A SHORT ESSAY ABOUT YOUTHFUL VITALITY AND HOW NEWS CAN SLOWLY CONSUME OUR JOY AND SPIRIT By Robert L. Huffstutter
Not to gripe, but to feel this good again would send me into a state of shock. When one is 18, how one feels is irrelevant, we simply take feeling good for granted, like we could climb Everest almost anytime with only a heads up to give us time to pack.
I just turned off news channels and headed back to the History Channel. I feel better already. What we feed our minds does make a difference in our attitude. If I listen to news from morning to night, I will feel continually worse with one complication after another. There was a time when we listened to the news for perhaps a half-hour in the evenings.
To be truthful, when the above photo was taken, sometime in 1960, the only news I got was via the newsreels between the double-features of a San Diego picture show. Yes, the times were simpler then, but we still had a major problem brewing...
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
trampsteamer 2 fortconnolly
A SHORT AND PERSONAL HISTORY OF MY LIFE ABOARD A TRAMP STEAMER By Robert L. Huffstutter
Back in the mid 1950s when I was a restless teenager and bored as hell with Kansas City, I wanted to get out of town and start living. I soon learned, passing Lawrence, Kansas, that I was going to have get a hell of a lot farther than Lawrence, Kansas to start seeing the world. And I had heard about tramp steamers. My English teacher back then, Mr. Smith, had mentioned the romance of the world of tramp steamers, so when I got home from my little trip to Lawrence without meeting any college cheerleaders, I started reading about tramp steamers and where I could find one that would sign me on so I could get to Hong Kong or Yokohama to start having some fun. Work? Sure, yes, I could work, I was young, and though not a giant, I could lift boxes and toss them up and aft and wherever, the kind of work I assumed would make up the life of a seaman.
Where does one go to find a tramp steamer I asked myself as I researched the library's reference section. No, I couldn't get to some English seaport to catch a steamer, besides they probably had all the help they needed. Was I longshoreman? I was barely a teenager, but maybe I could become a cabinboy. Afterall, didn't all the Naval heros start out as cabinboys, at least before we became free from the English? Going out of the country wouldn't work. I would have to find a port city in the USA to sign on. My aunt told me I should reconsider, finish school, get a real job. I wouldn't want to end up as a truckdriver would I? She said I would need a good education if I wanted to make more than $5 or $6 dollars an hour. I ought to try to get on at the steel mill where they were paying $7 an hour. That didn't appeal to me because I knew some friends whose dads worked there and they said it was hotter than hell inside those huge buildings. How about the BOP Plant at Leeds, not faraway. They built Buicks, Olds and Pontiacs. Well, I knew you had to be 18 and I didn't want to wait, I wanted to get on a ship where I could see the world, a tramp steamer. The idea appealed to me. I had just read Orwell's Down and Out In London and Paris and I figured Paris would be a great place to be down and out in, if only I could get there. Yes, I could start painting, meet a French woman, hang out in bistros and cabarets and have fun. And sooner or later, I would become famous, like that guy with the big nose that went to Tahiti and painted island women barely clad. Yes.
trampsteamer 2 fortconnolly
iancoombe.tripod.com/index.html
references for photos posted in this set
Uploaded by roberthuffstutter on 13 Sep 10, 5.37AM PDT.
Back in the mid 1950s when I was a restless teenager and bored as hell with Kansas City, I wanted to get out of town and start living. I soon learned, passing Lawrence, Kansas, that I was going to have get a hell of a lot farther than Lawrence, Kansas to start seeing the world. And I had heard about tramp steamers. My English teacher back then, Mr. Smith, had mentioned the romance of the world of tramp steamers, so when I got home from my little trip to Lawrence without meeting any college cheerleaders, I started reading about tramp steamers and where I could find one that would sign me on so I could get to Hong Kong or Yokohama to start having some fun. Work? Sure, yes, I could work, I was young, and though not a giant, I could lift boxes and toss them up and aft and wherever, the kind of work I assumed would make up the life of a seaman.
Where does one go to find a tramp steamer I asked myself as I researched the library's reference section. No, I couldn't get to some English seaport to catch a steamer, besides they probably had all the help they needed. Was I longshoreman? I was barely a teenager, but maybe I could become a cabinboy. Afterall, didn't all the Naval heros start out as cabinboys, at least before we became free from the English? Going out of the country wouldn't work. I would have to find a port city in the USA to sign on. My aunt told me I should reconsider, finish school, get a real job. I wouldn't want to end up as a truckdriver would I? She said I would need a good education if I wanted to make more than $5 or $6 dollars an hour. I ought to try to get on at the steel mill where they were paying $7 an hour. That didn't appeal to me because I knew some friends whose dads worked there and they said it was hotter than hell inside those huge buildings. How about the BOP Plant at Leeds, not faraway. They built Buicks, Olds and Pontiacs. Well, I knew you had to be 18 and I didn't want to wait, I wanted to get on a ship where I could see the world, a tramp steamer. The idea appealed to me. I had just read Orwell's Down and Out In London and Paris and I figured Paris would be a great place to be down and out in, if only I could get there. Yes, I could start painting, meet a French woman, hang out in bistros and cabarets and have fun. And sooner or later, I would become famous, like that guy with the big nose that went to Tahiti and painted island women barely clad. Yes.
trampsteamer 2 fortconnolly
iancoombe.tripod.com/index.html
references for photos posted in this set
Uploaded by roberthuffstutter on 13 Sep 10, 5.37AM PDT.
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