing.  ah, another speed sport.  one i used to love to watch unlike nascar or formula one.  pure speed.  peddle.  metal.  woo hoo.  trouble is try and find a real car drag racing these days.  what you’ll find, for the most part are plastic fantastic sleds that resemble a car but really aren’t a car.  what happened to real 55 chevy’s?  real bored and stroked 51 merc’s?  real chopped and channeled anything?  see my point?  it is a damn shame.  no, not my point.  sheesh.

last but certainly not least, would be any sort of a state of the union message from any politician of any party.  or any other political party message.  well, unless it’s the party animal party which might be a hoot of sorts if only for a short while.  i gave up on those messages long long ago.  nothing but lame propaganda by lame stooges who want only to fuck with us and steal our money.  screw em.

jmh

stuff i don’t watch on tv anymore

ah, make that sports stuff.  tv is annoying at best.  sure, i can waste away a day or days watching the damn thing but, hey, there’s a bunch of stuff i can’t watch anymore.  so, let’s get started and see just where this ends up.  there’s no particular order or rhyme or reason to the list.  it is what it is.  pure and simple.  you may agree or disagree.  it’s a semi free country, for the time being, and you’re entitled to your own opinion.  fine.  but this is my list.  it may piss you off but that isn’t my intention.  figure it out.  do your own list. 

the first thing that comes to mind is the, NBA.  god, i hate watching those guys.  i used to like watching pro basketball but i lost interest in it during it’s thug era and i’m not going back.  plus, it’s kinda fun being one of the few folks here in so calif that can’t stand kobe and/or the lakers.  elgin baylor, kareem, jerry.  fine.

MLB would be next on the list.  another of those deals where i used to enjoy watching their games.  i lost interest in them after the last strike for more money so they can play a kids game.  um, you could toss the NBA back in this area as well.  at any rate, who can enjoy a world series that is gonna drag on to maybe the second week of november?  the first week being bad enough.  or how about a bunch of steroid pumpers, period.  no way.  no thanks.  plus the fact bud selig is an idiot.  although had the angels gone to the series i may have watched an inning or two if only for the old cowboy, gene autry.

the NFL is next.  another of those days gone by thingys.  more steroid pumpers and a greedy bunch of owners with no real love for their fan base or the cities where they play.  show me the money.  some big mogul is going to build a new stadium out in these parts if he can con some team into leaving their sorta home.  any number of teams have been mentioned,  even one of yours.  i don’t care.  screw em.  the only thing the stadium will do is make an already totally screwed up freeway interchange even worse.  the players?  yeah, they are the best and can come up with some amazing plays but i just don’t care anymore about them or their league.

the Super Bowl.  sure, this is a part of the last one but even non fans watch this turkey every year.  hours and days of non stop hype.  a blizzard of supposedly new improved funny ass commercials that the mad men pay primo dollars to place strategically in the game.  a big yawn, for the ads and the game.

tennis.  not that i ever watched it much but i don’t ever anymore.  oofa.  useless and stupid.

soccer.  ok.  so like just what the eff is up with soccer?  totally off the tv radar.  or more importantly, my radar.  dumber than tennis.  yeah, it is.  i don’t want to hear about it.  say nothing.  it is. 

the NHL.  as a so calif native i guess that could be a reason for my aversion to the game.  but when i was a kiddie, i tried watching the likes of gordy howe and bobby orr on the saturday morning games.  i never understood the rules and it was pretty boring even with the fights.  no thanks.  not even the great one could change that.

the WWE WWF or whatever it is they are calling it now a days.  more steroid monsters with the same act since gorgeous george and freddie blassie.  an act that was pretty cool back in the 50’s and early 60’s.  and ok even for a few years in the early 80’s.  but an act that just grew so wearisome and lame that no sane person over the age of 12 can possibly watch it anymore.  yeah, fine, the sorta hot babes wandering around in the ring.  lame as well and just masturbatory imps for the porn challenged among us.  speaking of which, if i were 12 i wouldn’t waste my time on them.  no sirree.  i’d be TIVOing ‘dancing with the stars’ and watching those lovely ladies frame by frame.  count on it.  but i digress.

boxing.  i used to love watching boxing.  i grew up watching it every friday night.  the friday night fights brought to us by gillette razors.  then of course there was sugar ray robinson, jake lamotta, rocky marciano, sonny liston, george foreman, floyd patterson, joe frazier, sugar ray leonard, danny lopez, alexis arguello, and larry holmes, god bless him.   then of course, the greatest of them all, mohammad ali.  i could go on but if you weren’t there you missed it.  totally.  the current crop?  no thanks.

nascar or formula one.  i get the speed but i just don’t get much else about it.  never one of my favorites and i avoid them like the plague these days.

then there’s the most insidious non sports related show of them all.  the view.  a total piece of crap and a waste of time and electricity.  a propaganda show worthy of chairman mao or joe stalin.  i was never a fan or a watcher but i do get a glimpse of it now and again.  oh oh, i’m gonna hurl and/or shoot the tv ala elvis.

yes, the last one wasn’t sports related but i couldn’t resist tossing it in as a sorta grand finale to this messy epistle.  after all, this is my list.  i may have forgotten a few things but i think i covered stuff pretty well for now.  there’s always the possibility of a part 2 somewhere down the road.  i’ve been talkin’ to my oldest friend, dfr.  and yeah, count on it.  there will be a part 2.

on a tangent, today is gram parsons birthday.  happy birthday, my cosmic country brother.  wild horses.  we’ll ride them someday.

jmh

in search of the miraculous

that’s the title of an old book that was a semi sort of hippy required reading deal back in the late 60’s and early 70’s.  i had a copy of the book for many years.  the book in question first appeared in 1947 and was written by p. d. ouspensky.  lots of interesting stuff in it but that book isn’t why i’m here.  i’m just borrowing the title for a bit because i’m searching for a miracle or the miraculous myself. 

long time readers know i bought a trailer here in the brittney spears memorial trailer parkin the early summer last year.  well, it’s not really that bad.  the trailer or the park.  at any rate, i’m trying to sell the place.  i wouldn’t be selling it if i hadn’t met and married the brown eyed girl, who with her arthritis problems, can’t manage the stairs here very easily.  trying to sell the place in this economy hasn’t been easy either.  some lookie loos who expect you to give stuff away.  no chance and no thanks.  and no offers.  it’s become obvious that it’s time to go in search of the miraculous.

it’s not that either of us don’t like this place.  we do.  as a matter of fact, it’s a very nice place and we do some of our entertaining here in the mobile home.  there’s easier parking than our other place and a much more spacious kitchen for us to whip stuff up and move about.  plus, it’s a good 500 square feet bigger than our other place and much newer.  but that’s just realtor mumbo jumbo and i’m drifting.

many years ago in santa fe, new mexico, the nuns of the lorreto chapel had a dilemma.  they needed a staircase in order for them to get up into the choir loft of the church.  when the church was built a staircase wasn’t included for some reason or another up into the loft.  one of those early builder oversight thingys i suppose.  ah, what can we say, mother superior, other than…oops.

the nuns had no other recourse than to pray a lot and hope for somebody or another and perhaps a miracle to come along and get the staircase built.  well, after many prayers, one afternoon this guy showed up and said he would build them their staircase.  very cool.  the nuns were very happy.  they went to bed that night with dreams of a staircase dancing in their heads.

depending upon who you are reading, when the nuns got up in the morning they had their staircase and the man was gone.  plus, the gentleman who had built the staircase hadn’t used any nails.  nary a one.  some stories recount that it took several days to build the stairs.  however, they all claim that the builder was, st joseph, and there were no nails used in it’s construction.

yeah, the dude in question was none other than the father of jesus and apparently a pretty good carpenter to boot.  ok, so not THE father but well, you know what i mean.  the nun’s prayers had been answered.  a miracle had been performed.  the staircase had been built. 

the church still stands today as well as the staircase.  the original staircase didn’t have a handrail or newel posts.  they were added later and no nails were used in their making as well.  just wood dowels.

some of you have seen these photos before but they are worth repeating here.  the lorreto chapel and the staircase. 

ok, so just what does all this mean?  in regards to my search for the miraculous?  i suppose, ever since st joseph built that staircase for the nuns he acquired the reputation for getting stuff done, building or house wise.  or maybe it came about sometime even earlier in his saintdom.  i really don’t know.  but it’s not something others and myself haven’t overlooked down through the years.  um, say what?

it seems that st joseph comes in very handy when you are trying to sell a piece of property or your house.  all that needs to be done is to bury a statue of him in the front yard and viola he works his miracle and the place sells.  something i’m indeed going to try.  and hopefully i get a minor miracle of sorts and the mobile home sells.

of course, i figure it would probably border on the sacrilegious if i were to bury the statue.  so with that in mind, the brown eyed girl’s older sister has come into play.  she’s a very religious catholic lady.  a fine thing indeed.  i gave her some money and she found us a very nice pewter statue of st joseph holding the baby jesus.  she’s coming here on monday and the three of us are going to plant the statue in the front yard under the for sale sign.

years ago one of my aunts went on a pilgrimage to lourdes, france.  as a gift, she bought me a small bottle of lourdes holy water.  the statue of st joseph will be anointed with some of that holy water before it’s buried.  a few prayers will be offered up as well. 

it’s too bad my sister-in-law can’t make it here on sunday, as it’s all saints day.  logistically for her it isn’t possible.  she’s busy with church stuff all day plus she lives way over on the west side of l.a.  all that being said, perhaps it won’t matter when the deal goes down on monday.

if st joseph comes through my sister-in-law’s church will get a very nice donation for their poor box.  as will a local catholic church’s feeding the hungry program.  at any rate, both places have already been given something this pre-thanksgiving season.  i’m by no means trying to blackmail st joseph in any way shape of form.  but, well, things are things and stuff as well.  we hope.  we pray.  we give. 

i hope my search for the miraculous comes to fruition.  hopefully, wonders will never cease.

thank you, st joseph.

jmh

the strange case of the bcs

i’ve been messing with this one for a few days now.  i’m angry.  not at what i’ve written, even though it might be hard to follow.  but then what else is new as far as my stuff goes?  no, i’m angry at college football, tv networks, congress and just about everyone else as well.    

the years first bcs computerized nonsense poll came out last weekend after the games.  we get another one after the games this week and after every other one until the season is over.  those of you that follow and love college football have many reasons to dislike the bcs poll on numerous levels.  me too.  especially after seeing boise st and cincinnati crouching just under the radar for a shot at the national championship game.  a shot i’m not real happy about.  but then i’m old and old school.

however, with my frazzled synapses and mis-firing neurons i’d forgotten all about what went down after last season or maybe even earlier.  i haven’t a clue as to an exact date.  a very sad state of affairs in both cases.  several schools, most notably utah and boise st, got the hairballs in washington dc to hold hearings on the seemingly unfair deal that is the bcs and their big money games at the end of the year.  sen orrin hatch, was the most visible and he yammered about fairness and other such dumbness.

dumbness, like giving a third tier school, such as boise st, a shot at the national title game if they went 12 and oh.  our wonderful government has nothing better to do than stick it’s collective nose into places it has no business.  college football being one of those premiere areas.  though our esteemed leader has said he’d like to see a playoff in college football.  hopefully, he will keep his and congresses nose out of the deal.  the bcs is bad enough right now without further meddling by those lame bozos.

their meddling, so far, has turned the best sport in the nation into a coed t-ball league for cry baby 5 year olds.  a league where even if you play the likes of say, u c davis or southeastern st university of chicken pluckers, and beat them.  why, by golly, you can play in the national championship game.  you went 12 and oh with your patsy schedule of third and fourth tier cupcake schools.  well done.  oofa.  

i’m sorry.  i don’t want to see it.  at all.  you can have your t-ball for whinny third tier school athletic directors and their ilk.  i don’t want to see watered down college football games.  games where everybody must play.  games where nobody really wins.  games where there are no winners. just losers like us.  

you say, ‘but, john, that isn’t happening and won’t happen.’  yeah, right.  just give them a little more time.  a little more whining.  then just wait and see.  because you can soon count on some women’s college field hockey team playing boise st, in the beloved rose bowl, for the national championship of college football.

ridiculous you say?  why he’s been at the absolut trough again.  no kids, not yet, any the ways.  i just don’t appreciate diluted college football games.  diluted to the point of political correct parity.  diluted so even, the university of middle state teachers and boys choir affiliates, gets a shot at a bowl game at the end of the college football money rainbow.  god, the horror.

sadly, i’m beginning to lose interest in college football.  oh, i’ll stick around for awhile.  but in the not so distant future i see myself voting with my feet and walking away from the game.  politicians making changes they have no business making.  there’s just too much excess money out there.  and that money along with dumb ass politicians and stupid college officials is ruining the game i used to love so very much.  it’s a part of brave new world?  no thanks.  you can have it.

so just what have the hairballs in dc done?  they got just who the hell ever of the bcs hairballs to adjust their computers to look favorably upon third tier schools ala boise st.  in all fairness, cincinnati is probably a second tier school as they have a very good medical school on the campus.  they just ain’t harvard or yale and just as well as those guys can’t compete either.

the point being, boise st, a third tier school has diddly for academics and can recruit kids that can play but then said kids are morons who could never get into an sec, big 10 or pac 10 school.  which doesn’t matter much in the academic sense.  not that the kids from michigan or usc go to class all that much.  it’s a fine line to be sure.  a line that for the sake of decent college football games that shouldn’t be crossed.  at least not while i’m still alive.  thank you.  point?  computers tweaked to nullify strength of schedule.

so just why are boise st and the bear cats sitting above usc in the bcs poll?  the sad reply from the masses is: usc lost a game and the other two haven’t.  they are undefeated.  fine.  ok, pilgrim, riddle me this: if usc were to play boise st this saturday, at boise, who would be the vegas favorite?  vegas cares only about the money.  their money.  the simple answer would be, usc.  probably by at least 14 points.  trust me, i’m sure that would be the case.  so why then is boise st and cincinnati ranked higher than usc?

yeah, i’m a usc homer and a pac 10 honk.  doesn’t matter in this regard.  he political correct crowd bought off by somebody or another to water down the game into a 5 year old coed t-ball league.  jesus.

this has been like all over the place and i suppose, maybe and hopefully, you can see my passion here.  and my point.  we are destroying a game, the only game left, that used to have some sort of meaning and purpose.  a meaning and purpose that is being watered down into nothingness.

count on this as well, a playoff mandated or brokered by the hairballs in washington, dc would be just as bad.  you would have to be certifiably insane to think otherwise.

jmh

thunderstorms and neon signs or a pox on me(?)

the brown eyed girl and i will be leaving on a 10 day or so road trip early next week.  that is unless my current bout with shingles takes a turn for the worse.  the shingles came on last thursday night.  i thought i’d been bitten by a spider.  no such luck.  i’m on the steroids and i’m starting to look like the guvernator in his old days.  yeah, right.  plus i’m taking the usual other stuff so hopefully things will be ok and the trip will go down.   

i’m using the title of an old hank III tune here as the title for this blog as i think the song is a great road tune.  this trip more than likely won’t be one of my usual fear and loathing road runs.  at least that isn’t the plan.  though if i’m lucky i’ll have one of those in a few months.  veering here.

at any rate, we’ll be traveling around the southwest.  with stops at sedona, the grand canyon, elephant butte, santa fe, albuquerque, and flagstaff.  not necessarily in that order but sorta and maybe taos as well.  we are both looking forward to the trip. 

the brown eyed girl has relatives in a few of the stops so it will be cool meeting my new kinfolk and seeing a few again that i’ve already met.  plus, some spectacular scenery as well.  with any luck we should have a number of nice photos to share with you when we get back.

if any of you have any suggestions regarding things to see in any of those spots feel free to send them along.  we would appreciate it.  also, if you have some cool places for a bite to eat they would be appreciated too.  we’ve got things to do and see but more options are always welcome.

a sedona, az sunset.  something i hope we see on a daily basis.

 

jmh

just another old country album(?)

one of my friends wrote in his blog last week something along the lines that, why would he want to write about an album that was like three years old?  yeah, why?  i mean i do it all the time.  some of the music i’ve written about is at least 30 or 40 years old.  some even older in the case of ella fitzgerald.  i really don’t see anything wrong with it because you just might turn someone on to the music that had never heard it before.  a good thing to be sure.

the cd in question today is one i’ve had in the car pretty much since i bought it a few months back.  i play it over and over.  cranked up at serious levels.  of course, the brown eyed girl doesn’t like to hear it more than once a week but that’s fine.  at least she’ll tap her foot now when i do play it and she’s in the car.  trust me that’s a good sign.

well, the cd is from 1999 and it’s by hank III, ‘risin’ outlaw’.  yeah, it’s ten years old.  i’ll tell you what, this cd is what country is all about.  hank III has put out some really nice country stuff.  country stuff that is head and shoulders above anything going on in pop country these days.  ‘risin’ outlaw’, is what country music ought to be.  though sadly that’s not the case.

hank III and the boys take a trip down the country western hillbilly highway with this one.  some of the finest pickin’ and harmonies since hank senior and the boys.  count on it.  from the opening track, ‘i don’t know’, to the last, ‘blue devil’, the band kicks it out with all their collective hearts.

a few of my favorites are, ‘on my own’, a great drinkin’ tune if there ever was one.  and ‘cocaine blues’, a fine tribute to johnny cash.  along with the haunting, ‘thunderstorms and neon signs’, perhaps one of the finest road songs ever written.

do yourself a favor and find hank III’s, ‘risin’ outlaw’.  buy it.  play it.  loud.  then you’ll understand.  boy howdy, country music at it’s all time best.

jmh

if it were only so

the brown eyed girl and were on the road labor day heading to a relatives house for a bbq.  it was a nice day.  no triple digit temps like we’ve had for the past couple of weeks.  all in all it was a fairly decent drive to and from the bbq.  but that ain’t why i’m here. 

several years ago the late great state of california passed a law banning cell phone use while driving.  it’s like a couple hundred dollar fine for driving and using one.  that is if they catch you or feel like messing with you considering there’s more stupid people out there doing even dumber stuff.  however, most folks on a cell phone and driving can barely drive.  if they ever could.  drive that is.

now don’t laugh, but this past year the state has also passed a new law that bans texting while driving.  yeah, whoda thunk you’d even need to pass a law like that?  i mean come on!!!  well, yeah, there’s now that law but there’s still dumb fucks out there texting and driving down the freeway at 70 miles per.  i see them all the time.  yesterday in particular.

to backtrack a step or two, our wonderfully delusional federal government is just to the point of considering, just considering mind you, that any state that doesn’t ban texting while driving would lose federal highway funds.  is that even something you need to consider?  how about just doing it for christ’s sake!  or for maybe your life’s sake.

at any rate, i see these dumb ass stupid folks all the time texting away while driving.  they are usually the ones that can’t seem to stay in their lane or are swerving between the lines if they can actually stay in their lane.  sure, there’s lots of drunks out there but they are just a drop in the bucket compared to driving a car and using a cell phone plus texting douche bags.

something sorta came to the two of us at the same time labor day.  an invention was needed to help curtail these dumb ass folks.  granted, most of them are kids but there are a number of older and supposedly wiser folks doing it as well.  we need an invention that would stop the madness.  stop it right in it’s tracks.

before i tell you our idea all i want out of the deal is if someone can come up with the hardware to do it would be a few freebies of the invention.  ok?  if one does eventually come out i’m gonna find you and get a few of them.  a few of them for free.  capisco? 

we all know the cops are too busy dealing with other shit.  however, when one of the texting morons gets in an accident it screws things up for all of us on way too many levels.  sooooooo…what is needed is a small electronic device.  a hand held thingy. 

say you are driving down the interstate or just going to score a half gallon of milk.  you see some moron using his or her cell phone or worse yet, bleeding texting and driving.  there are for sure no cops around.  if they were they prolly wouldn’t do anything anyway.  that’s where this new device and you would come in very very handy.

you would just need to point the device at the offender push a button and their cell phone would die.  forever.  it would never work again as the circuitry would be fried.  with no way to repair it.  simple easy.

on an other note, the device could prolly also be made to work on the ass holes who run read lights.  no cop around to write them up?  just point the device at the car and the car would slowly and safely pull over to the side of the road and can’t be started again until the offender has signed his or her ticket.  ah, pure bliss.  though that aspect of the device could lead to problems and abusers of the device.  but i think it could be worked out.  right?

i know there’s somebody out there reading this who could come up with that device or knows someone who can make it happen.  just do it.  the life you save just might be yours.

jmh

surf city, usa or point break(?)

it’s the last official weekend of summer.  years ago my last official weekend of summer usually ended sometime in october when the water at the beach began to get a little to cold for comfort.  and the sun’s rays a bit to weak for tanning.  ah, a lifetime ago in the sun.  i have skin carbuncles as a mute testimony of those long ago days.
  

the beach of choice was usually huntington.  surf city, usa.  though many others were tossed into the mix of a lifetime of beach going.  orange county beaches were always the favorite.
 

these photos have appeared here in my blog before.  not this blog but my other blog that i deleted the last time i deleted my other place.  confusing but it really doesn’t matter.

a few years ago my friend, dfr, sent me a bunch of old huntington beach photos.  old photos of olden days and king oil.  oil wells to rival texas or one of those far middle east places.  oil wells thick as fleas on a mongrel dog.  yeah, so calif was once a kick ass oil producing hot bed.

huntington beach in particular.  oil so abundant it oozed up under the water coating your feet with a thick tar when you went swimming, body surfing or surfing.  of course that was long ago.  the price of land all over so calif making the oil wells and smaller cricket pumpers just wisps of imagination.  but rest assured they were here and alive.  a few of the cricket pumpers still live in a few places.  sad lonely reminders of long ago.

back when i was a kid the wells were still around but not alive to the extend of what you see in the photos.  they were just mere ghosts of the past.  but still around.  by the early 60’s oil gave way to a housing boom that still, to this day plods sadly on.

the brown eyed girl and i watched, ‘point break’, the other night.  it was her first time.  i’ve seen it any number of times.  it’s one of my all time faves.  after that last viewing i’m ready to move it into my top ten.  the brown eyed girl wasn’t or isn’t that impressed by the movie.  it really doesn’t matter that much.  the beach scenes of huntington in the movie and my wandering through some of the old photos of the old days made it necessary for me to write this and share s few of the photos with you because…
 

it’s the last days of summer here in locust land.  dreams still die hard.  the old visions want to hang on.  hang on for what may or may not be eternity. 

huntington beach, circa 1964.  

huntington beach, circa 1954.  my friend dfr and fellow summer campers.

the old days looking south at pacific coast highway.

when oil was king.

the huntington beach plunge.  an indoor swimming pool with salt and fresh water pools.  they were still around in the 50’s.  i loved them as a kid when the rip tides and undertow’s were howling they were a refuge. 

the beach from the pier.

fade to color.

jmh