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Beau Wann, Jr.

Hey Lloyd, sorry about your fender bender! Upsetting at best...I would have liked to seen the guitar competition! Your probably right about the way the winner was chosen! Sometimes judges are overly objectively complicated...probably should be several classes of competition...like degree of difficulty...flow of music...audibly pleasing, and interpretation, and being able to play the piece exactly how the  composer wrote it...but then, all that is too complicated too! I've watched the Van Cliburn competition from time to time, or when I know it is on or a replay!!! Wow just about sums it up...Speaking of guitars, there is one I am listening to now, Johannes Linstead! The album is from 2004 called Mediterranea. The music has sort of a Gypsy flair.  He is phenomenal...lighting fast!!!!

If you like "guitar licks", Eric Johnson and Steve Vy, Ry Cooder, Joe Satriani are all great guitarists! Even though they play what you might consider "heavy metal", you can hear the Classical training in their "runs"!!! Here is a trivia question you probably know the answer to;

Who was the guitarist that played on Marty Robbins El Paso, and on the entire album, "Gunfighter Ballads"???? I know who it is, and have been waiting for 50 years to be asked that question! I havent heard much from the person that I am referring to, no solo albums that I know of! Also, does anyone know who the piano player is on all Chuck Berrys songs??? Here is a hint, Chuck Berry also wrote a song about him!!!  He also went solo and did a few albums back in the 90s! He has passed on to the band in the sky, but what a great piano player he was!!! 

You refurbish old guitars??? I tried once, but have neither the patience nor the talent...fine wood working is becoming a lost art! You and Burge should get together and compare techniques and other notes...Takes a special person, a special talent, to be able to craft things in wood, or any medium, especially restoration...My grandfather, Hobart, was a master craftsman in woodworking! When I worked at the Oak Forest Bowling Alley, as a pin setter, the manager would let me take all the old busted pins, by the bushel basket full, and give them to my grandfather! He would turn them on a lathe and make the neatest things! He made a Rocket Lamp for me! Wish I still had it!  I do have a lot of the Candle holders he made, and bowls he turned out on the lathe! I have two Chess/checker boards he made! The squares are individually cut and from two different woods. the white squares are Ash, and the dark are either Mahogany or Walnut! I love walnut the best! I even made a clock for my dad about 30 years ago from a 1X10 plank of walnut! it is about 2 foot long, and cost either 11 or 22 dollars from the fine wood dealer on 34th st! And that was 30 years ago! I shudder to think what a fine piece of walnut costs today!

My grandfathers favorite woods were Cherry, Walnut and Mahogany!!! Hey Teddie isnt the siding of your house in Aransas pass made of mahogany???? Seems where I read that! Mahogany lasts forever!!! I think walnut has the finest grain!!! 

kudos to Gary for the awards! Well deserved!!! Thanks Jimmy for the report! Speaking of you, Jimmy, how you been??? Havent heard from you in a while!

Speaking of awards, did anyone watch the Jefferson awards on channel 2 last Saturday??? I actually know two of the people they honored, surprisingly enough!!! George and Novice Bruner! They are good friends of the Cunninghams, and we have played cards and dominoes with them quite often! I knew of some of their good works, but not the extent that was brought out Saturday! They never said much about it at all! Heres another thing that wasnt brought out about them, is George goes up to small Alaskan Villiages, Inuit tribes, and helps build them houses! They are both very humble and gracious people, and obviously very generous!!! 

George and Novice volunteered and ministered at the Harris county jail system, dont know if they made it to Huntsville! Good works done there by Jimmy S!!!

time to get the little woman off to the office...lunch to make...coffee to pour...executive fair to round up and place in executive vehicle...then off on patrol with my sidekicks Cooper and Catahoula Jack!!!

Congratulations again Gary!!!

DOD

PS: Thought I'd slip a picture of the wooly mammoth, Big Oliver, and grandaughter  Haley! She snuck up on him whilst he was napping and was tickling his feet!!!

Richard Meek '65

Jim, if you stop in the Luby's on Post Oak and San Felipe you'll see the prototype of where they're taking Luby's. I think they've updated the one on 34th but not to the extent they did in the Galleria area. They moved from the location they had occupied for 40 years and built out a whole new facility a few doors down. They even landscaped the whole parking lot. I agree that the waiter idea is a dud. I find them to be more of an irritant than a help.I also know how you feel about Cleburn's. That's how the 34th Luby's got to looking. Probably doesn't anymore since their prices have skyrocketed.

DOD, I think you're right about Albritton's. I think the last one was on Waugh and it closed a few years ago. I think their is a CVS there now. Have you noticed that drug stores now seem to be like gas stations used to be? There's one or more on every corner! Piccadilly is long gone too, unless they are out in the burbs somewhere.

I like your picture of Big Oliver and Haley. My cat, Sugar was snoozing in one of the azalea beds on Sunday afternoon in the same position the Wooly mammoth is in in your picture. 

Where was the Oak Forest Bowling Alley? I don't remember it? Also what kind of wood did they make the pins out of?

Did you really sample several deserts off the cart?

Wayne, I like your quote.

Did anyone else read the article in the Sunday paper about the drones that military is using in Afghanistan and Iraq? absolutely fascinating,I think, that an unmanned drone over in A or I is controlled by a pilot and sensor at Ellington AFB (or another air base). Also that they can talk to the ground commander on a secure phone line. It just bogles the mind that they can fire a missile and put it through the window of a building and do it from a control console in Houston. it's kind of spooky really. It really must be a plus for the ground forces that the drones can tell them a lot of what the enemy is doing. Kind of like having a guardian angel watching over you. It's Buck Rogers type stuff.

Keep on dancing,

Rich LH

John Burgess Webb

all right,good stuff,good news;thanks jimmie for relaying,tell gary i think its great.he should post them and let us read them too.

burge

John Burgess Webb

this is wasp-12b,the hottest planet in the milky way.it went too near its sun-like star that the gravity of the star has gotten a-hold of it and wont let go.its superheated to 2800*F and is football shaped because the electromagnetic currents are so strong it pulls it out of sshape;just eats it up.an artists rendention from data in spectral analysis-the hubble space telescope.for the machine heads.

Beau Wann, Jr.

Hey RichLH, yes I did sample some of the desserts right off the cart! Had to pay for them! My mom never pushed around a dessert cart at home!

Anyone ever been to the Brownstone Restaurant on Virginia st off San Felipe?????????? That place is HIGH DOLLAR AND THEN SOME! Took a date there back in the late 70s, and it cost 75 dollars, and they gave us the crumbiest table in the joint, by the kitchen, and the service was not good, but it was only because my money was no good there, or in other words, they didnt want my low class self to come back! Shucks, I was dressed up to the nines, in a suit, and tie, and all spiffy! Date was beautiful and dressed well! But those snooty places know who has money and who doesnt! They really dont want you are your money unless you can drop a couple thou at dinner!!!! I dont need em anyway! Their meatloaf and fried okra probably sucks anyway!!!

Another place back in the 70s, was over off San Felipe on St James street, called the Court of St James! It was beautiful. Set up like an atrium, with different levels you could dine on! Their lobster something or other, was just heavenly! they had a grand piano, and strolling violinists! They werent too snooty towards folks! But they didnt last long! Only went half dozen times! Lunch and supper!!!!

The Bowling alley was, if you can picture how the shopping center was, right where it made a bend! If you are standing on 43rd looking north, away from wyatts across the street, Western Auto was on the end, far left, then Minimax, moving east to the right, then a greeting card store, then the oak forest sandwich shop or grill, then the bowling alley, then Haleys five and dime, then Talleys record store, then all the way to the right end, was maddings drugstore! They might not be in exact order, but close enough!!!  I do know that Western Auto was on the farr left, and minimax was next to it, and that maddings drugstore was on the far right at the end!   I dont remember from what kind of wood the pins were made! I found some old pins in an antique store, and of course they were at a premium. I might a paid a buck or maybe a couple of bucks, but they were asking something rediculous like 75 dollars apiece or more! Nah! they can just keep em!!!

Remember the sandwich shop next to the bowling  alley, had foot long hot dogs, and or chili dogs??? Thats the first place I ever saw a foot long hot dog!!!!

Well, hello??? its the wooly mammoth, big oliver come a calling! he is now in my lap!!! Me thinks he is 8 yrs old! He has sure become a lap mammoth lately! Now he and Katy are laying together, touching,  on the hassock. Both seem comfortable with that arrangement! Cool!!!!

The executive wife is home, so got to get moving...

DOD

Richard Meek '65

DOD, you didn't have a desert cart? Wow, we had one with a minimum of six choices every night! LOL

Beau Wann, Jr.

I dont think you could have a dessert cart on DuBarry!

John Burgess Webb

hey rich lh, ive been playing on google earth all day and have thought about the satilite network we have in conjuntion with the drones;man,infrared and very high resolution.only nsa and nro have the mighty-mighty spy sheens ; think of it in real-time ,threded through centcom.yeah,the command on the ground has centcom command with them in person,with a cool head and with the confidence that the enemy is in sight and locked on to,all the efforts,from the geeks to the 'snake eaters' this thing will be done intelligently.i see the signs.osoma bin laden is probably on R@R at the beach on the bay of bengal in southern pakistan.

anyway,im a fan of google earth even if it is static and the mosiac layout is informed by the different seasons,patched together.some of the topography in china is unbelievable.thousands of years show in the terraced fields ,the rivers are monsters that have cut the mountains for aeons.really beautiful around chonqing(chungking).lots of history as the nationalist chinese army fled nanking in front of the army of japan.long story but i have enjoyed the study and now i can zoom in and see where people lived when who did so and so to whom.nice tool to have.

burge

Teddie Jordan

Congratulations Gary Keith on the recognition for your articles. Every one of them that I've ever read, including the ones Jackie has posted on this website and the ones you've been kind enough to send me on my request, have been enjoyable, excellent and impressive. You have always had a keen sense of humor but who knew you had that writing talent in you? If I wasn't so cheap I would have subscribed to your paper like I threatened to so I could enjoy the View From The Mountain every week. Maybe we can get Jackie to post some more.

Wayne, I too loved the quote and it is so true. The old cowboy code of living was true then and applies equally to today's man, or what is left of him.

Lloyd, I know how much you must have enjoyed the guitar convention. I'll bet you went back to your shop with renewed vigor. Knowing that you're a old violin player as well, have you ever tried to make one of them? You know even old Stratavarius had to start somewhere.

And Rich and Burge, finding osama layed out on the beach with one of those drones is what dreams are made of. Wouldn't that be special?

John Burgess Webb

i will concur on all of the above;gary has written a lot of good stuff for years,looks like it paid off.

man that cat is huge!

burge

John Burgess Webb

speaking of kitty-kats;this is the new model russian spy:

one of the eleven that the fbi busted:good show!

Beau Wann, Jr.

I could interrogate her!!!!

Lloyd Pond

Johnny B Goode?

Paige Talley (Meek)

Beau Wann, Jr.

Lloyd...Yes, Johnny B Goode!!!! His piano players name was Johnny Johnson, and chuch wrote that song about him, and himself, adding the guitar instead of the piano! JJs style of playing is unmistakable! rinky tink, honky tonky, boogie woogie, rock n roll, all rolled into one!!!

You get the name of the guitarist on Marty Robbins "El Paso" and Gunfighter Ballads album???

Hey paige, good story! there was an old boxing gym on Heights Blvd and Center Street, just at the RR tracks, almost to washington ave! It is catycorner from Hickory Hollow BBQ joint! It is now an office bldg of sorts methinks! Evander Holyfield use to train there, among others!!!

Hey wayne, I dont know how I missed your post, but I did! Words to live by!  Yall remember Mrs Simpson??? Of course you do!  We had her in the 5th grade! Remember before the start of lessons, we would stand up and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, The Lords Prayer, and about 20 mins worth of required rememberings, of which one of those was Rudyard Kiplings "IF"..."If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you..." Every line and word in that poem is probably the best advice a young person could read and strive to live by!!!  We had to know the whole thing by heart. Back then, it was just something you had to do! The words meant something back then, but I didnt began to appreciate them until later on in life...

My dad loved poetry, probably where I get my love of it...He use to read Edgar Allen Poes "The Raven" all the time! And he also came up with another slogan, or saying, or words to live by, and I dont remember where he got them from, but I remember reading them also..."A coward dies many times before his death...A valiant never taste of death but once..." !

Hey Wayne, You ever read "BRULES", and "THE SCOUT" by Harry Combs???? They're each about 600 pages, and about a scout during the last half of the 19th century!!!! Excellent reading!!! They were published in 1992 and 1995, so they should still be in print! If not, they are for lease from my library, for a nominal fee of say...nothing!!!!

How about Zane Grey??? I read what was supposed to be his last one, called "The Breed"! Kind of a modern western, but still exciting and good!!!

We lost another tree, to hurricane Alex this time! Well, it is atree across the street! Fell on the street! Got my chain saw out and cleared a path. Folks that own it are having the debris removed today methinks! Just the top 50 foot came crashing down! the bottom 50 looks good!!! It was/is a huge oak and unusual looking at the base! kind of gnarled all way round!!! 

got up for a second, and the wooly mammoth took my seat!!! 

DOD

Richard Meek '65

DOD, if you've never read them give the poems of Robert Service a look. They were some of my dad's favorites.

Beau Wann, Jr.

hAPPEN TO HAVE A few of his! Three of my favorite ones that come to mind, are "The Spell of the Yukon", and "The Men That Dont Fit In" and "My Madonna"...Good ones all though...

Lloyd Pond

You mean Marty Robbins didn't play his own guitar? Well someone had better tell Rober Earl Keene Jr to rewrite "Gringo Honeymoon"

He said there's one more place you should go

He took us to the town best bar

He knew a crusty caballero

Who played an old gut string guitar

And he sang like Marty Robbins could

Played like no one I've known

For awhile we knew that life was good

it was ours to take back home

Below, the grandkids and I meet the brothers Buford and Dusty Biscuit at the conventions kid show Saturday

Scotty Croom

the  old oak forest bowling alley was at teddy's back door....his brother,harry. worked there.....

Beau Wann, Jr.

I didnt know that teddy lived on the street behind the oakforest shopping center! What is the name of that street??? Well, I will find out tomorrow, got to go to K rogers! I always thought they lived on the corner of 43rd and antoine!

John Burgess Webb

hey paige,

             this is the new 'wonderwoman' ;heres for the red,white and blue.

dont ask me;cause i dont know;someones' "dark lady"?

Teddie Jordan

We lived at 1223 Overhill from 1948 until 1958, when we moved to corner of 43rd and Antoine. Our house backed up to the bowling alley, which I always hated because they had to bulldoze my beloved woods to build that center where Minimax and eventually Weingartens was built. Those woods were my original hunting and exploring grounds. I used to find many old chipped bowling pins in the trash in the alley, and used to see some pretty good fights in the alley too. They served alcohol and we all know what that does to some people. Some get happy, some get depressed and some get mean.

John Burgess Webb

hey teddie,that woods on 43rd was full of blackberry bushes.it was there and the woods behind francine's house that my brother and i filled mayonase jars with blackberrys.my grandmother would put sugar on top and let them sit before rolling out the dough for a blackberry pie.we had a bunch of jars,man it was good.her best was the lemon-marangue pie;no box pie there.i hated to see all those trees go but thats progress;we were very lucky.who takes the time to squeeze lemons and roll out dough?its too 'old hat' now;what was i thinking?has my mind played the final trick on me or was that really real?yeah,we were lucky.

Jackie Crowe (Finch)

Happy 64th Birthday, Johnny Boy!!!

John Burgess Webb

well, it looks like everybody is out and about and im stuck with this machine and  three fat and happy dogs laying on the floor.i was out a little this morning to go eat and get some orange crush and cigarettes("youre gonna croak").well i already knew all that;but anyway,thats just one dr.s opinion,(well mabe a couple of million drs opinion)....anyway,i was outside during the quietest and most peaceful time of the night ;my dogs came from three different directions.that little boy puppy has grown up into a real 'lion dog'  and was sitting on the grass in my yard,ping came from my neighbor's down the street and the boy de box came from my neighbors on the other end.these dogs had spaced themselves in equa-distance for about 300 yds.they came up and made circles around me and sniffed and wagged their tails,and danced around for awhile.im really glad that they are here.with my shot-up nerves,they let me know if the boogie man comes.

speaking of the boogie man;i was reading the news about how mad putin was because we cought his little spy ring.big deal.yesterday or so,i read on the internet that gen. kalugin had told reporters that when he ran the show(the whole circus) he would not run but 5o ,tops 60 couples without diplomatic cover. i got tickled when i remembered hearing gen. kalugan at a meeting in houston.he said "putin is just a shoesalesman,shaking his head back and forth with his whole jaw  cupped in his hand,like an old college professor displeased by a question asked by a smart-ass in his class.i think he was really disappointed with his pupil.poor russia.they have all the resources and all the tallent but somewhere they lost their russian soul.in a forest in siberia lie the romanoffs;a monarch who enjoyed simplicity and his german queen and their children.a political murder for an idiolgy that burned every government it had ever usurped.this was not an assasination;it was the warning,it was the heel of the boot that  was smashing the face of their culture;a necessity for the revolution and the point of no return.now the revolution is laughable and spys get caught with their pants down and say-oh;it wasnt us,it was them;you know,those mean investigators in the fbi,they caused it. the fbi has always had bright people,who did they think they were dealing with?

big egos are getting tired of each others company.this is power and its more addictive than oil.(or cigarettes),we all have our share and have had our share.even when we were kids and got that taste of power when we were allowed to drive the car and it was just alright.we are and have been a big part of the problem.i site myself as a major culprit;gasoline at .17 a gallon and horsepower under the hood was power.when i rode in a helecopter for the first time,i really felt the power.i define it as this thing that is bigger than you by geometric progresion.its something you feel,nothing you think;its just palpaple to those senses we have carried since the begining of time.

mabe its just that i spent too much time in the trenches.i never really minded being just a feild hand.you serve and that becomes allureing,after all the search is for the truth,and when you choose to serve it just feels better than the brain crushing,ego burning tempo that is the nature of the people who make the decisions.you might not like the decision;some japanese didnt like the decision to go to war with the united states but they had no choice..what i mean is;its all politics.turf.of all the words written for our admonishment and our edification,all the progress that has been made and we still deal with each other like we are barbarians;like mabe its something in the blood.i speak for myself;for those kind souls on the other end of this wire;i have nothing but love and admiration for you.we were all proud of oak forest and houston.i watched a lot of things,saw more than i wanted to see;sometimes fighting the tide,sometimes, exhausted;i went along with the flow.im exhausted but i remember mrs. simpson's class in the fifth grade,im no dummy;we were taught well by many who served.

our public officials are under oath to protect our constitution and this effort to identify and stop a spy ring with bona fides from moscow is "right of the line".[ill use that motto of the armys'25th infantry division with pride].the charges against these people are low grade,i think we are being nice about it;they may have caused damage but we are nice,so dont spy on us.poor russia.

sail on,silver moon