Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Rick, I'm closing this place down, there's gambling going on!

You must remember this
A kiss is still  kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by

Now, all you young people just quit reading this.  You won't understand this post.  Not the title.  Not the above stanza.  In fact, none of you youngsters know what the word Stanza means.  So, go tweet. Or text. Or go get a half gallon of ice cream.  Oh yeah.  Get me some ice cream while you're out there.  I'll use my Face Book account to tell you the flavor to pick up.  No I wont.  I don't use Facebook.  Is it Face Book or Facebook?  You are known as millenials.  Poor things.  Big babies.
Probably the only thing I have in common with you all is ice cream. That's OK.

Sorry for picking on you youngsters.  I got carried away I guess.  But it all boils down to one thing.
And I can't remember what that is.  So lets get to the point. The point is, that the mystery title and the ....stanza....according to Siri.....is about the movie Casablanca.

In the year of the antelope, 1975, I was on the ship processor Pacific Shrimper having a meal.  Now, realize,  I was a deckhand on the Mar Pacifico, a 125 long shrimper, and we sold our catch to the Pacific Shrimper.....the processor.  Get it?  Don't be a dummy.    And we delivered our haul of shrimp every 5 to 6 days.   At that time, there was no limit to how much shrimp we could deliver. And boy (or girl) did we deliver!  Year 'round.  Calm seas.  Scary seas. And I was the cook.  Now that was an experience.  I was quite creative.  My skipper, Dale Samuelson, finally started liking me the day I served chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, and vanilla ice cream.  For Breakfast.  Oh well.  Made lots of money.  We fished on days that other boats wouldn't.  Crazy skipper, but he knew his stuff running our boat.  He pushed us hard, but always stressed safety.  Liked to yell a lot.  We yelled back.  Quite a cozy family on board that boat.

So, back to Casablanca. Was on the Pacific Shrimper on our day off, in their galley, having lunch.  Or dinner.  Or some meal.  Brain is rusty, and somewhat forgetful.  And as we were eating, the ships
staff brought out the movie projector, screen, and the movie Casablanca.  I was hooked so to speak.
So, speak.

What a movie! If you have not seen this masterpiece, I just say......Get.  A.  Life.  I thought then and there, and over here and over there, I will rent this movie and throw a party at my new girl fiends house in Seattle.  Only one problem.  I could not find a DVD copy, a VHS copy.....nothing!  I started sweating.  Mostly on my forehead.  Then I remembered.  DVD, and VHS, were not invented at that time.  Now what. I'll tell you what Now what.  I rented a movie projector, a screen, and a movie theater quality tape of the movie Casablanca!  I had to charge our guests for the popcorn (not microwave popcorn....no microwaves then) to cover the cost of the movie production.  And by the way, my girlfriend in this story is long gone.....just kidding ya'll.  The girlfriend I mention is my wife of 48 years (give or take 9 years) today.  What a catch.  Not the shrimp.  My wife.  I can never remember her name. "Hey, girl! What's your name?"  'Oh Tom, you know my name'.  She always says that when I forget her name.  Dang.

So, in a round-about-way, Casablanca has given us 7 beautiful grandkids.

And to answer the above secret question, the shrimper Mar Pacifico could carry a 130 tons of shrimp
at a time.  That's a lot of shrimp.  Ate a lot of chocolate cake, frosting, ice cream.

That's all folks.          TomG