War & Johnny Carson's Shirt Size
I was going to tell my happy husband and Handsome Prince when we retired - a huge list of neat things women "keep in their hearts". Fun things to share when we were white-haired and satisfied, enjoying the view from the porch in our rocking chairs: like why I watched "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson long past the time one does. Can't do that now. He died before retirement. And so I must share it with you:
a true story from the 1960's dedicated to deployed military and their loved ones at home.
I was going to tell my happy husband and Handsome Prince "when we're old" - a huge list of neat things couples "keep in their hearts". My handsome Prince got home from war just fine and to a fine successful life in work and love and fatherhood, but I'll never get to tell him these things I saved. He died suddenly one morning, well before retirement age. But I can share it with you:
He was an officer, with USACEngineers, Black Diamonds special ops - showing Army Engineers how to NOT to use the horribly carcinogenic Agent Orange to clear foliage. Just graduated with a degree in Chemistry, a healer - He loathed all Chemical Warfare. He enlisted before his draft notice arrived in July, because, if he did so, he was promised that he could choose his job.
It was worthy , but it was war.
The news shared a list of horrifying new war words daily, with "body bag" at the top! I'd blanche and take a chair. No Norman Rockwell and John Wayne easy patriotism - no. Unable to sleep, the popular "Heeerrre's Johnnny!" called my attention and tried to not be "one tough audience" to get a laugh from - though things for us were grim.
Replying to audience comments and questions, he told us his shirt size ! What a guy won't say, to get a laugh! But if you are Johhnnnnny, you can say ANYthing and bring down the house - even his shirt size won the moment. OK, funny!
But NOT for me; Hypersensitive from love and fear, the mention of "fourteen-and-a-half / thirty-two" made me jump up - Though my husband was taller, the shirt size was the same. And suddenly for a moment I smiled in happy peace , remembering the first time I bought him a shirt, the first time I pressed one up for him for a fete, and the first time I trashed a worn out one that he loved secretly and replaced it with a spotless twin. Oh dear, I WAS missing him so much!
It was 1968 - there was no media - no internet - no SKYPE - no email - nothing to bring reassuring live images of my deployed husband. There was Silence, and often lost or delayed mail. Food and other goodies I'd send were raided and never reached him.
I praised our baby, whose health made me NOT hold onto stress that would upset the infant in my arms. Being a good mommy meant NOT hugging our son tighter than I should over it.
But the silly moment worked and after that night, I'd watch Johnny Carson and fix on that shirt size, over and over - for the power of a factoid to generate connectivity. It worked, somehow, till my husband's tour was done. It was a way of poking fun at my own fears.
My late husband's homecoming from war remains the happiest day of my life - surpassing our wedding, our children's births, and even my art at the White House. Till then Death was there constantly taunting me with promises to destroy all the work and love of my own birth and development to make a fine adult life. Fear taunting constantly, no matter how cool and good and brave and busy I could be.
But, NO - you won't win this one....LIFE this time. My Lieutenant USACE Black Diamonds - some months later, walked through that door at LaGuardia - HOME - "all ten fingers, all ten toes", and the love better than ever for the test!
No Johnny Carson story for him - NOT that day. Time - the gift of time was ours - no rush. My husband had plenty of stories, as well, but one look at one another and we exulted : "We'll talk about it when we're old! We're not gonna have a problem ." And we didn't! Boundlessly grateful there was no PTS for us! Life - we won our right to a good life - with a down-payment on the mortgage for it.
Even years later, with our babies half grown and softly sleeping in the next room , curled up safe and sound, "watching Carson" with my husband - I'd sometimes remember the time of his deployment and that night when I was saved by "Johnny Carson's shirt size" on tv; and I'd feel "moreso" blessed for a moment, by comparison to those late nights alone, with nothing but a fixation on a "shirtsize-in-common" to help me hold onto my mind. Grateful praise !
Even widowed, years later I am fine and thriving for the goodness of the many years we made and enjoyed so well!
To all who serve and to all who love them, l send a good wish and a prayer that the Angels send at least a helpful bit of silliness, like "Johnny Carson's Shirt Size" to help any who need one.
Poirot Marathon-ing
This is late being posted because of "'Air-kyool" - Hercule Poirot. And I feel fine about it. Some things are important. Marathoning a series is valid in this case - my life is in flux and it is a fine and affordable distraction; and a lesson in authorship for any writer, and a quality engagement. To me, it is an honor thing - he completed the entire series, a thing not easily done! Bravo! But for me, it is just the epression of it all at this phase of things, of my passion for the mystery-thriller of quality since childhood- so do not gloat, Monsieur! I just happened to be going that way.
Poirot's famous Boutonnière Vase
This is late being posted because of "'Air-kyool" - Hercule Poirot. And I feel fine about it. Some things are important. Marathoning a series is valid in this case - my life is in flux and it is a fine and affordable distraction; and a lesson in authorship for any writer, and a quality engagement. To me, it is an honor thing - he completed the entire series, a thing not easily done! Bravo! But for me, it is just the epression of it all at this phase of things, of my passion for the mystery-thriller of quality since childhood- so do not gloat, Monsieur! I just happened to be going that way.
At ages 8-10, in the late 50s, I was the one in line at the LIbrary - no Google - for the next episode of Nancy Drew Mysteries! How would it be this time? Never disappointing! Never bored, curled up with a exciting Nancy Drew Adventure Mystery ! Days were sunny for me and in Nancy Drew land. We'd spend a Saturday or rainy afternoon companioning along as her chums and I followed her lead, immersed in one more challenging scenario to happy conclusion! No other girls my age on the block just then, Nancy was a handy friend and inspiration for so much in spirit and goodness.
Then, hooked on mysteries, I'd raid my brother's Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, then, back to my "Trixie Belden" nurse sleuth stories. And then it was TV and "Mr. & Mrs. North", "The Thin Man", and favorite "Charlie Chan" - my Father was Charlie Smith and so we'd come tearing in from school or play and call out, with Key Luke's enthusiasm, "Hiya, Pop!" as Charlie's many children did in old China and US Chinatown. Dad was a fine one, and would return the fun at us, mimicking "yeh, yeh, but..." Chan's longsuffering love for his "number one son" and 'number one daughter".
At fourteen, the crush I seemed to be dealing with, for the family friend and local beach lifeguard, enjoyed some satisfaction, when I asked him about the book he was reading and it was Ian Fleming "Bond, James Bond" - brand new in the movies! He , his steady girfriend and later wife, and I read all the books - such fun to talk the good and bad of it....always that excitement in realizing some of such things are true!
Soon it was on to college and cutting study hours for "The Avengers" and "the fuge" ... "The Fugitive" Some things were more important than - there was the place for mysteries; the appeal to the intellect and skill set and the way all issues are resolved at stories' end. Life ahead, no matter how well we prepped, was a mystery, still, when it came to the core of it all.
Then into the core, indeed, with no-joke time: JFK's assassination , Martin Luther King's, Robert Kennedy - serious bad guys , right in our back yard! Worse: instead of John Wayne wars, it was about Americans as idiots sacrificing our own in unwinnable conflicts and Agent Orange of the insidious kill.
Lucky me - bride to the son of a Federal Agent / whose job in Viet Nam after college was getting rid of chem warfare/ Agent Orange, with USACE's special ops, while I spent my first hours with wonded soldiers and felt honored to serve....while others were fighting for peace with pot and dancing in the mud - horrors! Dangers notwithstanding, I felt the lucky one. My brother too, in berets jumping out of planes chasing enemy in the jungle. The day they came home from war in one piece remains te happiest day of my life!
This go-round , we won thru nicely!
And sooner than we ever hoped, at the mysteries again - Husband relaxing in the den after his work day with Wellcome making medicine, and our son asleep and helping our little girl in her wiggly age, by NOT engaging with her , but quietly rocking along side her crib, crocheting a coverlet for her, or reading a book - this time the COMPLETE Sherlock Holmes stories.
Then it was winter and I was critical of me because I'd finished the Holmes and now what? Winter reading hunting, I met Hercule - and I ran to the mailbox when "Curtain" arrived from my book club - after going through the Poirot stories and looking for more of the Herculean ouevre...50 years of works about Hercule Poirot! Better.
I wrote sometimes and so I was impressed with the 56 years of Agatha Christie's stories about the wonderful Belgian sleuth !
I always wonder - did the Herculean name inspire the Herculean achievement, or the other way around?
And why is there not more said about the famous Boutonnière Vase of such romantic origins in "The Chocolate Box"? He was rarely without it. Like the famous swan cane.
Then there were the years with NO TV and no fun reading: but that's another story.
Lucky me today! The past few days, "In " for me - resting a toe-fix - I have just completed marathon viewing "Agatha Christie's Poirot" videos at Acorn TV ! I cried at the final story, "Curtain" then realized that our hero, Hercule, and his world, was not dead but sleeping - not "Sleeping Murder" as one of his mysteries was called, but sleeping mystery chum - and I could revive him at the click of my trackpad! Thank you Acorn TV ! Well Done!
David Suchet, the actor who played the role, spoke my thoughts, when he stated that the idea was to faithfully portray and that was certainly done so that Dame Agatha would be pleased if she could view the results. In fact, Ms. Christie's daughter found the David Suchet portrayals perfect, and said so ! Me, too! Thanksomuch for the immortality of it for us. And most of all thank you, David Suchet and the book he has written about the world-class achievement of the complete Hercule ! It is worth the read for fans !
They say that we immerse in someone else's mysteries to remain calm when we cannot work on my own, and get back to solving our own puzzles with renewed energies for it. Life! I am non-violent so I always wonder why it must be murder mysteries, then decide that the author feels that if it is not life and death, when it's only a story, and not real, we might not be interested.
I don't know: for me it has become part of grief recovery - before Hercule, the last time, it was Jessica Fletcher all 268 ( I think ) episodes , they helped when my Father died and now it's Mother at her last days and Poirot and Phryne Fisher - yay girls CAN! and when my FBI godfather passed, it was NCIS. Unique validity in it I guess :-D since, finding a thing to companion along during such testing times, is better than "biting the lifesaver' in it all.
Thank you three times, then!
There remain so many places in my life, where my reply must be: "It's still a mystery to me" ! Notes for my own mystery next? okay. I realize that I can actually solve a few of them - do you not agree, Captain Hesssteengs? Hein?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercule_Poirot_in_literature