Catalina Island Man

My Gregory Harrison Story

Yesterday, a good friend, Gregory Harrison, left with his family back to Oregon. You probably recognize his name, and picture, from a number of television, movie, and Broadway performances (look him up on the "internet" to be reminded of his work!). Like me, he was born on the Island. He is younger than me and LOOKS IT!



http://www.gregoryharrison.com




I knew Gregory's father, mother, and his paternal grandmother. There are a lot of stories here and Gregory loves to tell them. His lovely wife is Randi Oakes, known for her work on the television show, "CHIPS", and his three beautiful daughters, one who is following in her parents' footsteps and is becoming an actress!


















http://www.goldensilents.com/stars/charlesbuddyrogers.html





My favorite story concerning Gregory goes back to 1987. The Catalina Island Museum (which I am a board member) was presenting its first "Silent Movie" (which is now done annually), with Gaylord Carter, one of the last original "Silent Movie" organists and the movie that was shown was the




















http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_(film)

1927 classic, "WINGS"
(the first movie to ever receive an "Academy Award"), with the star of the movie, Buddy Rogers (look for the upcoming "BLOGS" about Gaylord and Buddy). Gaylord and Buddy stayed in town rehearsing for the movie and concert to follow and I had the honor of escorting their primarily female entourages around the Island.




















When I told them that that evening, in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the naming of "Avalon" a our only incorporated city on the Island, Gregory was going to be the "Master Of Ceremonies" for the event, which was going to include dancing, there was MAJOR excitement in my 1979 VW van! I assured them that I would invited Gregory to our table, at the event, and the excitement grew even more!







As can ONLY happen on Catalina, just about then I saw Gregory, with his shirt off, running down the hill, entering Avalon from the "Interior" of the Island, in our direction. He looked GREAT with his shirt off and didn't have a bead of perspiration on his body, although it was a pretty warm afternoon. He and I exchanged "hi's" and we passed each other and the screams started in my vehicle, luckily not causing me to get distracted and run off the road, which would have meant, if you remember my "BLOG" about getting my driver's license, sure and complete death!






















That evening, after he had done his ceremonial work and had been interviewed by a member of the press (I seem to recall the "Los Angeles Times")I went up to him and reminded him that the "Carter/Rogers" table would LOVE to have him drop by at his convenience. As the consummate gentleman, he readily agreed.

Before we started over to the group, I had to tell him how "impressed" was with seeing him running down the hill, with his shirt off, and not a drop of perspiration on his body! He then said that he had a "confession" to make! "I was walking down the Summit Road", he said, "with my shirt on, when I saw the reflection of your van in the traffic mirror (see "BLOG" about the "COWS, MIRRORS, and BANANAS"). I knew who was in your van, so I quickly took off my shirt and started running. When you passed me and I could tell that you weren't able to see me any more, I put my shirt back on and kept walking!"







I BLESSED GREGORY FOR HIS HONESTY! Greg made me feel a little less inferior to him! By the way, he hasn't changed at all since then, as you can see in the picture. If we weren't such good friends, I would hate him!

Catalina Island Man

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED IN 62 YEARS

22. Don’t envy others! You don’t know where most people have come from in their lives and, let’s face it,




most of us try to put our best foot forward, which makes it difficult to know if what we really have or





who they really are is really worth envying.












23. Try to be more "real" and honest about yourself so that you don’t give others cause to envy or feel inferior to you.





Share more of our "commonality" and less of our "elitism".




24. March to the beat of your own "drummer", even if it means sometimes being in your own one-person parade.



Don’t follow the crowd simply for protection.
















Lead the crowd!

Catalina Island Man

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED IN 62 YEARS

19. Compliment people whenever possible.

Especially compliment people you don’t know and for doing things that most people take for granted:

sidewalk sweeping, weeding their garden, washing their car, having a nice smile, etc.

20. When you feel down, concentrate on others’ needs rather than your own.

You would be surprised how soon you forget about your own problems when you think about helping others.

21. No matter how bad things may seem we are still better off than the majority of the rest of the world. This may seem trite or difficult to internalize being as spoiled as we are.

We seem to think that we shouldn’t compare our situation with others, but it does show that humans can and do survive under much worse conditions than we will likely ever have to face.

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.