Quick funny story was just reminded of, thinking of the importance of Independence Day and all the Vets out there: My Dad was an Aviation Cadet at Randolph Field in San Antonio in the late ‘40’s. One Sunday morning around 7am, the OD (a lowly captain or something) charges into the cadet barracks and announces loudly that “the General” is coming for surprise snap inspection in 15 minutes, and they better be in uniform with the barracks with a shine like a dime or heads will roll. The cadets jump out of their racks and start running like scalded hens to get things in order. Dad’s good friend panics, noting he has a half full bottle of hooch in his footlocker that will most certainly be discovered as contraband and there’s no time to hide it. Dad says, “pour it down the crapper then hide the bottle in the trash can!”. Friend cadet runs frantically to the head. But in his fumble fingered panic to pour it out, the bottle slips out of his hand, falls into the toilet and smashes into the porcelain, knocking a large hole in it above the waterline. Desperate, he flushes the whole mess down, luckily not having much water slosh out. He mops up the drippage and tears it back to his rack and gets his uniform on just in time for the OD to call everyone to attention as “the General” struts in. The Old Man makes a detailed inspection of the place, stopping at each man’s bunk to eyeball the respective cadet and ask a personal question. Down the row he goes, last stop latrine, where he ducks in to have a look. There is a long quiet pause; then the Old Man walks out, a sour look on his face. He marches purposely back down the line, OD glued to his heal, eyeballing each man as he passes. Just before exiting the door, he spins on his heel and eyeballs the OD sternly. “And Captain,” he snorts loudly, “for God’s sake tell the mess to cut down on the beans!!”, then spins on his heel again and stomps out the door.
Speaking of beans, traded emails with our fried Burton “Bubba” Gilliam of Blazing Saddles fame last week... at 81 years young, the former fireman, golden gloves boxer and veteran actor is still full of P&V and weathering the crisis with a stiff upper lip. Can’t even say the word “beans” or “frijoles” these days without thinking of Bubba... Salute!
