The Little Thread Which Grew - the Apollo '73 to Everything But

[lkwdblds]

Right on Enthetan!

LRH policy makes this inevitable, by making it easy for sociopaths to openly be sociopaths (and yes I'm deliberately using the psych term rather than "SP"), as long as they can successfully intimidate others into producing stats.

The main policy that makes it inevitable is the "staff contract". In most places, employees can leave when they feel like. This places a hard limit on the amount of suppression that somebody can dish out before suddenly finding that he has no juniors left (or his manager getting rid of him before that point).

In a normal job, or volunteer position, the worker must receive a level of reward (whether in cash or personal satisfaction) that compensates for the hassles he faces, or he's gone. By eliminating the option of easily leaving, the Scn system ensures that conditions will stay ugly.

First, I want to thank the "theta twins' Enthetan and Thetanic. Thetanic has been making a lot of fine posts recently and I wish to acknowledge that. As to Enthetan's post above, you make just excellent irrefutible points. I was begining to see that Hubbard's Green on White Management Policy was flawed. I still thought until recently that it had a lot of truths in it and what it really needed was some fine tuning and a minor overhaul.

You just make excellent points about "physcho's" being empowered to crush people and there is even an LRH Policy to that effect saying that he uses uninhibited people who do wild and unpredictable things as the ones to send in to open up new territories or unstick Org's who have major stops lurking within them. Hubbard liked wild, unpredictable extroverts because they had not yet sold out to being pts to the "middle class".

]WHAT HUBBARD DID NOT ACCOUNT FOR IS THAT WHILE THESE PEOPLE ARE GOOD FOR AN INITIAL SURGE IN STATS, IN THE LONG TERM THEY WILL DESTROY BOTH STAFF AND THE ORG'S FIELD. IF THESE TYPES OF PEOPLE ARE TO BE USED, THEN AS SOON AS THEY UNSTICK AN AREAS STATS, POLICY SHOULD HAVE BEEN THAT THEY HAD TO THEN BE BROUGHT BACK TO BASE, DEBRIEFED AND THEN GO ON STUDY AND GET SOME LOWER LEVEL AUDITING AND JUST BE ON ALERT UNTIL THE NEXT TIME THEY ARE NEEDED

The bold type is an Epiphany (cognition) I just had in the middle of typing the paragraph. I could have figured this out for Hubbard and then forwarded it to him to claim as his own, but I was a "trouble maker". Better just to trash the degraded being, who doesn't go along 100% with the "party line" even though enormous recruitment energy was expended to get him to quit his job and join up with the elite and most ethical group on the planet! Pardon me, does anybody have a bag, I feel like I am going to throw up.

Your point of all the difficulties is equally well taken. In 1973 I figured out a way to shorten the run way. I went off the ship on the day they took libs event though I was not supposed to go. I just inserted myself into a large body of staff of 25 or so people and walked off with them. I went to the American Embassy and told the agent there that I had lost my passport. Immediatley the Apollo was ordered to give me back my passport and within 2 days I was on an airplane going home. I know that with today's heightened security this would be much harder to do but it can sometimes still be done. I just read some well known Scientologist who left C of S not long ago and he did it from the Freewinds, going down the mooring rope which connects the ship to the dock. He was able to get a temporary passport from the island country they were docked in. The Org had guys at the airport to stop him but he boarded the plane and they were not allowed on. When he landed in the USA, I believe there were staff there waiting for him and he eluded them as well. Maybe this was Marty Rathbuns' story, I think it was.

Lakey

 

[Blue Spirit]

Thank You

You have a gorgeous partner. No snivelling.

Thank you.

She is special, and was recently found to be a Natural Clear, which was of no surprise to me.

 

[SweetnessandLight]

Love these stories!

My body is WASP, but my thetan is Jewish. - that's one of the axioms, ron left out - Man is basically Jewish.

Where I went to school, most of the kids were Jewish. I didn't know this until I was twenty. I hadn't been raised with religion. My best friends were Jews. in first grade my best friend introduced me to the "Y."-- fifteen years later I recognized the humor in that.

My first business partner was very Jewish, and it got explained to me that Jewish wasn't Christian. That was a completely new concept for me. I thought I was the only non Christian.

So all the cheese blintzes, lox and bagels, gefilte fish, matzo ball chicken soup, that I had been eating wasn't a part of white middle class Wonder Bread America's diet. It was news to me.

A friend married a guy, who was a Scientologist. The guy was Jewish. She was a shiksa. He agonized over "the withhold" of telling her he was Jewish. He didn't even think twice about telling her about Scientology. Scientology changed her life. Marrying a Jew, had little effect whatsoever. People are funny.

Carmelo, This cracks me up, and is so true! Mark A. Baker and I both self-identify heavily with Jewish culture, and for me, the more mystic aspects of the religion, too. I think, scratch the surface of any metaphysical/mystical Christian and you'll find Jewish roots, no matter what the Genetic Entity is...

I think for anyone growing up in L.A. or the valley, the culture has impinged on you. Lakey, I remember Cantor's from my college days, but my all time favorite L.A. nostalgia restaurant is The Pantry. You can hold my wake there!

Does anybody else remember Clifton's Cafeteria? A favorite family regular outing when I was a child. Lionel Hampton used to play the vibes there (vibraphone). No wonder I grew up loving jazz, the blues, and rock and roll music!

I love this trip down memory lane. Cal Worthington's jingles are forever burned into my neurocircuts! Lakey-thanks so much for keeping this thread going and congrats on reaching 10,000 posts! Keep climbing!

Knott's Berry Farm has always had the best chicken dinners.

Carmelo, submarine races!!! Talk about nostalgia! Tee hee!

Those were simpler, more innocent times, in some ways.

One of the benefits of a life well-lived is lots of wonderful, fun, funny and heart-tugging memories and scenes to look back over. No harm at all in doing so, as long as one doesn't get stuck, and stays in the moment in present time as one is progressing through life's experiences.

All the radio stations and D.J.'s surely impacted and informed our collective consciousness, didn't they?

Maybe much as facebook, myspace and twitter are doing for today's youth.

Ted, what were you , an English teacher in a former lifetime!?! Don't turn into a grammer nazi on us, will ya? Let Carmelo have his romantic memories and tears in peace!

Thanks guys!

 

[Blue Spirit]

Good Story

Have you heard Dick Van Dyke's alternate name. He devised it so his friends would know it was him being referred to but salesmen or detectives would not know it was him. The alternate name comes from clever usage of "The Sexual Dictionary of the American English Language.

Sample: Dick van Dyke is referred to as Penis van Lesbian.

Carmelo, you know my whole trip is that I have an encyclopedic mind and I am awash in figures. You have a pretty good encyclopedic mind yourself! When I wrote, my first 5 pages of this thread in March I quickly obtained about 1900 hits and about 45 responses in less than 3 weeks and then the thread appeared to be dead. The responses completely stopped but the hits continued to grow to about 2200 and then they stopped. After participating on Vinaire's thread !Oh God!!, I saw how Vin got such high stats but his topics were much more encompassing than mine. I decided I needed to debrief not only my Apollo story but my CCLA story as well and I figured I could get raise my hits total up to 5,000 max with the reponses moving from 45 to maybe 90. Well the 5,000 Mark was reached in not much over a week. It was then that I decided that the topic of the old days at CCLA had "legs". It wasn't just the old timers who liked it but a lot of non Scientology researchers and a lot of young ESMB members were interested in reading about the old CC, the times, the people and the situations that arose. I believe there was some encompassment of the universal human condition being discussed here when an intelligent and sincere guy wanted nothing more than to donate his talents to this group and did everything in his power to be "honest and straight" and contribute to a group he was growing to love.

The Universal human trajedy appears and can be seen now for what it is: Joe Average, an unknown, almost a nobody except, for having more smarts than average, approaches a group who has helped him and wants to help them in return and gives up a well paying job and breaks his ass to contribute to this Organization he has come to love. What happens in return is a series of defeats, injustices, degradations and make wrongs. What is it about this group that makes it nearly impossible for good people to be allowed to help the group without being personally destroyed? Even Mother Teresa would have been unable to succeed here!!

Well, by page 11 of the thread, I had told my personal story and had told it well. I developed an already good writing technique and made it even better, much better. My story had been told and the hits were around 6200 and I announced that I was done for now. It was Sweetness and Light who wrote that I needed to continue writing my story, that I was not done yet. I tried starting another thread on Education and it was good, excellent posts from Ted, Olska and Roger B. among others and then it died out with about 1700 hits. I thought to myself, Sweetness and Light is right, I have more to say so let me say it on the Apollo 1973 site where the message is more universal and I already have a large base of readers. I set of goal of hitting 10,000 hits but did not think I had a chance of reaching that but thats were a lot of people came in and were doing most of the writing and I became more like a moderator for you other posters on the thread. Again things took off for a while but posts leveled off around 7900 or so. That is when I decided to add the best local eateries in the area. That idea was very popular and at about that time, you, Carmelo, became heavily involved and kind of expanded the restaurnat section and then added your posts on nostalgia. All I had to do was moderate as you and Ted and Blue Spirit and Terril did most of the posting. I would mainly comment on your posts and just throw a little something of my own in once in a while. You guys took it from there, especially you Carmelo and we hit 10,000 and beyond without breaking stride.

SUMMARY
1. I wanted to tell my personel story.
2. I wanted to tell people how CC got started and tell them who Yvonne was.
3. I wanted to show the bad side of Scn but also the good side
4. I wanted people to come to the conclusion that I could have been a valuable asset for C of S to have on staff and that they just threw me a way like a piece of garbage. I want people to realize it was not just me, but maybe there were 20,000 other potentially valuable assets that they just literally trashed. Imagine what C of S would be today with me and 20,000 others similar to me working flat out for them, doing good.
5. I want this thread to be the source to go to if anyone wants to find out anything about the CCLA of the 1970's
6. I want the thread to be portrayed as how the little guy with some talent is crushed, chewed up and spit out by Corporate Scientology. IT IS A THEME WORTHY FOR AN ARTHUR MILLER PLAY AND BOOK SUCH AS DEATH OF A SALESMAN.
7. Now, I want the thread to be a good place to go as a travel guide as to nostalgic points of interest in the City of L.A.
8. I want people to see that EVEN MOTHER TERESA WOULD HAVE BEEN RPFed IT SHE HAD JOINED!!
9. Finally, I want the thread to be known as honest and unbiased, where both good and bad things are equally emphasized and I want it to be thought of as a well written post very entertaining and enlightening to read.

With all those objectives and its universality, where it stopped being the story of one rank and file guy and emerged into something much bigger, it is interesting to see how we got to 10,000 hits starting with my story as an obscure guy on the Apollo some 36 years ago and expanding the thread to what it has become. I really thank Sweetness and Light for pushing me on to write more, saying I wasn't done with my story yet and that I, personally, soon to be 70 years old am still evolving, and Carmelo, for coming in more actively recently and verifying and correcting my accuracy and adding her personal touch, charm and knowledge into my mix.

As long as I have something valid to say and the thread is still growing and getting hits, I will stick around moderating it. If the thread peaks out, it can be inactive for a while and then be brought back in months or a year later and recycled through all the newer members as is being done with several of the major stories and threads right now.
Lakey

Lakey, you have done a very good job of it.

Your memory is quite something due to what ?

 

[Blue Spirit]

Cal Worthington

Blue - Hey, what's so griefy about singing a "Go See Cal" jingle. I know a being is trying to run time backwards instead of creating a future and of course there is truth in that.

What if I remember a green frog like puppet appearing after Smiling Ed Mc Connel says, "Plunk your magic twanger Frogie!" what harm can that do me, remembering "Frogie the Gremlin" saying "Hi ya kids, hiya, hiya " on the old Buster Brown and his Gang radio and TV shows back when I was a little kid and Marconi just constructed the first radio? There must be a difference between remembering something funny from the past past, and having grief because you miss the past and are sad it can not be brought back.
Lakey

I said recently to my wife that Cal Worthington must be a Marcabian Robot
to have kept going for so long in the same role.

He's a better car salesman than Les Dane was.

 

[OHTEEATE]

Andy Devine

"Plunk your magic twanger, froggie" was on the Andy Devine TV show. Froggie replied , after materializing in a flash of smike, "Hiya Kids, Hiya, Hiya". It was filmed at a theater in Cleveland. Then he would trick the magician, screw up his tricks, and get the magician so mad he would lunge at froggie, and hurt himself instead.

 

[OHTEEATE]

very important

http://www.froggythegremlin.com/ Ed McConnel preceded Andy Devine as Froggies MC/

 

[lkwdblds]

Sweet thanks for your take on things!

Carmelo, This cracks me up, and is so true! Mark A. Baker and I both self-identify heavily with Jewish culture, and for me, the more mystic aspects of the religion, too. I think, scratch the surface of any metaphysical/mystical Christian and you'll find Jewish roots, no matter what the Genetic Entity is...

I'm a Bavarian and Austrian thetan trapped in a Jewish body. I really don't have many Jewish characteristics except liking to read and study, which seems to be a strong characteristic of Jews. I can understand Yiddish and have a keen ear for Jewish humor. Are any of you Christian bodied, Jewish thetans old enough to remember Mickey Katz who took hit songs from the 50's and put Jewish type lyrics to them. They are so funny that they are amazing, but unless you were raised around Jews, you might not catch the humor. I don't look Jewish and usually people think I am Italian, Greek or Lebanese. Only the sharpest eyes can tell I am Jewish as this older Jewish man did at the train station in Breclav, Czech Republic last June when I took a train from Berlin to Vienna and had to change trains in Breclav. This older Jewish man walked right up to me in the station and said, you're Jewish aren't you? I was astounded and asked how he knew. He said he was a Jew and was raised around Jews all his life and that he can spot one a mile away.I

think for anyone growing up in L.A. or the valley, the culture has impinged on you. Lakey, I remember Cantor's from my college days, but my all time favorite L.A. nostalgia restaurant is The Pantry. You can hold my wake there!

My Dad used to frequent the Pantry a lot and told me the history of the place. Our family started going in the mid fifties when I was a teen ager. Huge plates of food for very low prices. In the 90's I participated doing home shows at the L.A. convention Center and the Pantry was only 2 or 3 blocks away on 9th and Figueroa, right? Somewhere in the 90's they moved just a few doors away to a bigger building and I went a couple of times to the new place but I have not been there in at least 10 years. What's the big deal? Where talking Jewish here and I don't believe the Pantry was in the least a Jewish restaurant.

Does anybody else remember Clifton's Cafeteria? A favorite family regular outing when I was a child. Lionel Hampton used to play the vibes there (vibraphone). No wonder I grew up loving jazz, the blues, and rock and roll music!

Of Course, Clifton's was my Grandma's favorite restaurant and she always wanted to take me to lunch and a movie. We did that 3 or 4 times. My grandma was born near Kiev Russia (in the Ukraine) in 1883, came to America in 1909 and lived all the way to 1989, one month before her 106th birthday. I remember in 1951 she took me to Clifton's and then to see a movie, "The Jackie Robinson Story". Grandma fell asleep. She spoke mostly Yiddish her entire life and I kind of picked it up trying to understand her. When I left the Sea Org and went to work for my Dad in Lakewood, there was a Clifton's Cafeteria in the Lakewood Mall and we ate their all the time.

I love this trip down memory lane. Cal Worthington's jingles are forever burned into my neurocircuts! Lakey-thanks so much for keeping this thread going and congrats on reaching 10,000 posts! Keep climbing!

Wasn't there a Ralph Williams Ford in the Valley who had a pet dog with him in all his commercials and he gave you 1000 S & H green stamps if you would come in just to talk to them. Johnny Carson picked up on old Ralph and started doing spoofs on him on The Tonight Show. In one very funny skit, Johnny was dressed like Ralph Williams with the same hair do and had a viscious Wolf next to him, called Fang, as his dog. Johnny said, Come on in and we will change all your fluids, check your dipstick, file your points and grease your rear end.....(Johnny hesitates) and then says with a straight face,"If you like it then next time you come in we'll do the same thing to your car!" He then stood next to an easel with a map of dozens and dozens of lines representing the L.A. freeways and he said, take this freeway and then transfer to that freeway and on and on for about 25 seconds and then he says, "We''ll give you 5,000 Green Stamps if you can just find the damn place.""

Knott's Berry Farm has always had the best chicken dinners.

It still does!

Carmelo, submarine races!!! Talk about nostalgia! Tee hee!

Those were simpler, more innocent times, in some ways.

One of the benefits of a life well-lived is lots of wonderful, fun, funny and heart-tugging memories and scenes to look back over. No harm at all in doing so, as long as one doesn't get stuck, and stays in the moment in present time as one is progressing through life's experiences.

For sure!

All the radio stations and D.J.'s surely impacted and informed our collective consciousness, didn't they?

Maybe much as facebook, myspace and twitter are doing for today's youth.

Ted, what were you , an English teacher in a former lifetime!?! Don't turn into a grammer nazi on us, will ya? Let Carmelo have his romantic memories and tears in peace!

Thanks guys!

Again, Sweetly, thanks for encouraging me to continue this thread after I stopped at page 11. I really enjoyed the last 18 pages. Having so many other people post is very exciting.
Lakey

 

[lkwdblds]

Ah, someone else who remembers Froggie

http://www.froggythegremlin.com/ Ed McConnel preceded Andy Devine as Froggies MC/

Great that you remember Froggie. In the days before today's high tech, I could never figure out how that got that Frog puppet to stand by itself and move around. There did not seem to be any strings or wires and the puppet was too small for a person, even a midget to be inside of it. Do you have any idea?

I started hearing it on radio around 1947 or 1948 when I was 7 or 8 and the old white haired guy smiling Ed Mc Connel was the host. I remeber some funny skits where an older woman was trying to talk to the kids in the audience about "Our Friend the Bee" and Froggie would confuse her and tongue tie her into saying stupid things. All his skits were along those same lines. It came on television around 1951 in L.A.. There was no coast to coast TV in those days and the show was probably put on in Chicago and showed via a recording, wasn't it called kinescope?, which physically had to be flown to L.A.

By the time Andy Devine took over it seems as if I was 15 years old and I would watch Andy do the show but by then I was too old for it and I only watched Andy do it perhaps 15 times whereas, I had heard or saw Smiling Ed do the show hundreds of times when I was was in elementary school.
Lakey

 

[Ted]

[...]

Ted, what were you , an English teacher in a former lifetime!?! Don't turn into a grammer nazi on us, will ya? Let Carmelo have his romantic memories and tears in peace!

Thanks guys!

I am still working on expanding my grade 0; I strive for clarity of communication if or when possible.

To that objective above, you might factor my penchant for laughing at myself, and getting others to laugh at themselves--if at all possible. Some people take themselves far to seriously. Call this my chosen level of randomnity.

As to any former lifetime, who cares? I am alive now.

 

[Terril park]

I am still working on expanding my grade 0; I strive for clarity of communication if or when possible.

To that objective above, you might factor my penchant for laughing at myself, and getting others to laugh at themselves--if at all possible. Some people take themselves far to seriously. Call this my chosen level of randomnity.

As to any former lifetime, who cares? I am alive now.

Got it.

Didn't the man say the world starts with TR 0?

 

[SweetnessandLight]

More blasts from the past...

Teddy, Boo-boo, we are communicating just fine here! Just gently teasing you, as I HAVE BEEN an English teacher in this lifetime and am trying hard not to be a nazi of any sort, especially when it comes to people's self expression or language useage. I'm totally in agreement with you in seeking clarity of communication.

I celebrate your ability to laugh at yourself, and to see from different viewpoints. I laugh frequently, myself!

Lakey, I am convinced that we have already crossed paths in life in our youth, somewhere in LA. Possibly at Cliftons, or the Pantry, or elsewhere while eating with our folks. I was that adorable pale blonde, blued eyed angelic looking little girl, who was too shy to speak to strangers, but would have observed you with a great deal of intelligent curiosity and would have pretended what it would be like if you were my older brother (something I always fervently wanted in life!)

Strangely enough, I can understand yiddish to an extent that surprises me. Only possible connection I can find is that my Grandmother was raised speaking a dialect of old Swiss-German, being a generation or two away from her Amish ancestors. She was raised in a Mennonite farming family. At the very end of her life, she started speaking it again, and I was always able to understand what she was saying, without consciously knowing that language. All I can figure is that Yiddish is very similar in some ways, and I have an ear for it. Maybe my Grandma spoke her first language to me when I was a baby and toddler, who knows? OR I am a Jewish Thetan in a Celtic-Swiss body???

The old Pantry was a cool place, good value for the money. Very New York style (before I knew what that was) where everyone sat at rectangular tables together. Strangers sat and ate together, to consolidate space and serve folks fast and efficiently. First time I ever experienced that.

Not sure about the current scene, but back in the day, all of the waiters were male, wore bow ties, and were allegedly all ex-cons! There was some very interesting energy and vibes there! I always think that, and the ambiance of the old Clifton's Cafeteria, is what made me love film noir and old LA style movies of the 40's and 50's so much as a teen-ager, totally out of sinc with most of my generation.

I vaguely remember Andy Divine tv show as a child. I remember my teen peers joking about "pluck your magic twanger, froggie". I honestly thought that my visual memories of a real froggie puppet associated with this was something I dreamed up. Now Lakey tells me it was a real thing...I'm astonished! Froggie was real! OT8, thanks for that link...my mind is boggled... This is for sure a baby boomer thing!

OMG! Green stamps! Most of my peers' homes were decorated with lamps, irons, etc. gotten with green stamps. Remember wise owl stamps?

 

[CarmeloOrchards]

Teddy, Boo-boo, we are communicating just fine here! Just gently teasing you, as I HAVE BEEN an English teacher in this lifetime and am trying hard not to be a nazi of any sort, especially when it comes to people's self expression or language useage. I'm totally in agreement with you in seeking clarity of communication.

I celebrate your ability to laugh at yourself, and to see from different viewpoints. I laugh frequently, myself!
I always think that, and the ambiance of the old Clifton's Cafeteria, is what made me love film noir and old LA style movies of the 40's and 50's so much as a teen-ager, totally out of sinc with most of my generation.

I vaguely remember Andy Divine tv show as a child. I remember my teen peers joking about "pluck your magic twanger, froggie". I honestly thought that my visual memories of a real froggie puppet associated with this was something I dreamed up. Now Lakey tells me it was a real thing...I'm astonished! Froggie was real! OT8, thanks for that link...my mind is boggled... This is for sure a baby boomer thing!

OMG! Green stamps! Most of my peers' homes were decorated with lamps, irons, etc. gotten with green stamps. Remember wise owl stamps?

In no particular order:

I remember Andy Devine as Jingles, Wild Bill Hickock's sidekick. The show you guys describe I have no memory of.

How about Blue Chip Stamps?

I still have a page or two of S & H Green Stamps.

I've always liked the detective novels and movies set in San Francisco and LA. Bogie as Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe. Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler books - I devoured them, the moment I discovered them back in the 60s and 70s. Sue Grafton writing about Santa Barbara is always a good read in these more modern days.

In regard to nazis, I've only seen Seinfeld three times. Two of the shows I saw were The Soup Nazi" episode.

SweetnessandLight, what do you do for fun now? and were you in ECO?

 

[lkwdblds]

In no particular order:

Ops,,,Double Posting here, same post twice in a row, I deleted the first one.....Lakey

 

[lkwdblds]

In no particular order:

In no particular order:

I remember Andy Devine as Jingles, Wild Bill Hickock's sidekick. The show you guys describe I have no memory of.

You are just younger than us! Accept it and enjoy it! Yes Andy was Jingles and Wild Bill was played by Guy Madison. In the opening film snip, every week, the two are riding their horses at top speed and Wild Bill pulls ahead of the overweight Jingles and Andy Devine yells out, "Hey Wild Bil, wait for me!".

How about Blue Chip Stamps?

Yep, they may have been bigger (had more of the market) than green stamps. When I first joined C of S in June, 1970, I donated 5 books of stamps to the L.A. Org becaus they were asking for donations for chairs for their Academy.

I still have a page or two of S & H Green Stamps.

Maybe there is a redemption center still open and you can cash them in for a new toaster! Just kidding. I wonder if they have any value as collectors items.

I've always liked the detective novels and movies set in San Francisco and LA. Bogie as Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe. Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler books - I devoured them, the moment I discovered them back in the 60s and 70s. Sue Grafton writing about Santa Barbara is always a good read in these more modern days.

I liked those too but not to the extent you do. LRH comments briefly about Dashiell Hammett being a writing genius on one of his tapes and says he knew him. How about Charley Chan and his number one Son? Jay Carol Nash played Charley and the guy who played the Son became quite famous but I can't remember his name.

In regard to nazis, I've only seen Seinfeld three times. Two of the shows I saw were The Soup Nazi" episode.

Seinfiled was a great show and I saw 2 Soup Nazi episodes. I like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" with Larry David better but probably that is becaue on HBO, they can swear and use vulgarity and don't have to be politically correct.

SweetnessandLight, what do you do for fun now? and were you in ECO?

Carmelo, the new picture of you in your Avatar is quite striking! You look as if you have German, Dutch or Scandinavian genetics, is that true? I recall seeing you, looking as you do in that picture around the Orgs quite often. It was not at CC but did you hang out at ASHO for awhile or AOLA. We never spoke but I noticed you and recognize the face. You were not the bubbly, giggly, easy to talk to type but had a fixed dedicated glare and a purposeful attitude if I recall correctly. Correct me if I am wrong.

On the show with Froggie the Gremlin, it was originally a Sunday morning kids' show on radio before TV came into existence and it was called something like "Buster Brown and his Gang." Buster Brown referered to the Shoe Co. who sponsored the broadcast for years. The opening snip which was played every week was this, "A dog barks 'woof' and a young boy's voice says, That's my dog Tige, he lives in a shoe, I'm Buster Brown, look for me in there too."

That refers to the picture of the boy and his dog which was on the heel inside every Buster Brown shoe. When I went to buy shoes with my Mom or Dad, I always wanted them to buy me Buster Brown but they never would do it. They said that Buster Brown shoes did not have a strong arch and would lead me to have flat feet. I tried every time to get them to buy that brand but they would never give in. God my parents were decent people. Always trying to do the right thing. Tomorrow I'll turn 70 years old and I really miss them - my Mom died of breast cancer in 1994 at age 79 and my Dad lived to 88 and died in 2002 from natural causes. Pops and I were very close at the end because I took over his business when I left the Sea Org in 1974.

NOSTALGIA ALERT - Remember buying shoes in the 40's or early 50' where we would stand on an x-ray machine which showed how one's feet fit inside the shoes. I think those were outlawed in the early 1950's because it was found that they were giving too big a dose of x-rays to people.

EARLY TV IN L.A. - In 1948, a friend of mine invited me over to his house to watch TV. His dad sold furniture and had just received an allotment of TV's to sell and took one home for himself. The first thing I ever saw was a tennis match featuring Pancho Gonzales. The screen was 10" or 12". In the begining there was only one channel, KTLA Channel 5. The only things that were on in the begining were mainly cowboy movies (mostly Hopalong Cassidy) and pro wrestling which was just as big then as WWE is now. There were at least 3 wrestling shows on every week, from the Olympic Auditoirum, the Ocean Park Arena in Venice-Santa Monica area and the Hollywood Legion stadium. Does anyone remember the announcer, the famous Dick Lane? He was so good and funny, he really put wrestling on the map in L.A.. He was so popular that Mulholland Dr. up in the hills separating L.A. central from the San Fernando Valley part of L.A. became known as "Dick Lane." This was because all the teen agers in L.A.high schools knew that if they wanted to go somewhere to make out that the two best places were a drive in movie or Mulholland Dr.. I think that Channel 9, called "Don Lee" television came in in early 1949 but it was not until late in 1949 when the major networks arrived on the scene. The CBS network was the first, with channel 2, initially called KTSL quickly followed by NBC who took over channel 4. the ABC network arrived a year or two later as Channel 7.
Lakey

 

[SweetnessandLight]

People Collected Blue Chip Stamps like they were Blue Chip Stocks!

Did Dick Lane announce wrestling on t.v.? Isn't he the one with a very distinctive "Whooooaaa, Nellie!" expression that he repeated often?

I think I barely missed the foot x-rays, or maybe my folks just wouldn't let me do it more than once or twice. I seem to remember "seeing" the bones of my feet, or someone else's, on a screen or monitor of some sort, which creeped me out. Maybe I watched my older cousins and neighbor's getting x-rayed. I think I even wore Buster Brown's. Did they make kind of clunky saddle shoes for kids?

Yes, blue chip stamps were bigger than big. I think we got them when buying groceries at our local store. People would have store loyalties according to whatever items they were trying to earn enough stamps to redeem in a catalog or store. I forgot that you could get furnature, too. Lakey, you have always been a kind, helpful and generous soul, I'm sure. The Org needed chairs...you are right, Lakey, about Corporate Scientology throwing away talented, helpful people.

I think Carmelo's left-over blue chip stamps are probably collectible for somebody on ebay, or somewhere.

No, Carmelo, I was never in ECO. I do a lot for fun, still an avid reader, enjoying reading and posting here on this site, love to garden, paint, creative stuff...lot of community work.

I think a young Key Luke played the number one son on the Charlie Chan movie series...I always liked the way Charlie Chan was so formal and proper, and the sons were so hip and American, and called him "Pop". Did you guys know that Earl Der Biggers, author of Charlie Chan books, based his character on a real life Chinese-American police detective in Honolulu, Hawaii, named Charles Chang? True fact.

 

[lkwdblds]

Comments

Did Dick Lane announce wrestling on t.v.? Isn't he the one with a very distinctive "Whooooaaa, Nellie!" expression that he repeated often?

That's the guy. He also had a movie career before wrestling and played Inspector Faraday in the Boston Blackie Detective Series on TV. Speaking of Yiddish, he was not Jewish but used a lot Yiddish expressions when calling the matches, such as "He gives him a "setz and a Klopf!", I guess a Klopf would be to club or smack someone and a setz would be where you lift a guy and drop him on his ass or, worse yet, his ass onto your knee.

I think I barely missed the foot x-rays, or maybe my folks just wouldn't let me do it more than once or twice. I seem to remember "seeing" the bones of my feet, or someone else's, on a screen or monitor of some sort, which creeped me out. Maybe I watched my older cousins and neighbor's getting x-rayed. I think I even wore Buster Brown's. Did they make kind of clunky saddle shoes for kids?

Yea, on the top of the machine there was a screen and you could look through it and see your foot and toe bones and how they fit in the shoes. I think it was a great invention but too back the rays were too harmful to keep it in use. I am sure Buster Brown made Saddle Shoes, they made just about everything for a kid would wear.

Yes, blue chip stamps were bigger than big. I think we got them when buying groceries at our local store. People would have store loyalties according to whatever items they were trying to earn enough stamps to redeem in a catalog or store. I forgot that you could get furniure, too. Lakey, you have always been a kind, helpful and generous soul, I'm sure. The Org needed chairs...you are right, Lakey, about Corporate Scientology throwing away talented, helpful people.

Amen. I like your point about store loyalties. I remember definitely when choosing between two stores, my parents would always take the one that offered the stamps. I developed that habit when I went on my own. I have always been kind, too kind, and I have been hurt financially and stung emotionally as a result but I have no one to blame but me. I opened up the very first page of this thread describing the Sea Org as inept and stated that I was astounding by the waste of manpower. When I was torn between Hubbard being nearly infinitely wise or being just a skillful con man, one of the things that started to sway me towards him being a con man was the way he went after recruits so hard and then after he would get somebody with some real abilities and skills, he would see to it that they were degraded and usually were trashed. That was my first big clue that Hubbard was not here just to Clear the Planet and save manking as he was claiming!

Can you imagine if a group of say 100 ESMB members picked out a product and started a Corporation, what we could achieve? We would probably be a Fortune 500 Company within 5 years! I know it wouldn't be easy, dealing with such diverse personalities, but it would be doable. Better yet, if we formed a self help group, it would take a lot of work to get it right but we could fashion something that would deliver on Scientology's initial promises or come pretty close. The powerful minds and talent are here on ESMB to do a self help group the right way. If I was in charge, I would call up Stacy Brooks Young and try and bring her in as a front line executive. I really admire her smarts and her courage!.

I think Camelo's left-over blue chip stamps are probably collectible for somebody on ebay, or somewhere.

No, Carmelo, I was never in ECO. I do a lot for fun, still an avid reader, enjoying reading and posting here on this site, love to garden, paint, creative stuff...lot of community work.

I think a young Key Luke played the number one son on the Charlie Chan movie series...I always liked the way Charlie Chan was so formal and proper, and the sons were so hip and American, and called him "Pop". Did you guys know that Earl Der Biggers, author of Charlie Chan books, based his character on a real life Chinese-American police detective in Honolulu, Hawaii, named Charles Chang? True fact.

I never heard of Luke before so I just Googled it and you are right. He is the primary player of the Number 1 Son. I was thinking it was someone more famous and came up with J. Carrol Nash but I Googled him and he is not listed as ever being in a Charley Chan movie.
Lakey

 

[CarmeloOrchards]

Drive Ins and Parking

We took a couple of our grandchildren to a drive in movie last summer. Now the drive in is gone. There are so few left - in the nation.

It was fun sneaking people in by putting them in the trunk and then having them crawl through the back seat area.

My friend, who ws a postal employee, had a kid come up to her one day. The kid said, "We saw you last night, at the drive in, my parents moved our car, I wanted to say hi" My friend the letter carrier had been bouncing up and down on the lap of her date.

I remember seeing "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" in the rain, getting shocked by the window speaker. The voltage powering those speakers was the real thing.

As for "parking," there was nothing so scary as cop knocking on your window wanting to see drivers licenses, especially when one or more were underage. It got even more interesting if there was the smell of a non tobacco cigarette in the air.--- and yes, it happened to me more than once.

Speaking of Drive Ins, I was at my favorite fast food joint yesterday. Guy Fieri had done an episode there (with Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives). There was a guy behind me, who had never been there. He had an app on his i Phone that listed the locations that Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives had been to for all the Foodies to find.

 

[CarmeloOrchards]

I can get it for you wholesale.

Yesterday at Lowe's, I got spring bulbs at 75% off. I bought $75 - which was nearly $300 worth last week. I'm jazzed. It felt like shoplifting. Such a deal!

My parents taught me the the value of money. We, as a family, usually bought big ticket items plus lots of other stuff, wholesale. There just was never any good reason to pay retail.

We've tried to get this concept over to our kids with mixed results. A friend found us a foreclosed house about ten years ago. We walked a son and daughter in law through the purchase. They both made bupkis at a photo store, but their rent was no different than the mortgage. A few years ago, they sold it for $500K more than they paid, and bought a house closer to us. We've showed them how to get cars at auction rather than from the dealerships.

Then there's the kid, who is about to be laid off. They rent a house in a nice neighborhood, and spend every dime they get. Their mini van is about to come to an end when the lease is up. I can't imagine spending $500 a month for a car. We've bought one car new ever. It was a Volvo, and, boy, was it a lemon. We unloaded it in under a year.

 

[CarmeloOrchards]

Hoppy and early TV

When I was a little kid I met Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and shook his hand. I shall never forget that. I had a Hoppy knife that I treasured. In one ski resort I go to, I can still get milk that is "Hoppy's favorite" - Producers Milk.

I loved the the westerns on early TV.

I grew up doing the things in life that I had seen on TV as a kid.

I ride horses; I don't use a saddle though.

I watched Sea Hunt, starring Lloyd Bridges, as a kid.

I took my parents to Marineland of the Pacific. When I was eighteen, I got certified for scuba. Our daughter dives with me when we're on vacation. One time we had just landed in Honolulu, planning on hopping over to Maui, the next day. We decided that we'd kill the afternoon by going diving. After getting down 90 or 100 feet or so, petting a moray eel, waving at the submarine passengers, and having a good time, we returned to the surface. We found that going from high altitude air pressure to deep water pressure in the space of a couple of hours was badddddd idea. We spent the next week in our hotel room watching the winter Olympics, and holding our ears and moaning. That's on the list of "never again."

Then there was the time we were at a premiere and I was talking to Lloyd Bridges. We were having a nice chat, then I mentioned that I had learned to scuba dive because of him. His eyes glazed over. He had heard that comment a million times too many. End of conversation.