Billy and Steve were in the Christmas spirit!  Billy had graduated high school and had not a real plan as to what to do with his life going forward.  He actually was so involved with church work and his regular 8am – noon job at the furniture store…that there was little time for thought and planning.  Billy had struck out on his own without a job and with little visible means of financial support.  In fact for the ‘Board’ portion of ‘Room and Board’ he was sleeping in the church.

Steve had left home and hearth as well and seeking gainful employment.  He was a good natured person with a constant mischievous smile on his face!  Billy had hailed from El Dorado, Illinois and had invited his buddy to spend the Christmas holiday with him at his mom and step-dad’s home.  They were both excited about not only the prospect of a holiday adventure but also the ‘horn of plenty’ of Christmas food that would be at their disposal throughout the four day stay!

So, they began the fifty mile trek in Steve’s vintage Chrysler.  When I say vintage I mean from the 1940’s!  Steve turned the ancient dial of the car radio…with only static emanating from the speakers…until magically Christmas in the country came through loud and clear.  They were driving down route #14 through Old DuQuoin and Christopher, Illinois when they decided to stop at one of their favorite restaurants, Mr. Snack, that had the most delicious Italian Beef sandwiches that they had ever tasted!

As they drove by the gothic house, outside El Dorado, that had Christmas lights strung in vertical lines from the roof to the ground and accompanied by one candle in each of the twelve windows…it reminded them more of Halloween than Christmas.

When they arrived at the country cottage they found that the Christmas Coffee Cake had been prepared and the three foot Christmas Tree was erected as well as colorfully wrapped presents under, or around, the Tanenbaum!

The roast beef was in fine flavor!  Demetrius was spinning one Christmas yarn after another…with only a break for his favorite holiday beverage…Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer!  While Billy’s step-dad drank his Pabst, out of the bottle only, beer…Steve and Jane and Billy relished some fine Burgundy wine!

Billy had been paying off a lovely nature painting that his boss at the furniture store had allowed him to buy, at the store’s cost and pay for at five dollars per week.  It was simply the most lovely faux painting that Billy had ever laid his eyes upon!  Billy liked the art work so well that he purchased one for his mom and one for himself!

Billy’s mom called Steve her son and Steve referred to her as, Mom.  The coal stove in the Kitchen was running red hot!  It was so warm that Billy felt the hairs in his nostrils curl from the heat!

Johnny Carson was playing on the new color television and sleep was quickly overtaking the Christmas Eve revelers with their stomachs full of coffee cake and wine and Pabst.  Each person said their goodnights and shuffled to their bedrooms while Bing Crosby sang on the radio, White Christmas.

Christmas Eve night was unusually blustery!  The wind whistled and blew as snow and ice pellets hit the windows and roof.  Billy peered though swollen eyes out of the doorless bedrooms that were in his former home…and saw what appeared to be a golden light as he heard the wafting sounds of the Christmas carol, O’ Little Town of Bethlehem.  Billy thought little of the peculiar sights and sounds and speculated that he had too much Burgundy!

Christmas morning Jane called out for Billy and Steve and Demetrius to hurry out of their bedrooms to see what she was seeing!  Dominating the dining room was a seven foot live Christmas Tree with a multitude of brightly wrapped gifts under it!  As each person waddled out of their slumber there was Jane handing them a gift.  Steve opened his and inside there was the promise of a new job at Southern Illinois University!  Billy was amazed that he had the same promissory note in his red wrapped gift!  Demetrius was promised a renewed love for the Bible and a happy and peaceful retirement!  Jane was promised a life well into her 80’s with, always, someone to love and care for her!

Often…we are living our Christmas gift…and do not realize it!

Billy Bump was looking for friends.  He had watched the dynamic of friendship throughout his life and he understood that to have a friend a person must be a friend!  Although the statement seems profound in it’s simplicity…it carries a lot of weight.

Billy, as a youngster became friends with Jeff.  Jeff is Jewish and taught Billy many Jewish traditions and introduced him to Kosher foods and was an all around mensch!  Billy was honored to speak at one of Jeff’s business meetings a few years ago in the United Kingdom.  He enjoyed reminiscing about he and Jeff’s over 40 years friendship and his admiration for all that Jeff has accomplished!

Billy, through his analysis, had found that the best friends are those who like you for yourself and not what you can do for them.  Friendship was not conditional nor subject to financial or political or religious affiliations.  Friends seemed to be people that were in to you because of something they saw in your actions or words or spirit that they could relate to!

Jim was a friend.  He was African American and he treated Billy like a son!  He mentored him and he looked out for him and gave him his start on his new carer.  Jim was a pleasant and gregarious man who could spin a yarn with the best of them while  simultaneously smoking a large cigar and the, ‘smoke encircling his head like a wreath,’…with apologies to W. Clement Moore!

Jewel was a jewel!  She counseled Billy on many occasions and was a wise friend!  She was a natural leader and those who worked with her respected her fairness.  Jewel cared about people first, whatever their race or ethnicity, and had a Solomon like approach to knotty problems and dilemmas.

Salman from Malaysia and Solomon from Nairobi were vital teammates to have in difficult situations.  Their kind hearts and perseverance were without measure!

Christian, from Ghana, told Billy one time that all of the international students on the campus of SIUC wanted to work with him…because he had no prejudice.  Billy told me recently that this remains the single greatest compliment that he has ever received!

Billy had grown up with primarily white friends.  He had never known African Americans or people from Africa or Malaysia or Turkey or Iran.  One of the greatest blessings that he had ever received was to be accepted and be friends with people from all over the world!

One of the significant life lessons that Billy had learned was that the diversity of the humans that we share our planet with…is an essential ingredient of enrichment for all that we partake of!

‘I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.’    Martin Luther King, Jr.

‘Hurry Jose, it is almost time for our guests,’ said Juanita!

‘I am ready accept for putting on my shoes,’ replied Jose.

‘Jose, when you are finished putting on your shoes please check on the beef tartar and the asparagus, asked Juanita?

‘Raul and Esmerelda, please set the table and open the front and back doors to the great hall so that we will have a good flow of cool air for our dinner, said Jose.’

Juanita  thought of how much she liked Pam and Clark.  They were both such sweet and kind people!  Pam was always helping with school functions and Clark coached the little league baseball team that both Raul and Esmerelda were on.  Suddenly there was a knock on the door of the parlor and when Juanita opened it and there was her order of fresh Maine lobster that she had overnighted, at some significant expense, in order for her guests to enjoy some true surf and turf!

 

The sun was setting in all of it’s magnificent splendor, over the Franklin Mountains.  The evening sky was resplendent with various hues of red and purple and orange!

 

Clark stuck the small holster of his hand gun in the back of his pants and placed the Glock within it.  He draped his loose fitting Hawaiian shirt over the top of it and it was indeed, conceal and carry.  Pam asked him why he felt the need to carry his Glock tonight when all they were doing was going to their friends house for dinner?

Clark replied that he had not felt safe since the collapse of the stock market in 2019.

‘Is Abigail ready to go,’ asked Clark?

‘She has been in the shower for twenty minutes…I will go upstairs and check on her, replied Pam.’

‘I will be out in a minute, Mother,’ yelled Abigail!

‘Let’s take our Monopoly Game’, Pam said in a pleading voice?’

‘I would prefer that we take Stratego, Clark said quietly.’

The thirty-minute car ride to Jose and Juanita’s was uneventful and the streets were unusually quiet.  Clark enjoyed listening to MSNBC and turned the dial to it’s location.

The satellite radio was a full of static but he thought that he heard that Illinois was g—, and he looked at Pam and asked her if she had heard what he thought that he had heard?  Pam said that all she heard was Illinois and the letter ‘g’.

When Pam and Clark drove up the long brick driveway of Jose and Juanita their heart’s were warmed by the image of their friends standing in the doorway of the great hall and waving to them as they pulled their Mercedes to a stop.

Out ran Esmerelda and Raul to greet Abigail and they hugged each other with a childlike glee!

 

As the adults sat in the parlor Juanita took drink orders.  ‘I will have a Dirty Martini with vodka straight-up, intoned Clark.’

‘A Negroni for me,’ Pam said with a smile.

For Jose and Juanita it was their usual gin and tonic.

‘Clark, do you miss Carbondale, Illinois,’ asked Juanita?

 

‘You know…I do…I miss the peaceful campus of Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale.  There was such a serenity and beauty to the surroundings with two woods on campus and the Shawnee National Forest just a few miles down the road.  Many nights we walked to dinner at the Chicago Underground restaurant that was adjacent to the campus and the small city of Carbondale had a college culture and vibe that was conducive to a happy lifestyle,’ said Clark in a voice that was reminiscent of the white middle class of the 1950’s.

‘While Clark taught psychology, I taught history, and we both looked on with a quizzical wonder and some unabashed humor at the daily mistakes and lies of the president of our country,’ Pam sighed.

‘I recall thinking that no matter what happens in one or two terms of a presidential administration…it will be repaired by succeeding presidents!  Why…it always had in the past and our Constitution was too strong to be hijacked by a rueful clown, Clark whispered.

‘In 2025 we were both asked to join president Obama, who had by a change in the Constitution been granted another two terms of office, to come to Washington to attempt to bail water out of the sinking ship of state,’…but it was too late…said Pam.

Obama had put out a clarion call for the brightest and best from academia to work in a think tank of ideas on how to survive as a country!

‘For a time, a couple of years, it appeared that things were improving.’  ‘People of good-will were uniting from across the nation…until the dirty bomb was set off in Manhattan…and things only worsened from that point,’  Clark said slowly…with tears in his eyes.

When the president went missing…all hope for change…was lost!

Juanita told Pam that she had missed her at church this past Sunday.  Whereupon Pam replied that she had been attempting to contact her mom in Chicago…but were not successful.  The telephone system had been in disarray since the presidential election in 2020.  Land lines were all but nonexistent and cell phones were reminiscent of the old television commercials that had the tag-line, ‘can you hear me now?’

‘Well…tonight we have a special treat for our friends,’ said Jose with a sly grin.

‘I know what it is mama…the Maine lobsters, Esmerelda shouted!’

‘I think that it must be the beef tartar,’ Raul exclaimed with a laugh!’

‘I would be happy if my I Phone would start working, ‘Abigail bemoaned!

Jose said that the police had visited him at his office a Ford Motor Company and had asked him what information that he could assist them with regarding United States illegal aliens.  He told them that he did not know any U.S. illegals but that he was good friends with some wonderful expatriates of the United States that had immigrated to Mexico after the Great War.

Pam said, ‘Clark went to the immigration office and displayed all of his and the families papers that proved that they were legally displaced refugees of the nuclear holocaust that had happened in the United States in 2027.

After the obliteration of much of the west coast and New York city and Washington, fear gripped the hearts of people across the country!  The scientific data regarding radiation was that the half life of terminal danger to humans was 80 years.  Although Clark and Pam had both been in the President’s administration…little help had been available to them after the bombs fell!

Juanita looked up and there were several police officers standing in the great hall.  They commanded Clark and Pam to stand up and place their hands behind their back.  One of he burly officers grabbed Abigail and threw her against the wall!  Her forehead began to bleed profusely!

Clark reached for his Glock and pointed it at the officer that had hurt his daughter!

Three other Mexican police aimed their long guns at Clark and shot him dead!

Pam and Abigail were taken into custody and placed in cages in an Illegal Alien Detention Center in Juarez, Mexico.

 

Did I mention that Billy Bump’s dad had a Harley Davidson motorcycle?  It was the jumbo model from the early 1960’s!  The beast, as Billy called it, was able to comfortably carry dad and mom and Billy, in the middle of them.

Now Billy’s father was not just into his Harley…he had the leather jacket and motorcycle hat and he carried a concealed hand gun, that he did not have a permit for, and he did not seek trouble…but he was on a hair trigger ready for it should it find him!

Billy’s dad enjoyed jazz music.  He would listen for hours to Billie Holiday sing…while he had a far-away look in his eyes.  Billy’s father had fought in World War II in the Pacific Theatre.  He had seen action on Okinawa and refused to speak about what he had witnessed.  He had left a wavy haired boy…and had returned a troubled man!

Billy’s dad enjoyed watching the television program Gunsmoke and refused to miss it, on it’s weekly showing.  He also enjoyed the TV show, Combat, with Vic Morrow and the, Untouchables, with the actors Robert Stack portraying the Chicago Prohibition police officer Elliot Ness.

Jefferson Brooks did not talk much about his family…and so when they all arrived in a packed automobile, one morning, Billy wondered who the strangers were that had driven into his driveway?  Out came Jefferson’s father, William, and his sister, Lois, and William’s mother who was a full blooded Cherokee Indian.

Billy’s mom, Jane, told Billy to give his grandpa and his aunt and his great grandma a hug and a kiss!  Billy thought, where did these unusual people come from?

Billy’s dad’s folks had driven from California to visit and Billy wondered how they lived in California when all that he had ever heard was that dad was from Ashley, Illinois?

Grandpa William announced that he did not bathe due to the fact that he had bad nerves!

Great grandma, as this is all that Billy ever heard her called, smiled at Billy and sat him on her lap…but did not speak.

Aunt Lois continually hugged and kissed Billy and told him how much that she loved him…and he thought…who is this.

After a few days in the Chicago Heights Billy’s dad proclaimed that they were going to take a motorcycle/car trip to Southern Illinois to have a reunion with his family and Jane’s family in El Dorado, Illinois.  About 300 miles from their house.  Jefferson and Jane and Billy would ride the Harley and the California Clan would ride in their car.

So the reunion journey began early on a Friday morning.  Billy was bedecked in a small version of his dad’s leather coat and a replica of the motorcycle hat that he wore.  Grandpa had been talked into a sponge bath and great grandma was smiling.  Aunt Lois had kissed Billy on the head…and Billy thought…who is this woman?

As the trip progressed Billy fell asleep and he was in the old west and the Harley and the car from California was surrounded and there were both Indians and cowboys and great grandma was conversing with the Indians.  She was telling them that we were alright and that we were her family.  Billy’s dad was showing his gun to the cowboys and they were displaying their guns to him.  Grandpa William…suddenly pulled out of his coat pocket…a muzzle loader long gun and proclaimed that in his day this was the best firearm in the land!

As Billy shook he awakened to his mom asking him if he needed to go pee?  And he thought…what about the Indians and the cowboys and the muzzle loader?

It turns out that that gas station of that day was one of those that had a sign that proudly proclaimed, ‘Eat Get Gas.’…and the Bump family eagerly entered for fuel for machine and body alike!

Billy spied a paperback book about the adventures of Daniel Boone and he asked his dad if he could have it.  As dad was purchasing the book Billy considered that the adventure was deepening and he was excited!

As he was eating, Billy noticed the most lovely young girl sitting at the next table over from him.  He subsequently jumped down and sashayed over to her and stuck out his hand and said, I am Billy Bump and although I am only six years old…I am much more mature than my chronological age.

The raven haired beauty replied that her name was Robin that she had been watching Billy ever since he entered the restaurant.  She said that she was seven but that she liked younger men!

Billy Bump’s heart raced at the words of Robin, the vision of loveliness!

Suddenly Billy heard mom’s stern voice telling him to not bother the nice people and for him to return to the table and finish his lunch!

Billy thought…what would Daniel Boone do?

Note: Photos are courtesy of Google.

We visited Bath, Maine at the end of May, and we met some enthusiastic Mainers!

We first stopped in at a lovely little store that had a plethora of items created in Maine.  They had the most comfortable bar stools that I have ever sat on…and there was no bar…or beer!  They also had an assortment of long narrow paintings of ocean scenes from Maine that were both intriguing and which fit nicely above a doorway.

But, what made this store in Bath so special was the wonderful woman who waited on us!  Her excitement and energy and total buy-in to the items that she was showing us and her demonstrated love for Maine…was compelling!  If you entered the store with no particular desire to purchase something, this resident of Maine would have you wanting to participate in the Maine experience before you left her establishment.

While we in the wonderful Maine Emporium our friendly personal shopper told us about the first Brewery that had ever been in Bath being recently opened across the street.  We determined that after we had finished traversing the shops and bookstores and art galleries on the right side of the street, that we would return on the left side and stop in the new brewery!

Shortly after entering a art gallery a gentleman came in that had the most wonderful Maine accent that I had heard.  He was distributing placards advertising summer events that were up-coming in Bath…and he was dedicated and excited about performing his job in a professional manner!

Soon we found ourselves in the first brewery of Bath!  The young woman who greeted us and seated us and waited on us appeared to be totally immersed in her job!  Such was her enthusiasm that if she had told us that she was the owner, I would have believed it!  She explained the various beers that were being offered and brought us samples of some to ensure our sampling delight.  She also suggested different areas and locales, in Maine, that we would enjoy visiting.  Our Brewmaster/Host made our visit to her Brewery enjoyable and memorable!

The night that we arrived at Ocean Point View in Boothbay, Maine, we checked in with a woman who appeared to know every nuance of the ocean view cottages and cabins.  This woman lived and breathed Ocean Point View…and her enthusiasm was contagious!

All to often we think that if we are not the CEO of the company that we work for…it is someone else problem.  How often have you heard the statement, ‘that is above my pay grade!’

I spent my career working in housekeeping at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale, Illinois.  From the evening of October 10, 1978, my first day of employment, until today SIUC is my University!  I had the honor of working alongside of Building Services staff and Grounds staff and many members of the civil service community that loved their University!

When a student needed assistance a person was there to help them and assist them and find the answers that they needed at the University that they had dedicated their lives to, and that person was a member of the civil service staff!

Buy-in…how about total immersion in the success of their school…that is why the enthusiasm of Maine made me so happy and content and enthused…it made me think of my SIUC!

 

Note: Some photos of Bath, Maine are courtesy of Google.

Billy Bump had been drawn to faith since he was a nine year old attending Bible School at the Christian Church.  He had walked the four blocks, and around the corner to the little brick church each day of the week long program.  Other than a cursory contact with church, Billy had never thought much about the multitude of enjoyable facets of a life of attending church!

On the last day of the Bible School they were studying Moses and Jesus and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration found in the New Testament.  Billy had been a bit of an introvert for a few years, especially after his mom and dad divorced, but he suddenly felt like answering the teacher’s question regrading what had happened on the Mount?

As Billy began to speak he felt a presence helping him to talk regarding the Bible story.  When he had completed his remarks the instructor said that she had never heard a better explanation of the Mount of Transfiguration story and that Billy should consider becoming a preacher!

Billy left Bible School that day and sang the actor, Sidney Poitier’s, song from the movie that he stared in, ‘Lilies of the Field,’ where in a scene from the film he sang the song, ‘Amen!’  Billy felt warm inside…and happy….and a desire to be closer to God!

A few years later the church that Billy was now attending was planning on traveling to Topeka, Kansas for a Campground Meeting that would be held over five days and nights.  Now, this was common in Billy’s childhood days…but is not unheard of today…as there is a large Tent erected outside of Carbondale, Illinois for the purpose of a Revival!

Billy asked Carl to attend and he was delighted to do so!  Also attending were Jimmy and Doug and John and Ronnie and Steve, and many more.  When the church bus arrived at the Topeka Campground it was apparent that it was a full complex of dormitories and buildings for meetings and a sanctuary and a full cafeteria.  Billy had little earthly goods but he felt as if he was the richest young man alive when he woke the first morning in the men’s dormitory and felt the chilly air emanating from the large widows with no screens, but rather wooden shutters to close them.

He arose to a cold shower and a trip to the cafeteria and some of the most delicious breakfast that he have ever eaten!  Did I mention that Billy’s future wife was there…but she did not realize it at that time?

Billy was excited about hearing Reverend Milford Hazelip preach and teach regarding the eschatology of the earth.  Billy had witnessed Rev. Hazelip’s preaching in his local church and had marveled at his quite and powerful delivery of scriptures supporting the coming of Christ.

Now, the church bus was a former school bus…and it was extremely bumpy!  Billy’s good friend, Steve, substituted for the regular bus driver, Jim, who was like a second father to Billy.

Jim had been an over the road truck driver and he loved the experience!  Jim explained to Billy the vagaries and nuances of trucking and knew, by sight, every good resturant in the midwest and south of the United States!

Billy considered, even up until today, that there is a genuine and intrinsic reality to the faith of so many who do not have the benefit of a minister who has been educated in the elite of seminaries.  There is a bedrock simplicy in calling on Jesus and asking for his help and his succor and his promise of relief for the downtrodden!

Billy often heard, Raul and his sister, Nancy, sing, ‘I Don’t Know Why I have To Cry Sometimes.’ and the power of the Holy Spirit would fill the sanctuary!  Billy understood that any offering to God, from the heart of the supplicant, was precious!

So Carl awoke one morning at the Campground and announced that he had seen an angel!  He went on to describe a woman who was dressed in white from her head to her feet and who had came to the dormitory in the middle of the night and told him to be of good courage because his prayers would be answered!  Carl was not only quite enthused but he subsequently announced, later that afternoon, ‘he is here, referring to God!

So, Billy inquired of Carl what he had been referring to when he said that the angel had told him that his prayer had been answered and Carl responded that, I have been praying for my mother to recover from her grief of loosing my dad to a massive heart attack last year.’

When Carl returned home to El Dorado he told Billy that his mom was in much better spirits and had told him that God had told her that she would see Carol again!

 

Note: Photos courtesy of Google.

It was another 4th of July at the Bump home.  Each Independence Day was somewhat similar to the one that preceded it!  Illinois had laws prohibiting the purchase of the ‘good’ fireworks!  In their place were the black buttons, that upon being lit by a match…extended out to form a semblance of a black snake, and they were therefore called snakes.  Or there were the, lame and safe, Sparklers that had colored and harmless light expelled from them after they were lit, and you held them with your hand.

You could not buy firecrackers in El Dorado.  They were Billy and Carl’s favorite 4th pastime!  When you lit the wick and subsequently threw them…they made a magnificent loud bang!  If you lit the entire pack…it was exciting and loud and Billy had been told that the person taking the risk to light the pack…could loose a finger or more!

There were community fireworks at the Starlight Drive In.  Now for those of you that do not know what a Drive In is, it is a I Max Screen outside that you pull your automobile up to and place a large heavy metal speaker on your car widow…to listen to the audio of the film.  At the Drive In…’The Fifty Foot Woman’…was really fifty feet tall!

At the Starlight Drive In in El Dorado the cartoon that was shown before the movie was, ‘The Pink Panther.’  The Pink Panther was a cool cat, and the music, performed by Henry Mancini and his orchestra, was delightful!  There were times that I enjoyed the Pink Panther cartoon more than the main attraction!

Billy had never been to the Starlight to see the annual Fireworks…he had been to his Grandma Grace’s home in Beulah Acres…that if you sit on her front porch…and it was good and dark…you could see the ones that rose high in the sky!

Billy could not help but notice that when he and his mom and his cousins, Harry and Linda, arrived at the Drive In…once the sun started setting and the moon began to shine…truck lids across the Drive In Lot…began to open!  Then…much to his surprise and similar to Dracula opening his coffin and arising from the dead…people exited their automobiles’ trunks rapidly and in an expert fashion!

So, Demetrius announced that he had procured, in Missouri, some Roman Candles and some Cherry Bombs and that this 4th of July was going to be special!

As dusk began to settle over the Bump home Billy and Carl were enjoying their sparklers and snakes and a few, bogus, firecrackers that they had obtained on the firecracker black market!

Carl asked Billy, ‘do you think that Demetrius will let us light the Roman Candles?’

Billy responded that, ‘he planned on lighting a candle and a cherry bomb and a full pack of firecrackers…before the holiday was over!’

Now Demetrius was a conigseaur of fireworks…after all he had been in the Korean War…and he understood ordinance!

Billy Bump had seen, ‘It Came From Outer Space’, at the Starlight Drive In with his cousin Harry and it had been on the 4th!  Jane did not realize that Billy and Harry were at the Drive In.

Billy, vividly remembered the movie as Demetrius invited him to light a Roman Candle.  He recalled the fiery crash of the flying saucer in the movie…and suddenly the Roman Candle brought fourth its’ terrible brilliance!  The explosion knocked him back on his feet and wondered, for a moment, if the force had hurt him.  Carl called out, ‘let her rip…Billy!’

The sky was awash with the brilliant colors of the Roman Candle!  There was blue and green and red flashes of light!  And, Billy thought…this is the best 4th of July ever!

 

‘Billy, would you like to go to the theatre and see the new Disney Movie, ‘Lady and The Tramp,’ said Jane?  It was October 24, 1961 and Billy Bump was four years old and John F. Kennedy was the new President of the United States of America!

Billy heard his mom and dad excitedly speaking about JFK…and he thought the this might be the new President?  They believed that he was a breath of fresh of air and the now the country was going to move ahead.  JFK had extolled the nation to, ‘ask not what your country can do for you…but ask what you can do for your country!’

Lady had its’ world premiere, in 1955, in Chicago…but it was still playing when Billy Bump and Danny and Paulie and Steve and Susie and their mom, Ivy, attended on October 24th…Billy’s 4th Birthday!

Billy could not believe all of the hustle and bustle of the Chicago street that the Biography Theatre was on!  The, brilliant, lights of the theatre illuminated the marquee announcing to the world that, ‘Lady And The Tramp,’ was being shown!

When Billy sat down on the plush theatre chair and the lights went down and the cartoon before the movie, came up, he was in heaven!  There were Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse in all of their, hand drawn, animated splendor!

Then, the feature began.  Billy looked down the row of friends and mom and Ivy and mom smiled back at him with that wide eyed expression that she had, had when he asked her if there really was a devil and she had replied, ‘what if I am the ‘Old Hang?’  Billy had burst into tears and mom had apologized to him…but, nevertheless, there was the same, spooky, look!

About the time of Tramp reminding Lady, ‘that when a baby moves in a dog moves out,’ Billy was in the movie!

Billy was a Brown Boston Terrier, called Wallace T.  Now when the Italian Restaurant scene began and Lady and the Tramp were eating the, mutual strand, of spaghetti…just before their lips met, Wallace appeared between them and bit the strand in half…causing them both to kiss him!

‘Billy…Billy…Billy,’ said Jane as she shook gently shook him.  Suddenly he realized that he had dozed off and was still in the plush seat and he got another fist full, four year old size, of popcorn…and Susie held him on her lap.

Billy thought of JFK and Wallace T. and the excitement of the Theatre and…Lady!

Note: Photos of  Lady and the Tramp and JFK are courtesy of Google.

Billy Bump was excited!  It was Friday after Thanksgiving and it was time to do all things Christmas!  Billy and his mom had just moved to West Street in El Dorado.

Times had been somewhat hard, financially, for Jane and Billy.  They were renting from Jane’s sister, Gertrude, and she was a good landlord!  Gertrude would often stop by with soda pop and some garden vegetables.  Billy enjoyed the pop and tolerated the veg!

However, Christmas was coming and all routine worries and cares melted away in the face of a visit from Santa Claus!  Now, Billy was a fan of Santa since his days in Chicago.  His mom and dad, before they moved and divorced, had given him a Laughing Santa for one of his first Christmases!  Billy loved Laughing Santa and when he came out of Christmas storage…everything was right again!

Laughing Santa had was about a foot tall and he had the most mischievous grin on his plastic face.  He was dressed in red accept for a white fur piece adorning the front of his outfit.  On his back was a crank with a red handle whereupon when Billy cranked it…Santa laughed uproariously!  Laughing Santa was Christmas, to Billy, more than the aluminum Christmas tree that Jane pulled out of it’s Montgomery Ward box at the beginning of each season and Billy aided in placing the metal, glistening, tree limbs in the holes that were in the ‘Festivus” pole!

Now the majestic aluminum, ‘Festivus’ tree was accompanied by a blue and red light that was plugged in and was pointed at the Tanenbaum!  So, the tree was either blue or red depending on which area of the colored plastic lens that was being illuminated by the light bulb.

A few months ago Billy and Jane had traveled to the Beulah division of El Dorado to visit Jane’s mother, Gayle and her sisters, Winona and Gertrude and Venus.  While they were there the subject of Christmas and Santa Claus had arisen.  Venus asked Billy, ‘you don’t still believe in Santa Claus…do you’  with an incredulous air of superiority!

Jane spoke up in and anxious and angry voice and said, ‘of course he does and don’t you say anything to dissuade him of his belief!’

Winona laughed and said, ‘why I told Harry and Linda that there was no Santa when they were much younger than Billy!’

Gertrude added, ‘let him believe in Santa a little longer…what is it going to hurt anyway?’

Soon the realization came to Billy that he had been scammed…hoodwinked…hornswoggled!  And he was disillusioned!  Billy announced to the ‘witches coven,’ ‘that perhaps Santa was not real but he knew that the Easter Bunny was!’

Then they all laughed and Jane told Billy to get his coat because they were leaving!

It was a week until Christmas and Jane had told Billy to see if Carl could come over tomorrow evening because there was going to be a huge Christmas surprise!  Billy, subsequently, asked Carl if he could come and Carl’s dad drove him over the following day.

Billy was telling Carl what had happened to him at his grandma’s house when he and Jane were visiting.  He mentioned that his evil aunts had told him that Santa was not real.  Carl replied that he had a list of gifts that he had spoken to Santa about, at the Sears and Roebuck store…and he was certain that he not only was real but that he expected the gifts!

Suddenly…there was a loud knock at the door of the little red house on sixth street!

On the porch was Santa Claus smoking a meerschaum pipe.  There was a wreath of smoke encircling his head.  And, if you will forgive my borrowing from W. Clement Moore, ‘had had a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly!’

Carl had the most enraptured grin on his face and Billy laughed with delight.  Santa was there, in his home…to see him personally…and his aluminum tree with the ‘Festivus Pole’ in the middle!

Santa inquired as to what they wanted for Christmas and told them that they had been good little boys and that Jane had been a good girl!  Billy notice his mom’s gleeful laughter and the delighted look that she had!

Santa went on to say that he had heard that people were trying to convince Billy the he was not real…and he assured them that he was not only real but that he had travelled from the North Pole just to see them and prove his validity!

Before Billy and Carl and Jane knew what was happening…Santa was gone…and none of them saw him leave or get up from the couch!  All that was left was the wreath of pipe smoke and Laughing Santa…who was laughing uproariously!

 

Note: Photos are courtesy of Google.

 

Billy Bump enjoyed Babysitting!  Now, he did not babysit…but he enjoyed being babysat by his cousin Linda!

Linda was Harry Hayes sister…and Billy’s favorite!  If the truth was revealed…he had a little crush on her!

Linda usually babysat Billy on Friday nights.  This was the night that Billy’s mom, Jane, liked to honky tonk!  Billy thought that honky tonk was a very unusual term for dancing and drinking slow gin fizzes…but it was a common vernacular in Billy’s day.

Billy and Linda and, often, Carl, would watch the Friday night Science Fiction Theatre.  It ran everything from the movies, This Island Earth, to the, Mole Men, and It Came From Outer Space.  Also, every other week it had horror movies such as, Dracula, and Frankenstein, and the, Curse of the Mummy, with Boris Karloff.

Dracula was one of Billy and Carl’s favorites and Billy had purchased a model of Dracula, as portrayed by Bela Lugosi, and had not only glued it together but also had hand painted it!

The movie was well underway when a particularly scary part was showing and Linda pinched Billy’s arm that was under the covers that the three of them were covered with!  Billy uttered a shriek and Linda and Carl laughed until tears came to their eyes!

Billy was a little beside himself and decided that he needed a rest room break to gather his thoughts.  As he was washing his hands…he heard a strange sound coming from the front porch of he and his mom’s house on 6th street in El Dorado.

As he turned on the porch light and walked out, slowly, he observed that all seemed to be in order…accept the baby bat that was hanging upside down from his porch roof.

Billy could not recall when…if ever he had seen a bat in El Dorado…and especially hanging from his front porch!

He ran into the house and exclaimed for Linda and Carl to come and see the bat on the front porch.

They both arose from their warm cover and the engaging Dracula feature and sauntered out to the porch.  When they arrived…the bat was gone!

Carl laughed and remarked that Billy was seeing visions inspired by the movie!  Linda smiled and told Billy not to worry as she would protect him from Dracula.

Carl remarked, quietly and under his breath, that vampires are real.

 

Note: Dracula photos are courtesy of Google.