Mirrors - Cows - Bananas Pt2

Cows, Mirrors, Bananas (the rest of the story)







Late in 1954, my father was driving around with the Manager of "United Airlines" to the airport. "Orv (my father's name was Orval), as you probably know, today’s will be the last trip of "United Airlines" and my last day as Airline Manager. Before I leave, I have to make a confession! Pete and I didn't get along very well and I was happy to see him have to go out of his way keeping the mirrors cleaned every day. Then he came up with the metal grid mirror barricades and I was disappointed that he had solved his time consuming problem.

I then came up with my devious plan. Thirty minutes before he made his first trip along the road, as I was heading up to the Airport, I would enjoy a banana and then take the banana peel and would rub it behind the steel protection grids

on every single mirror along the Stage Coach Road all the way up to the Summit. Pete Peterson would then have to follow me, never knowing what I was doing, and clean everyone of those mirrors." (NEVER MAKE ENEMIES ON A SMALL ISLAND!) Pete never figured it out and it drove him nearly crazy to think that the cows had found a way to defeat his mirror covering grid by sticking their tongues around the side and

underneath the grid, much less, every single mirror on the Stage Coach Rd...every single day of the week.......

(he literally "flipped out" over it).

As life would have it, my father kept this secret and later, in the 1960s, told only me about this conversation. And…all of this slipped silently into the recesses of time and memory, until…

Around 1980, on behalf of the Avalon Museum Society I was conducting an 8-hour audio taped interview of Johnnie Windle, my historian mentor and friend. Toward the end of the interview, when he was sharing information about his family members, we got to his younger son, Ernie, who had died some years before. He asked me to turn off the recorder, which I, of course, did immediately! I told him that I totally understood how hard it was to talk about his son, but he quickly corrected me and assured me that I was wrong about this concern. Actually, he didn't want any recording of a "Top Secret story" that he was about to tell me.

Now, off the record, Johnnie began his story. "My son, Ernie, used to work for "United Airlines", when they flew out of the "Airport-In-The-Sky". One of his "duties", not in his "job description", was dictated by the Airline Manager. Ernie, on his way up the Airport everyday, was directed to...". At this moment, I couldn't control myself, and disrespectfully interrupted him, "...”Take a banana peel and smear all of the mirrors!!!"

Johnny looked at me in horror! "NOBODY BUT ME KNOWS THAT STORY!!!!!"

"Johnny, I hate to tell you this, but Dad told me the story a number of years ago, so you, Dad, and I know the prank pulled on Pete Peterson!!!" The "United Airlines" Manager, Ernie, Dad, and Johnny are no longer around, but now YOU know the secret story of the Bananas…Mirrors and Cows!

I hope you will all help me keep this story a secret! Aw, what the heck, pass it around, it’s all part of Catalina's folklore now!!

Mirrors - Cows - Bananas Pt1

One of my father's (Orval Liddell) first jobs, after he became Mr. Philip Knight Wrigley's (He was the son of the chewing gum mogul, William Wrigley, Jr., and he liked to be called "P. K." - remember the "P.K. Gum"?) Chief Engineer in 1945,

was to open up the "Airport-In-The-Sky". Although the airport was being constructed in 1940, the outbreak of W. W. II caused all work to cease. In fact, machinery and wood was placed on the runway to purposely make it inaccessible by planes. Rumor had it that the Japanese Air Force, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, were planning to fly to Catalina, take over the Island, and use it as a military base to stage bombings on the oil refineries in Long Beach, San Pedro, Wilmington, and Richmond, California. For this reason, the United State Department Of War took over the Island and concentrated on making it impossible for the Japanese to use Catalina and do any damage to the oil refineries on the mainland (the oil refineries were being used to supply fuel to the Allied Air Force and, of course, any depletion in the oil availability to the residence of California would have brought the West Coast to a disastrous halt!!!). As soon as the airport was made available, "United Airlines" flew DC-3s

to Catalina from 1946-54.

Cattle were being raised on the Island at the time and pretty much had run of the entire Island. Their presence didn't cause any hardships, except by those bovine who liked to walk the "Stage Coach" road, which was the only road linking the Avalon to "Two Harbors". The road was built in the late 1890's by the Banning Brothers, who owned the Island prior to the Wrigleys and, by the name, it was obviously used by two six-horse stage coaches. Motorized vehicles, especially tour buses, took over from the horses when the Wrigley family took over the Island in 1919. As there were so fewer cars then, the buses were the primarily users of the road.

So that there wouldn't be any "head on" collisions on the narrow road, with the "hairpin" turns, rectangular glass mirrors, with wooden frames, were places at strategic locations so that the vehicles could spot oncoming traffic, before it was TOO LATE!

The cattle, walking this road, would see the mirrors and think that they were greeting other cows. Being in a "friendly" mood, the cows would lick their reflections, assuming they were "fellow" cows, and leave "cow slobber", which made it impossible for the buses, and other vehicles, to check out their fellow travels, coming around the corner.
Realizing the potential for "disaster", Pete Peterson, the head bus driver, would drive up 30 minutes before the first tour to clean off all of the mirrors. After a while, he got tired of this, and decided to invent a thick metal grid, like chicken wire, enclosure over the mirror, with only the sides open. The mesh was large enough for vehicles to see the oncoming images, but too small for a cow to stick its tongue through. This clever solution worked for a couple of months when, suddenly one morning, all of the mirrors were found to have been "licked". Frustratingly, no damage had been done to the steel grid contraption! Pete simply couldn't understand "HOW" a cow could look straight ahead into the mirrors, spy his "friend", and then maneuver his tongue around the side behind the mesh to lick the mirrors! Now, again, he had to make the earlier trip throughout the tour path and put his cleaning material behind the grid barricades and clean every mirror.

This was driving him CRAZY!

When he retired, he nearly left the Island in a straitjacket!

(More to follow in Part 2)

Catalina Island Man

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED IN 62 YEARS

16. Don’t take your family and friends for granted. We know that they are always there for us when "push comes to shove", and we are there for them. But special people in our lives don’t last forever. Cherish the time you have together.

17. Don’t take YOURSELF for granted. "God didn’t make any junk!" We touch more people in a positive way than we will ever know. And don’t forget we won’t be around forever, either. Be good to yourself and cherish your alone time.

18. Try to find the "good" in everyone, because there is good in everyone. Sometimes you just have to search a little harder. Some people, for whatever reason, have a hard time letting their good show.

Catalina Island Man

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED IN 62 YEARS



13. Return Good for Evil.
Don’t lower yourself to a dirty fight. Besides, it bugs the heck out of others when you take the "high road"







after they have taken the low one.


Don’t seek revenge, it makes you no better than your opposition.





14. Don’t overindulge in anything. Even the "harmless" things can become addictive!




15. Don’t be afraid to fail. Studies have shown that at the end of our lives, it won’t be the things we tried, with no success, that we mourn, but the things we never even tried.

Message In A Bottle Pt 3

In my blog entitled "Message In A Bottle Pt. 2, I shared the story of the bottle of Dorothee Hochberg (I spelled her first name wrong in that blog, sorry!), which was found on an island near the Philippines, under the protective flipper of a dead sea lion...and that there was much more to the story. I said that I would share the rest of the story, if any of my "blog" readers wanted me to.

I heard from Jim Watson, or was it his brother Mike (I always get the two of them confused!), and he said that he wanted to know more. It is good to know that many of you are reading my "blog". Please feel to add your stories and comments.

Back to the story…it was in 1980 that I informed Dorothee about the circumstances surrounding the discovery of her bottle, and I noticed that she had the strangest look on her face. I asked her if there was anything the matter. She told me that she wanted to share a story with me, that I probably not believe. Now, being a LOVER of great and unbelievable "stories", I begged her to continue.

Well, it seems that a few years before the "Bicentennial", she and her granddaughter were walking along a Southern California beach when they noticed a large crowd of people standing around and starring at something. They went over to investigate and saw a very sick seal pup being teased by some young boys. She immediately told the boys to stop their harassment and asked her young granddaughter to stay with the injured pup while she went to call "The Fish and Game". Once the authorities arrived, the two "good Samaritans" left and never really heard the plight of the little sea creature they had saved.

Now, Dorothee sat back and, with a big smile said, "I somehow believe that the dead sea lion in the Philippines, was the same one that my granddaughter and I saved a few years back and that it "somehow" knew which of the bottles was "our" bottle and followed it on its journey to that deserted island and laid its flipper on it to make sure that it was safe, until someone would eventually find it!"

Even I, with my vast imagination, found this story to be beyond probability, but I told Dorothee that it would make a great children's story and encouraged her to write it, hopefully with the help of her granddaughter.

Well, time passed and I forgot about this conversation with Dorothee. One evening in 2002, I was working at another of my part time Catalina jobs (almost everyone who works here has two, three or many different jobs…I have had and still have many) as a host (as opposed to a hostess) at the Country Club Restaurant (the original headquarters for the "Chicago Cubs" baseball team, when they had their "Spring Training", between 1921-51).

One of our serving staff came over to me and said that one of her tables was disturbing some of the other guests. I asked what the problem was and she told me that the people at her table were crying uncontrollably and she didn't know what the problem was. I knew that I had to find out what the situation was, but I didn't know how to address it.

Luckily, a few minutes later, a group of ladies from that table came by me on their way to the restrooms. I could tell that they were still very upset and had obviously been sobbing. As tactfully as I could, I went up to them and asked if "anything was the matter?" They told me that their mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, who had been a long time Island resident, had recently died and they were going to throw her ashes into the ocean the next day. For whatever reason, they had been out of touch with her for a number of years and had hoped to have some "uplifting stories" to tell about her life, so that the service would have more meaning. She had been quite ill and her life, especially at the end, was not something that they wanted to dwell on, but they didn't have any other stories to tell at the service. I asked them the deceased woman's name and they said "Dorothee Hochberg".

HOO! BOY, DID I HAVE A STORY TO TELL THEM!

After extending my condolences as I hadn't heard about Dorothee's death. I then proceeded to tell them the sea lion and the bottle story…and from the looks on their faces you would have thought that they had won the lottery! They now had an "UPBEAT" story to tell about Dorothee at tomorrow's Neptune Society burial! To be more accurate, they ALL smiled except ONE whose "flood gates" really opened up. When she finally calmed down, I apologized for having upset her and asked what I had said that caused her to be so terribly sad, after all, I thought it was a pretty heartwarming story.

She quickly regained her composure and in an almost apologetic tone assured me that she wasn't upset, but overjoyed! (As a male, I have NEVER been able to tell the difference between whether a woman is crying out of happiness or out of sadness. This will be one of the first questions that I will ask God, when I get to Heaven! Of course in Heaven, since there is nothing but happiness, my question will likely be "moot"!) "You see", she explained", "I am "that" granddaughter, with whom she found the sea lion on that beach all those years ago! I never heard about the bottle episode from my Grandmother but now I feel so much closer to her because of that beautiful story! Thank You!"

You know, I guess there are "some" benefits of getting older, as long as you still have your "gray matter" upstairs (and I don't mean hair!). I was able to "reunite" a family with their “passed” loved one, just because of a bottle launching celebrating America’s 200th Birthday those years before.

Post Script: Boy, God does act in "strange ways" and I try more every day, as I hope that we all do, to "tap" into those ways so that we can live a fuller and happier life.

4th of July 2009

Tourist Vs Visitor?


Who are you?





In keeping with the 4th of July theme, I would like to share with you a story, that will not only explain the "unique- ness" of Catalina, but will also explain the difference between "Visitor" and "Tourist".

Years ago, all those guests who came to our Island paradise were called "Tourists". Somewhere along the line, this term seemed to acquire a derogatory connotation, so the term "Visitor" came up, which I felt was a good thing.

Luckily for all of us who deal with them, "Visitors", who treat us with respect and enjoy being here, make up approximately 98% of those who come to our Island
.
Those "Tourists", who treat us like "servants" and who probably should have stayed home, or "put away in a home", only make up the remaining 2%.









This story occurred on July 4 and unfortunately dealt with a "Tourist".

About 10 years ago, I was acting as a security person for "Catalina Confetti", a very good souvenir store on Crescent Street (the front street along the bay). I was working the 4th of July, and luckily for me, the annual 4th of July Parade passes right in front of the store, which meant that I was going to have a perfect view of the parade (the stores on the front street completely empty out when the parade starts).

Now, I know that we don't have the highest quality parade in the country (although this year's parade was certainly right up there), but we are a small town and really enjoy this opportunity to show off our decorated golf carts and paying tribute to our country! There are a lot of balloons, candy and toy jewelry tossing, and most of the local businesses and families come together to share the enthusiasm and excitement of the day.

Well, this parade that I was watching was certainly not one of our better ones, but no one cared, except this one "Tourist", who was, unfortunately, standing right next to me, watching the parade go by. He continually put down our meager contribution to the institution of 4th of July







parades and actually got downright



insulting. He was making comments like, "This is the crumbiest parade I have ever seen!" and "You people ought to be ashamed of yourselves for doing such an inferior job!".

I have been taught "customer service" long and well, and I know the saying that the "customer is ALWAYS right", but this guy was pushing all of those “buttons”. That being said, I know that sometimes I just need to smile and try to bite my tongue, I knew that something coming down the street would soon cause this "TOURIST" to “change his tune” and start swallowing his words.










And, then it happened, a "band" marched by! The man's eyes almost left their sockets and I watched as he tried to pull his jaw from the pavement and put it back under his mouth, (which my Grandmother would have "washed out with soap", if she had only been there). He yelled "WHAT WAS THAT!?!"




"Oh, that?" I calmly replied.



"That was the...

"USC Trojan Marching Band."

"What are THEY doing in this "cheap" parade!!??!!" he demanded. He went on, "I am a big business man on the mainland and for years I have been trying to get them to perform for one of my events and they don't even return my phone calls! How did this nothing town pull this off!!!???"








I matter-of-factly explained that this particular band had been performing in the Avalon, 4th of July Parade for ten years











(2009 was their 20th Anniversary of their continually gracing us with their presence and pageantry).










"But what would cause them to come HERE of all places!!????!!"







I felt the "teacher" in me take over as I calmly set the record (and this fellow’s clock) straight.


"Avalon has a LOT of muscle, but we RARELY flex it! We don't believe in showing off, just for the sake of impressing people.


When we DO get to showing off, though,

we get the "USC Trojan Marching Band"

for our “little” parade!"

Click "picture" to see 2009 Catalina Island 4th of July Parade video.

Post Script: If a crow had been flying by at the time, I am sure that he would have accepted his fate and eaten it! I would have gladly served it to him in a nice pie, if only a "humble" had been accessible!

Message In A Bottle Pt 2

Two "findings" stand out as important in this story. Our Mayor, Ray Rydell, told me that his mother's bottle was reported found literally hours before she died. She had been in a coma for quite some time, and he said that the last words that his mother heard, before she died, were, "Mother, they found your "Bicentennial" bottle!" He later smiled when he said that he thought that she what kept her alive was waiting for those words and he was sure he saw a glimpse of a smile, when she then passed away.






The other bottle was sponsored by Dorothy Hochberg.





Her bottle was discovered on a deserted island, near the Philippines, by a fisherman who noticed it glimmering in the sun. It was safely covered by the flipper of a dead seal, which seemed to be protecting it until it was located! (There is a VERY unusual story connected with this, that Dorothy later shared with me, once I notified her of the strange circumstances of her bottles location, and I will relay it through this "BLOG" if anyone wants to hear about it).




The bottle "celebration" was so accurately documented that the "National Geodesic Society" contacted me so that our results could be plotted on their ocean current maps because the results of several similar studies that they had made had been accidentally "destroyed".




In my next "BLOG" I will keep the 4th of July going by sharing another story. One about the special group that has graced our "4th of July" Parade for the past twenty years!

Message In A Bottle Pt 1

I hope that all of you in the United States had a Patriotic and safe 4th of July weekend. For those in other countries, and those on duty serving America, I wish that you could have shared in Catalina’s festivities.

The fireworks spectacular last night was one of the finest, and longest, I have ever seen. Congratulations to the City Fathers for not cancelling such an inspirational event.

The tourists and locals alike salute you.

Thirty-three years ago, 1976, (I can’t believe that it has been that long ago!), we celebrated a major milestone, "Bicentennial" of the United States of America!

Communities all over the country were planning creative ways to make this date, and their individual participation, special. Avalon had yet to come up with our own "unique" form way to honor the celebration.

Pictures of this 4th of July will follow as received.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith or was it Jones, offered a pose in front of their boat called "Fight On" in honor of the USC battle cry. They were here injoying the parade and fireworks, for the 4th of July weekend.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE In the early 60's, I had come up with the idea of throwing fifty bottles in the water, half way across the channel from the Mainland, with messages in them, to see where they would be found. Amazingly, some were picked up in the United States, and many more in Mexico, but some made their way to the Philippines and even to the South Pacific! With this in mind, and being "unique" as we are, situated on an Island, I thought it would be a Patriotic idea for us to throw bottles into the ocean, with "Bicentennial" greetings, to whomever found them.

We also offered a reward to these lucky "discoverers". The U.S.A.'s specially issued "Bicentennial" two dollar bill, if the bottle was found outside of the United States, and the "Bicentennial" coin set (penny, nickel, dimes, quarter, and half dollar), if found along the shore of the 50 states.

You can imagine the fun I had rummaging through trash cans and going to local liquor stores (as my father was a recovering alcoholic, I am sure that some locals, seeing me frequenting every libation store in Avalon, sometimes the same stores every day for weeks, wondered if I was either supplying my Father, or if I was now "cursed" with the same disease).

For the event I needed Two Hundred and One bottles which would be dated 1776-1976 (one bottle for each year of the Union’s existence). And, they couldn't be just any bottles; they had to be tall wine bottles, and these bottles had to be colored, not clear, so as to keep the sun's rays from penetrating them during the voyage and fading the messages.

Once I got all of the bottles, they had to be emptied (down the drain, not down my gullet)

rinsed out and thoroughly dried.

We advertised in our local newspaper, "THE ISLANDER", to find donors who wanted to "sponsor" a bottle (I believe that it was around $2.50 to $5.00 per bottle).

The sponsors were then given three choices, "first come, first serve", of the Year numbers they wanted to have assigned to their bottles. With the help of our local elementary school children, 201 messages were individually written, in both English and Spanish, giving the "Bicentennial" Greeting, the coin or paper dollar reward offer, their names, the names of the bottle sponsors, and bottle number. What an amazing job the kids did in support of this project.

With the invaluable assistance of Peter Salamunovich, his brother, and a few other enthusiastic local kids (I would still be stuffing bottles NOW if it weren't for their assistance!), we rolled up the messages, inserted them through the narrow bottle neck, crumbled paper towels in the bottom of the bottles, to try to absorb any moisture, and then sealed the corks at the end of neck of the bottles with sealing wax (if you ever accidentally poured sealing wax on your flesh, you know how painful that is, aside from you ladies [and some gents] who voluntarily submit to body waxing, OUCH!).

On July 4, 1976, "Catalina Cruises", took us all out on one of their ships half way between Catalina and San Clemente (about 7 miles South East), free of charge, and one by one, calling out the years, the bottles were ceremoniously thrown off the stern of the ship.

Only about half of the bottles were ever recovered (The Catalina Island Museum has a complete record of the responses), but all who responded were in Mexico and the South Pacific! All of the bottles made it beyond our borders!

It took months before we got any response and I am still hopeful, that in some very remote region of the world, at least one more of these bottles will yet be located (MINE has not yet been found!).

Two "findings" stand out in as important to this story...and they will be told in my next blog.

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OK, OK...this is not a Russian attack...it's code so that Technoratti (blog rating service) can locate and rate my blog.

4th of July 2009

Today marks our 233 birthday


and, with all that has been happen- ing to us lately, it seems like we are beginn- ing to look and feel our age!

I think that it is only appropriate for us as Americans, and for the rest of the world, to look up to our Creator and ask for his guidance through these troubled times.

The following song was written by a Russian immigrant to America and a Jew , Irving Berlin, and I have often felt that it should have been our National Anthem.




We not only need His blessings, but we also need to show our appreciation for all that he has given us:

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,

Let us swear allegiance to the land that's free,

Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,

As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer."









God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam.


God bless America, My home sweet home.




GOD BLESS AMERICA, MY HOME SWEET HOME!





America's unofficial national anthem was composed by an immigrant who left his home in Siberia for America when he was only five years old. The original version of "God Bless America" was written by Irving Berlin (1888-1989) during the summer of 1918 at Camp Upton, located in Yaphank, Long Island, for his Ziegfeld-style revue, Yip, Yip, Yaphank. "Make her victorious on land and foam, God Bless America..." ran the original lyric. However, Berlin decided that the solemn tone of "God Bless America" was somewhat out of keeping with the more comedic elements of the show and the song was laid aside.

In the fall of 1938, as war was again threatening Europe, Berlin decided to write a "peace" song. He recalled his "God Bless America" from twenty years earlier and made some alterations to reflect the different state of the world. Singer Kate Smith introduced the revised "God Bless America" during her radio broadcast on Armistice Day, 1938. The song was an immediate sensation; the sheet music was in great demand. Berlin soon established the God Bless America Fund, dedicating the royalties to the Boy and Girl Scouts of America.





"HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA"
and let us celebrate this with the rest of world! Welcome to our party!