It was a stormy day in Sauk Village!  Billy Bump had not slept well though the night.  He had watched his favorite television show, The Twilight Zone, and had experienced a nightmare based on the scary episode.  The thirty minute program was titled, The Ventriloquist, and it’s theme stuck with him!

The, Ventriloquist, was about a ventriloquist and his dummy being extraordinarily successful in their Las Vegas programs.  The key to their success was the total immersive experience of listening to the ventriloquist ask the dummy, sitting on his knee with his wooden legs and feet lifeless on the lap of his master, questions and the wooden figure… appearing to speak extemporaneously without aid from his human counterpart!

As the show progressed it was increasingly apparent that the puppet was the boss and the human was the servant!  A chilling scene at the end of episode was the dummy asking the ventriloquist the questions and the human answering them, with his face painted as a, lifeless marionette!

So, as I said previously….it was a stormy and chilly day and Billy wanted his buddy, Steve, to come over to his house and to bring his marionettes with him for a puppet show!

Steve was a few years older than Billy and he was a good friend.  Steve had a sister named Susie, that Billy had a crush on, as Susie would constantly hug Billy whenever they were together…and if she ceased hugging…Billy would do something cute…in order to facilitate the renewal of the hugging!

Steve not only could come over, but he could come right away…and Susie wanted to accompany him!

Soon there was Blackbeard and Punch and Judy and Pinocchio to entertain Billy as he sat on Susie’s lap!  There was also Bozo the Clown, a Chicago icon, and a puppet depicting President John F. Kennedy.

Steve had a little stage that his marionettes performed on and he expertly maneuvered the strings attached to their limbs to cause them to appear lifelike!  Billy’s mother, Jane, laughed in a girlish giggle that made Billy feel good.  His mom was sad much of the time…and he relished when she was happy, either watching a marionette show or doing the Chubby Checker Twist!

President Kennedy began reciting his, ‘Ask not what you country can do for you…but ask what you can do for your country,’ speech.

Punch and Judy were a dysfunctional couple with Punch, often, hitting Judy with a club.

Blackbeard was his typical bearded self with firecrackers tied in his beard and a cutlass at his side and his continued pronouncements of pillaging and piracy!

Billy watched Bozo daily!  He was a staple on Chicago morning television!  Whatever Bozo said was funny and appropriate for the Chicago family!

Pinocchio began to talk about Italy and Collodi, Italy where he was born.  He mentioned that Billy would visit there…one day with his wife and his friends.  He saids the Billy would enjoy his later years and renew acquaintances that he thought long gone.

Pinocchio then went on to say that Billy wold enjoy writing in his golden years and that he would receive much satisfaction from the endeavor!

Then, Pinocchio began to speak of Billy becoming rich and famous and renown as a writer and a civic leader and that he would become rich beyond his wildest imaginations!

Then the marionettes nose began to lengthen!

Billy listened attentively as as did Susie and Jane and Danny, who he had asked to come over to enjoy the marionette performance!  It was beyond his imagination to believe that a wooden marionette could prophecy his future, although the voice was Steve’s behind the stage.

Billy understood what the lengthening Pinocchio’s nose…meant!  Something that Pinocchio had said…was a lie!

Blackbeard spoke up and said, ‘ye know mate that Steve is prone to fictional author embellishment…don’t ye?’

Bozo responded, ‘he he hee….little buddy….I wold not discount what Pinocchio told you…I have heard that he can see the future!’

Punch pronounced that, ‘Pinocchio is a know liar,’ while Judy uttered, ‘I like Pinocchio and he has a good heart…and he wants to be a real boy!’

Suddenly, Pinocchio was standing beside Susie and Billy…and he was human…and he said…’wake up!’

 

 

Harry Hayes had never seen a monster that he did not like! He was Billy’s cousin and several years older than him. His avocation and calling was to research the science fiction and monster movies of the 1950’s and the 60’s.

Harry had several magazines that were devoted to the horror movies of the day. He could speak extemporaneously regarding the make up and prosthetics that the actors used in various movies, such as; Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Creature From the Black Lagoon. He began collecting Monster Masks. Or rather…Monster Masks and Monster Hands! They aligned the walls of his bedroom and some cost upwards of $100 or more.

Harry modeled these, semi-profesional masks for Billy Bump and his buddy, Carl. Carl thought that they were fascinating and began, regularly, asking Billy when they could go over to Harry’s house to look at his masks?

Now, Billy considered the masks to be of the highest quality that he had witnessed. They not only covered your head completely but they looked just like the movie version of the perpetrator.

Harry had made the research of Monster movies and the collection of masks from the movies his primary mission! His mother said that they were creepy and that she did not understand what he saw in them.

But Harry had a vision of becoming a famous film director and his plan entailed Carl and Billy being his primary actors in a eight millimeter one spool demo film to send to all of the prominent movie theaters!

The masks and hands and body suits had been purchased from the Forrest J. Ackerman Studios with the assurance that, ‘You Too Can Be a Successful Filmmaker!”

Billy’s mom had an old eight millimeter movie camera, with no sound, and the running time of a spool of film was three minutes. So the day of filming was set and the decision was made for Billy to portray the Creature From the Black Lagoon and Carl to play the role of the robot from the television series, Lost In Space.

Now, Carl had been practicing his role of the robot for over a year. He was known to be an expert in the genre, and had received both applause and acclaim for his spot on depiction of the nuances of the robot!

The local spillway was chosen and Billy was outfitted in both the full head mask of the Creature while Carl wore a full body suit to portray the robot.

Harry announced, ‘quiet on the set…roll film,’ and the Creature began to arise from the murky waters of the spillway!

The robot, with arms gesturing akimbo, just like in the TV series, called out, ‘that does not compute!’

The Creature slipped on the slippery concrete wall of the spillway and broke Harry’s expensive mask, and bloodied his upper lip and loosened two teeth!

The robot exclaimed that, ‘I must save Will Robinson!’

The robot, or Carl, turned and began to make his way through the woods and despite the many calls of both Harry and the bloodied Creature…he did not respond accept for the, battery powered, blinking lights on his costume!

Billy did not see the robot until the next morning at school where Carl was still in costume and regaling his classmates with his perfect Lost In Space robot impression…

Note: Photos are courtesy of Google search.

Finally the long awaited summer holiday from school had arrived! Billy had been wiling away the hours at three primary haunts; the Orpheum theatre, Pounds Hollow swimming hole, or the Pool Hall.

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Billy also enjoyed visiting his buddy Carl and playing cowboys with Carl’s Daniel Boone action figure and, the new army action figure, G.I. Joe. Although Billy thought that the Daniel Boone figure was the coolest…Carl insisted on playing with the image of the television actor, Fess Parker, exclusively.

During that summer Billy’s mom’s friend, Francine, asked her if Billy could spend some time with her son Tommy and travel to Clarksville, Tennessee with them for an overnight stay. Tommy was an only child, as was Billy, and Francine was a single mother. Rumor had it that for a price Francine would be a gentleman’s friend for a night…when he was lonely and needed company. These thoughts were a bit beyond Billy’s understanding…but he was curious.

Francine and Billy and Tommy traveled to Clarksville and Francis purchased a room for the three of them at a Holiday Inn. After they unpacked Francine announced that she would be ready to take them to dinner after she freshened up!

All of the sudden Billy heard Tommy exclaim, ‘Mom…go to the rest room to change…did you forget that Billy is here?’

When Billy turned to see what the commotion was about….there was Francine naked from the waste up! A picture that was worth a thousand words and that became indelibly imprinted in Billy’s young mind!

August arrived and it was almost time for school to resume, but not before the annual trip to the State Fair. Carl accompanied Demetrius and Jane and Billy. The boys ruminated regarding how many, what were called in those days, Freak Shows that they would take in!

They settled on two of the shows for certain, the disappearing woman and the headless man.

Now the disappearing woman was a bit of a let down when they watched, with their own eyes, her vanishing, but then observed her through a crack in the curtain!

However the headless man was another matter. Before them was a body, without a visible head, it’s arms and hands moved and it’s feet wiggled! Across the room, fully ten feet away, was a head of a man that was grimacing and winking and appearing in a general bodiless state! A woman in the front row of the show fainted and had to be carried out of the tent theatre! A baby cried and an old man…laughed!

Lightning struck, just outside the entrance to the show…followed by a loud peel of thunder! The Fair Worker who was showing the headless man suddenly became frenetic and began running about the tent explaining that we all had to leave immediately!

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Billy could not help but insist on going back to the tent to peek through a opening in the back of it. When he did…there was the headless body walking in circles and…the head that was still on the display table…admonishing the body to relax and calm down…as they had experienced thunder storms before!

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Note: Photos of Headless Man are courtesy of Google.

‘A particular attitude toward or way of regarding a point of view.’

‘synonyms – outlook, view, viewpoint, point of view, standpoint, position, stand, stance, angle, slant, attitude’ Google

Elmer Woden had been a mean little kid! He was the type of child that tied firecrackers to cats tails. When the cat ran in abject fear…Elmer felt emboldened and a bit of a giant, compared to the hysterical cat!

When Elmer achieved his full height he measured, from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, four feet and 9 and one half inches. His favorite comedian/actor was Danny DeVito. Elmer told his assistant, Bill Bump, that he had taken, ‘so much shit from people that now that he had some authority…he was going to dish it out to all who crossed him!’

Elmer had his fans and his friends…and they received the ‘plum’ job assignments while others who had questioned Elmer’s plan for the Housekeeping department, were assigned the job duties that he felt they would dislike the most!

Elmer loved one of his directors…and hated the other. When staff was not replaced, under the rule of Larry Value, Elmer became extremely upset! He decided that the housekeeping department would illustrate to Mr. Value, the value of the service that they provided!

Soon, the janitors ceased cleaning offices each day/night, as they had done for many years. Housekeeping staff were told to focus on half of their assigned custodial area per work shift and to ignore the other half. And, the kicker was…they had more than enough staff to clean, throughly, the campus each night!

Now, Elmer did not institute a skip-cleaning program because the department was too short of staff…he did it…for spite!

So, Bill Bump witnessed and spoke with and listened to the many cleaning staff that had not couried favor with the leader! He watched how the majority of them worked through their lunches and their breaks and agonized over the skip-cleaning program…that they knew they did not require…and their confusion as to what the mission of the department was…if it was not cleaning?

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Larry Value was a character. He relished his connection with, what he perceived, the more glamorous side of physical services to the university. He was a brilliant man who understood the levers of power…but he believed Elmer’s lies regarding his housekeeping department…until he didn’t!

After several years Larry came to Bill Bump and asked him if he could attempt to save the cleaning division that was on the verge of being privatized? Bill responded that he would try.

Immediately, Bill turned the staff loose! He treated everyone equally…there were no favorites! He did not seek to micromanage professionals. He sought to empower them!

Deans and chancellors and presidents told Bill that they admired the manner in which he managed the housekeeping area. Bill responded that the entire credit for the renewed success of the cleaning of campus belonged to the technicians that were performing the work!

Many outstanding leaders have been short in stature. Height has nothing to do with leadership ability. Our current president is a tall man.

In many leaders minds and as a part of their psyche their perspective is that they have been a follower for some time….and now that they are the boss…they are going to rule with an iron fist!

Dysfunctional managers and administrator and supervisors can be found throughout business and education and government operations. They can also be found in organized and un-organized religion. People who judge those that they are responsible for, from the viewpoint of their narrow life experience!

A persons supervisor, whether they be a manager or an administrator or a crew chief, is imperative to the happiness and physical and mental well being of the staff that reports to them! Any time that a person takes this awesome responsibility in a caviler manner or seeks to obtain emotional support from the discomfort or suffering of others…that person should be removed from their position!

Carl had been Billy’s friend since the first day of first grade. He was happy when he discovered that another student in the class had the same last name. Carl had been adopted and it was comforting to him to meet a Bump that was his age.

Carl’s dad was a brick mason and a dark brown, from the sun, and swarthy man. He was a kind man who loved Carl and was happy that he had found a friend.

Velma, Carl’s mom, dotted on her son. She bought him a guitar and he was learning to play it from a Chet Atkins guitar tutorial. Carl was getting proficient in guitar!

Mrs. Bump enjoyed, what in that day, were called soap operas. She referred to them as, ‘her stories.’ Mrs. Bump never missed her stories!

The other Bumps, Carl and Carol and Velma, attended the Social Brethren Church in Paris addition. Yes, Paris existed as a sub-set of the Illinois town that contained it, El Dorado.

Now Carl was somewhat heavy-set, as the grown-ups used to refer to excess body weight…and Velma said that, ‘Carl has always been fleshy.’

On Saturday mornings the Paris Bumps went to town to do the ‘tradin’ according to Velma.

Carl was a sphinx like and loyal friend to Billy! Carl did not use ten words when five would do! Later in life, Carl and Billy attended the same church and Billy noticed that one of the fellow congregants was referring to Carl by the misnomer of Chet. When Billy asked Carl why he did not correct the person that was calling him by the wrong name, he replied that he did not want to offend him and that he was always nice to him!

The always nice to him was the key to his personality. Carl had been bullied in school and made light of because of his weight. Billy defended him when he could and the bullies backed off…but Billy did not hear all of the stupid remarks!

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Carl and Billy met to discuss their discovery of Cowboy Jim’s murdered corpse! Neither could recall ever hearing of a murder in El Dorado…before! After the El Dorado police had come to retrieve Jim’s bloated body and after they answered the questions of the officer that first arrived…which was Billy’s uncle Bill, they heard little more information over the past week.

Billy said that he and Carl should look for the murderer/murderers and that he had a few ideas as to who might have it in for the Cowboy!

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Carl stared at Billy…with a knowing gaze!

Billy recounted that John Dunn, the owner of the Orpheum had thrown Jim out of the theatre on more than one occasion for being drunk and subsequently disorderly! Jim, as a rule, took the expulsion good naturedly but had retorted with curse words the last time that John D. had excommunicated him from the entertainment mecca of the town.

Jim had cursed John D.’s wife who sat in the booth in the window of the movie palace and she sold the tickets. Mrs. Dunn was a somewhat dour woman who was no nonsense and totally business. She did not suffer fools gladly!

On the night in question…the Cowboy was in rare form and figure! He dismounted his horse, Avarice, and sauntered up to the ticket window. He then told Mrs. Dunn that if she would be so kind that he would like to purchase a ticket to the, Elvis movie, Blue Hawaii. Mrs. D looked at her husband John…and he shook his head from side to side…and the answer for the rider of Avarice…was no admittance!

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Now the Cowboy could only tolerate so much…especially when he was in an enlightened state. He began to utter the most profane of expletives and connect them together in a literate format…much as the latter version of the comedian George Carlin, and John D. took him by the shoulders and physically threw him out of the Orpheum and the Cowboy landed on the sidewalk that was in front of the theatre! Jim’s cowboy hat fell off of his head and his pride was severely bruised! Shortly, the El Dorado police arrived and Billy’s uncle Bill was driving the squad car…and they took the Cowboy away.

Carl asked Billy if he waned to play some pool at the pool hall and see if anyone had heard anymore about Jim, as Jim loved to play billiards! Billy said, ‘let’s go,’ and off they went on their bicycles…one a twenty inch Harley Davidson replica and the other an smooth riding three speed!

When they arrived and entered the darkened establishment, they noticed that it was almost empty of pool players and they considered this a good time to practice their game!

As Carl racked the balls and Billy chalked his cue stick…they saw a lanky figure in the shadows, laconically sizing up a shot.

As they walked closer to the specter in the dark they saw a cowboy hat on the side of the table.

When Carl and Billy walked up to the mystery man…he turned and said…Jim’s Pool Hall…Jim speaking!

Billy Bump’ stepfather asked him to come out to the garage to see what he had purchased for him. When he opened the large wooden door of the, stepdad hideout, he discovered a twenty inch bicycle with large knobby tires and a middle that was made to appear like a motorcycle, and painted accordingly.

Billy had grown a lot in fifth grade, but he still thought that the motorcycle bicycle was very cool! When Demetrius told him to take it for a spin, he happily complied.

Now the gravel road that ran in front of Billy’s house had large gravel. The wide and pronounced tires bumped and and the handlebars shook and, in fact the entire means of conveyance was difficult to keep on track. Between the bumping and swerving that was caused by the combination of the tires and the muscular gravel and the fact that Billy’s legs were too long for the smallish bike…the journey was aerobic and exciting!

Billy began riding his, ‘Harley Davidson,’ bicycle to town every day. The journey was about two miles. Once he had left the gravel road, about a mile of the journey, he pedaled all the faster on the smooth black top surface…as his knees almost reached his chin!

When Billy arrived in town, he passed the Ben Franklin Dime Store and the Orpheum Theatre and Beck’s Drug Store, with a rest stop at the Dairy Queen to purchase a nickel ice cream cone.

Later Billy and Dennis would often attend a movie at the Orpheum and then walk to the DQ to purchase Marlboro cigarettes and barbecue potato chips. They feverishly smoked the Marlboro’s while they walked the railroad tracks and then hurriedly consumed the barbecue potato chips to mask the odor of the smokes! But that is another story!

One day, Billy was riding his usual route when he saw Cowboy Jim laying drunk in front of the Orpheum. Billy stopped his machine and peered at Jim, with his cowboy hat and boots and a thin drool cascading out of the side of his mouth.

Finally Jim looked up at Billy and announced, ‘Jim’s Pool Hall…Jim speaking.’

Billy knew that Jim was not in a pool hall and wondered if he understood where he was. It was not long before the police arrived and helped a grateful cow-hand to his feet and drove him home.

Billy enjoyed the, hard to ride, ‘Harley Bicycle,’ because it reminded him of riding on his dad’s, actual, Harley in Chicago! Every time that he rode it, as soon as he could catch his breath, he was riding with his dad…and he was king of the world!

“Mom, I am going to ride over to Carl’s house,’ yelled Billy as he sped off…at three miles per hour!

Carl was waiting on his front porch with his three speed bicycle primed and ready. They began to make their way to the train track trestle, because it was so scary to ride or walk along it…when there was no where to hide from an on-coming train accept to jump!

When they arrived on the trestle Billy broke out the smokes! Carl had never smoked a Marlboro before…but he was eager to try…if you could tell by his excited wide eyed expression!

As Billy was illustrating to Carl the peculiar artistry of blowing smoke rings…Carl noticed something under the trestle near the pond that was underneath it.

Carl, with his coke bottle lens spectacles…thought it looked like a dead horse. Billy looked, in disbelief, and saw that the the lifeless object was a man!

As they both climbed down the hill that was at the beginning of the trestle…they stopped when they came upon the corpse of Cowboy Jim!

Billy remarked that Jim was probably drunk…but Carl saw the bullet hole in Jim’s left temple.

Both adventurers, suddenly, understood that they had discovered Jim’s murdered body!

Finally summer had arrived. School was out and Billy Bump was extremely pleased! School was not his passion and after Christmas and the subsequent return to academia in January…it was all uphill until May.

But, summer meant swimming at Pounds Hollow Pond! Billy’s mom, Jane, loved to swim and she throughly enjoyed taking Billy and his friends to the Pond which was about a twenty mile drive.

Jane had a 1957 Chevy convertible and she gripped the steering wheel at 10 and 2…tightly! You see, Jane had not learned to drive until she was well into her 30’s, and one time she turned onto a one way street in Evansville, Indiana…and Billy screamed, ‘mom you are going to get us killed!’

When they arrived at Pounds Hollow, accompanied by Billy’s friend Carl, they proceeded down the wide and uneven stone steps that seemed to go on forever.

There were cookout grills for charcoal cooking and picnic tables and the bath house that had a unique odor. There were the girls in swim suits and, the scandalous bikini, and Carl’s eyes looked even larger than ever!

Once Billy and Carl changed into their swimming trunks and locked their street clothes in the baskets provided, they walked into nirvana!

Pounds was a large pond, at least to eight year olds, and Billy had taken to going past the safety rope into the wide expanse of, uncharted, water. Pounds Hollow was rumored to have several water moccasin snakes and they were poisonous!

Billy had learned to float the summer before…and could do so for hours! Carl, on the other hand, preferred to stay on the safe side of the rope and peer at the natural water world though his coke bottle lenses. Carl’s eyes were weak and his thick lenses gave him the perpetual look of wonder and surprise and even the delight of a pilgrim on adventure in the new world!

As Billy began to float, as if he were in the Dead Sea, he noticed a shiny object on the far right-hand bank…a full half mile from the beach. As he floated over to the, what appeared to be a silver orb that was half buried in the earth, he noticed that there was no neither grass or brush or trees around the peculiar object.

Billy loved the science fiction televisions shows of the day including; The Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits, and even, Lost In Space. He devoured science fiction comic books and, regularly, discussed monster movies with his cousin, Harry.

As Billy climbed onto the barren ground he saw that the metal object was not just shinning in the sun…it was glowing! He walked, slowly, toward the shinning and glowing orb that now seemed to be singing some obscure song in a language that he did not understand. As he walked toward the orb he had a strange calm feeling much like he felt on Christmas morning.

Suddenly he was with his father, in Chicago, and his dad was carrying him on his shoulders and laughing and extorting him with the Christmas song,

‘Oh you better watch out’

‘You better not cry’

‘You better watch out…and I am telling you why’

‘Santa Clause is coming to town!’

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Billy’s head felt like it was full of pop and he was giddy, somewhat like the time that he had drank the long drinks from Lanny Willis’s Peppermint Schnapps flask bottle.

Before him was Carl and they were playing with his action figure of the, popular Daniel Boone figure that was modeled on the facial features of the actor Fess Parker, and they were eating hot dogs that were straight out of the package…or as Carl’s mom said, ‘that was the way that Carl and his dad Carol liked them.’

Billy looked behind him and there was mom, although she was not in her swim suit and she would not have attempted to swim across the half mile expanse of water moccasin snake filled dangerous water, to retrieve him.

Mom was singing, ‘If you haven’t got a penny…a hay penny will do’

If you haven’t got a hay penny…God bless you!’

She was standing beside their aluminum Christmas tree and handing him his present of a Big Swinger Polaroid Camera!

‘ Order us ten Moo and Cackle cheeseburgers Billy and we will head for home,’ mom intoned. Carl was smiling like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland…and Billy Bump wondered what had just happened?

We visited Ocean Point, Maine this past week…and we are forever changed!

Our last visit was in 2010, and that was a stay at the Crown Point Inn at Southwest Harbor…where the Stephen King Movie, ‘The storm of the Century,’ was filmed.

I have enjoyed a fascinating journey from fundamentalist christianity, in my youth, to an inclusive christianity that believes that God loves all humanity.

Jazz has been my favorite music since the late 1990’s. We visited Portland, Oregon and I was taken away with the spontaneity of Jazz and it’s subsequent creativity!

Maine has a way of making me think big! It causes me to consider how I might reach out to help my fellow travelers!

I have loved Jazz music since the late 1990’s for it’s ultimate variations! Many inspirations come in the moment and are similar to the musical inspiration of Jazz!

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I believed that there is a mystical and magical connection with our creator and the universe that can not be discounted or explained!

This blog shall be devoted to fictional writing that is loosely based on my life experinences, at times, and shall explore several realms of possibilities for our human family and it’s future.

I have been told that I was a good writer since I was a child. I am humbled by the lovely compliment and not at all sure that it is, remotely, correct. I can not think of anything that I enjoy more than writing! Please join me in this journey into what could be…if we just expand our thinking!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton