The Morning Walk, a face from 65, and Nha Trang's Movie House 1969

The Morning Walk___

Got up around 7 this morning, let the Airedale out and decided to get out and walk a couple miles. I made my way up to Docksider's Marathon, grabbed a cup of coffee and made my way to the intersection of US 127(Main Street) and Lake Shore Drive...With the Lake Festival just 2 weeks away, the concrete pouring for the Lake revitalization projects are continuing. I'm a skeptic on the worth of these taxpayer funded projects, but the City is going to go forward with them, whether the majority of folks want them or not....the Lakesters and out of town yuppies have spoken, and they are going to happen, if for no other reason than to please the local "movers and shakers", Realtors, and folks who have invested in Condos around Grand Lake. Grand Lake our big{13,000 acre} Green Algae Pond...as the agriculture runoffs grow, the lake gets greener, the fish population smaller, and the smell more pronounced.

Anyway, back to the walk...The sun was shining, the temperature barley above 50{more Global Warming?}, it was a nice morning to walk a couple of miles....I took about an hour and made it home by 8:30. Now I can think about getting back to painting after I'm done here.

A face from 1965___

Early yesterday afternoon, I had just moved from the back yard to the east side of the house, and had began scrapping the excess paint and was doing some trimming in able to get the ladders behind the bushes, so I could paint the hard to reach places. As I was standing on the porch and see a couple ride by on a nice Harley, and thought to myself, "Now that's a nice bike". I head back to the garage to turn up the radio and listen to the "Rush Limbaugh Show"...I notice the couple on the Harley walking up my driveway. "Pat, it's Don Boise" the man says to me. Don Boise, a name and face from my childhood, way back in time for sure.

Don was one of my original classmates at Celina Junior High School when my family moved from Venice, Florida, to Ohio, back in the fall of 1962. Don, the son of a preacher man, was also my neighbor's, Bob and Jerry Jones buddy...they attended Beaver Chapel, the church Don's father was with. Don was pretty much a fixture at the Jones' house in our area of Montezuma, for the first couple of years of high school....Don's family moved across the state line during our sophomore or junior, to Geneva, Indiana, about 25 miles away. It had been 44 years since I last talked with him....talk about water under the bridge, Don and wife and I talked for a good hour, before they climbed back on the Harley in search of other folks from the area.

And the reason Don was able to look me up? He recognized my house from the Blog!! They had been following the blog and recognized photos of me, the Jones boys, and the house. That was interesting... and it was a good hour. Always good to see folks that you knew from a lifetime away, are still alive and kicking. I was to busy talking, I should have got some photos, but that passed right passed the old brain. Don does have an old photo of some of the gang from years ago that he plans on e-mailing me...looking forward to that.

July 1969 @ The Movies___

By mid July 1969, the summer of the original "Moon Walk", the summer of Woodstock, and my summer at Nha Trang, I had pretty much settled into my routine. Working 6 days a week, with Tuesday being my day off, early morning until late afternoon. As Security Police guys, we had a few perks that others did not have.

One was we had our own movie house...a little shack back of Base Police, where the guys on alert and those off duty could watch NFL Films, current movies, and down a few sodas and snacks. Our barracks were also right on "Main Street"...of course Nha Trang Air Base only had 3 regular paved streets...the rest were shoot offs and made of mud and clay. But we had nice digs and our barracks were across the street for the BX{the 1969 version of the Convenience store} complete with snacks, a barber shop, clothes, and a place where you could purchase electronic equipment, and get your photos developed.

Also right across the street was our "Open Air" outdoor movie theater....you could sit on benches under a tin roof, and watch the latest movies and hope to catch a breeze off the South China Sea, during the humid east central Vietnam nights. Although, not as nice as the modern base theater that I would use when at Tan Son Nhut....it was decent, and the movies were pretty current...albeit, some of them sucked pretty bad. I remember a movie starring "The Monkees" called Head...I liked the group's music, but that movie pretty much soured me on them...their old hokie TV show was much better.

Also on the list of things that passed as entertainment, not including the days downtown at the bars and bathhouses, was the NCO Club....you could always head there, down a few cold ones, and play the Slot Machines. And of course there was always The Beach. Yep, there was a difference between being an Air Force guy, even a Sky Cop, despite the supposed dangers, than a grunt or ground pounder in the Army Infantry or Marines....That Summer Of 69, I really had no complaints.

Back to the Painting....and

back later>>>>

Photos-(1) The corner of Lake Shore Drive, West Bank Road, and US 127 this morning as I took my walk, which passed our west side Light House.(2) The open air Movie Theater at Nha Trang in 1969...Taken by Tony Niemotka.(3) The "QC" Patches, the Crossed Pistols of the Vietnam Security Police...these patches were worn by boy Air Force Cops and our counterparts in the Vietnam Air Force.