5+ Years Ago: The Verdant Dude Archives

This weekend would have been my father's birthday had he not passed away back in 2003 from heart failure.  I miss you, Dad. 

Here's a post from the summer of 2006 back when I was still guest-posting on Slyde's blog. Have a good weekend everyone. - Earl

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Wish You Were Here 
Jun 21, 2006
by B.E. Earl

Hey kiddies! Earl again with some mindless musings, musical mayhem, misty memories and magical mushrooms. Ok, no mind-altering substances here, but I was on an alliteration roll. Thought I’d contribute a little some-some for my buddy’s blog here on the first day of summer.

It couldn’t be a more glorious day here on Long Island. I finished up some work around 3ish in the afternoon and took a walk down to the beach where my sister had taken my nephew, Cavan. Not the most normal of names, huh? But it’s actually the county in Ireland where my mother’s side of the family came from, and my sister was kinda sold on it. My father’s side of the family came from County Cork, and I’m glad she didn’t go for that. Corky would almost be too much for me to bear as an uncle. I mean I’m rapidly approaching 40, but that doesn’t mean that I’m too old to laugh at a kid named Corky. Funny is funny.

Back to the beach in our story. Our local beach is right down the block from my mother’s house in Blue Point, NY. It’s affectionately known as Mommy Beach by the locals because of the preponderance of moms and their kids. There must have been a sign posted today, however, because Mommy Beach turned into Hot Mommy Beach! When I was growing up, I can’t recall actually thinking that any of my friend’s moms were attractive at all. These women today…whoa! Way to go, ladies!

I mentioned that my mother lives in Blue Point. This is also where I grew up, although I’ve been on the north shore of Long Island for about 8 years now. For those wondering why the name sounds familiar, it may be because of its relation to Blue Point Oysters. Back in the early part of the previous century, Blue Point Oysters were the best oysters in the world and they were harvested from the waters surrounding our little town on the bay. Sometime in the 1920’s or 30’s, however, salinity levels in the Great South Bay rose to a level that became toxic to our poor oyster population. Some say that this was caused by a hurricane that swept over our barrier beach (Fire Island), flooding the bay and neighboring beaches. Any time you see Blue Point Oysters on a menu today they are most likely from the north shore out of the Long Island Sound.

Now all that lives in our bay are clams, and the harvesting of those are strictly regulated due to over-harvesting and pollution. When I was growing up, it seemed like everyone had a relative who was a clammer. My brother and my brother-in-law each made some money by clamming. I heard that last year only five or six clamming licenses were even applied for on the Great South Bay. Its amazing how quickly man’s influences on our surroundings can get out of hand. It’s too late for our oyster population, but maybe one day we can see a resurgence of the clam population in the Bay.

As for the musical mayhem portion of our program, I heard a couple of songs on the radio today that I hadn’t heard in a million years. OK…at least since I was in college. "Echo Beach" by Martha and the Muffins, and "Summer’s Cauldron" by XTC. It’s absolutely amazing to me that good, rare music like this is still played on the radio someplace. The station that was playing them was WFUV 90.7 here in New York which is a member-supported public radio station, of course. I guess that non-commercial radio is the only way we are going to hear these gems outside of our iPods.

Finally, this past weekend was Father’s Day here in the US. I qualified that because I’m not sure if it is on the same date in other countries. I know from a friend of mine that Mother’s Day is located elsewhere on the calendar in the UK, so maybe it’s the same with Dad’s Day.

It was a bit of a somber day for me as in two weeks it will be three years since my father passed away from a long battle with heart disease. The last time that I saw him before his final heart attack (and subsequent hospital stay) was when I took him out for dinner the Wednesday after Father’s Day three years ago. He was watching what he ate because of his condition, but boy did he enjoy himself. He always said that his favorite times in his life were having a meal with his family. He always began each meal with smile and a soft-spoken “good to be together” when his children were around. We still do that on the occasions that the whole family gets together for a nice meal like we do on Thanksgiving Day or other holidays.

Three days later I got a call at home from my sister telling me that Dad was in the hospital again, and it really didn’t look good this time. He hung on for a few weeks, but it was still a shock when he passed. It’s still hard for me to believe that it has been three years.

At his gravesite on Sunday, I found myself wishing that our first 26 years together were a lot more like our last 10. We were always close, but we really became friends in that last decade, and I find myself missing my friend more and more as the years pass on. I think about the trip when took him on down to the Florida Keys, and I wish that we had done that more often. He said it was the best vacation he ever had been on. To quote Morgan Freeman from The Shawshank Redemption “I guess, I just miss my friend.”

With that in mind, I would like to wish a belated Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads and Grandpas out there, as well as to everyone else who has or had a father who was an important part of their lives like my father was.

Cheers!

Still Only 25¢: Marvel Team Up #46

Disclaimer: Part of an on-going series of blog posts about comic-books, the mid-70's and a wee boy named Earl. Or not really. You know my name isn't really Earl, right? - Earl

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If I had to pick a favorite comic-book title from my youth, well...I probably wouldn't be able to do it.  There were just so many that I enjoyed every month.  But I would have to include Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One in the conversation.  The original run of Marvel Team-Up started in 1972 and ran for 150 issues until 1985.  It generally featured Spider-Man as the lead character teamed up (get it?) with another Marvel character or several of them.  There were a handful of issues that had The Human Torch and/or The Hulk as the lead character, but it was mostly Spidey and a friend or three.  Marvel Two-In-One was essentially the same book, but with the The Thing as the lead character, often pairing with more obscure characters as the series progressed.  It was published for 100 issues (such great round numbers, right?) between 1974 and 1983.  They even had at least one crossover during their runs, a couple of issues that I will most likely write about in a future installment of this series.  Exciting, huh?

I loved crossovers between books when I was a kid.  When Man-Thing would appear in an issue of The Incredible Hulk or when Luke Cage would fill in as a member of The Fantastic Four.  And these two titles had a crossover like that in every single issue!  I loved that.  And the two titles also presented an opportunity to discover characters I had previously known nothing about.  Like Deathlok, the Demolisher. 

Deathlok was a fairly new hero or anti-hero in 1976 when Marvel Team-Up #46 hit the stands.  He had his own run in Astonishing Tales starting in 1974, but it was canceled shortly after his team up with Spidey in this issue.  I guess Marvel used Spider-Man's popularity to try to boost sales in some of their other titles. A bit of cross-promotion if you will.  They even used the word "Astonishing" on the cover, in case you chose to connect the dots.  It didn't work in this case.

The thing that was interesting about this original incarnation of the character (there would be others) is that most of his stories took place in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future.  Luther Manning was an American soldier living in the Marvel Universe "present" time, but he is killed in action and he wakes up in the future reanimated as a cyborg.  Freaky, right?

I don't exactly remember why or how Spider-Man got transported to this future time-line, but that was the crux of this issue.  And, as the cover shows, he initially sees Deathlok as an enemy (or Deathlok sees him as an enemy) before teaming up with him to defeat a band of future mutant/things.  And then Spidey goes back to his own timeline somehow, leaving Deathlok behind to his own fate.  I'm SURE it was completely plausible, though. /sarcasm

What I do remember, however, was where and when I read this issue.  OK, it probably wasn't the first time that I read it.  I often re-read many of the comic-books I had as a kid.  Often many, many, many times over.  But one of the times I read this was when I went with my father to a nursery/garden center.  Dad was working on some project in the yard.  I don't remember what he needed, but it was nearing closing time and he asked if I wanted to take a ride with him.

I was always down to hang with my dad for a little while.  I come from a big family, so we didn't get to hang out on a one-on-one situation very often.  I wasn't going to go into the store with him (wandering around a garden center wasn't appealing to me as a 9 year-old...it still isn't), so I grabbed this issue from my stash and away we went.  I think we got there about 15 minutes before they closed for the day, and we parked out back in an almost completely empty lot.

Can you imagine leaving your 9 year-old in the car in an empty parking lot at night while you went shopping?  Probably not, but this was 1976 and it was a fairly common practice in those less-complicated times.  For my family, at least.  And, like I said, I come from a big family, so even 10 minutes of alone time while one of the folks ran an errand was a precious commodity.

The setting was perfect for reading this particular issue.  The back lot of the garden center looked like something out of post-apocalyptic future.  Pallets of fertilizer bags by the back door, a large garbage bin that had been spray-painted with graffiti, an old delivery truck parked way in the corner that looked like it may have been abandoned.  Plus it was dark out so I had to read the issue from the dim light of the one overhead flickering lamp post in the parking lot.  Added a lot of nuance to the issue, if you will. 

They say that the sense of smell is a powerful trigger for one's memory.  It also works the other way around.  Sometimes a certain memory will bring a certain scent to mind.  When I see this cover, I can almost smell those bags of fertilizer piled by the back door of the garden center.  It's a palpable thing.  And it brings me right back.

I also think of my father and the times we had together.  Even it was just keeping him company on a ride to the store for a little while.

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Deathlok also had a laser gun.  Cool.

Ice Box Man

George Carlin passed away yesterday after struggling with heart disease for many years.. While I was never a huge Carlin fan (I thought he was funny, but not THAT funny), my father was. He loved Carlin! A little weird considering how conservative my father was.

As my father was the ice box man in our family, he knew exactly where George was coming from in the monologue below. This is for him.

Rest in Peace, guys! - Earl

I'm the ice box man at our house. I'm Ice Box Man! I answer the call when there's a need at the ice box. Two very important responsibilities, the first one is: keeping people from standing with the door to the refrigerator open for more than 45 minutes at a time. God, that gets me mad - "YOU WANT TO CLOSE THAT GODDAMN DOOR PLEASE? YOU WANT TO CLOSE THE DOOR?! YOU'RE LETTING OUT ALL OF THE COLDNESS I SAVED OVERNIGHT! COME ON, CLOSE THE DOOR!" - you know, some guy smoked eight joints and he's gonna inventory my refrigerator. "Ummmm...Ummm...Uhhh.... "Here, here's fifty dollars- go down to the Burger King. Willya, God! We'll save more than that on electricity alone. Close the goddamn door, willya?"Look, if you wanna know what's in there, why don't you take a Polaroid picture and go away and look at the picture and then come back and figure out what you want. Years ago, we didn't have Polaroid cameras. We had to make an OIL PAINTING of what was in there!

Aah, I don't let it get me down. 'Cause there's a bigger responsibility. And that is getting into that refrigerator and deciding which things need to be thrown away. Most people will not take that responsibility. Most people will just go and get what they want, leave everything else alone and say, "Well, someone else wants that. Someone else will eat that" Meanwhile, the thing is getting smaller and smaller and smaller and is, in fact stuck to the rack. Well, I've got to go in there and decide when to throw things away. "Chocolate pudding? Does anyone want this last chocolate pudding? I have just one chocolate pudding left. It's only pulled away from the side of the dish about three inches all the way around. And there's a huge fault running through the center of the pudding. Actually, it's nothing but a ball of skin at this point. Does anyone want a ball of fault ridden chocolate pudding skin? I'm only going to throw it away."

Do people do that with you? Offer you some food that if you don't eat it, they're only going to throw it away. Well, doesn't that make you feel dandy? "Here's something to eat, Dave. Hurry up, it's spoiling!" "Something for you, Angela. Eat quickly, that green part is moving!" "Here, Bob. Eat this before I give it to an animal." Y'ever been looking through the refrigerator and you come across an empty plate? Boy, that starts me to wondering. Did something eat something else? Maybe the olives ate the tuna! Maybe that chicken isn't really dead yet. Actually, I picture a little mouse with gloves and a parka on, y'know. Just waiting for the lights to go out.

Perhaps the worst thing that can happen is to reach into the refrigerator and come out with something that you cannot identify at all. You literally do not know what it is. Could be meat, could be cake. Usually, at a time like that, I'll bluff. "Honey, is this good?" "Well, what is it?" "I don't know. I've never seen anything like it. It looks like...meatcake!" "Well, smell it." (snort, sniff) "It has absolutely no smell whatsoever!" "It's good! Put it back! Somebody is saving it. It'll turn up in something." That's what frightens me. That someone will consider it a challenge and use it just because it's in there.

It's a leftover. What a sad word that is. Leftover. How would you like to be...a leftover? Well, it wouldn't be bad if they were taking people out to be shot. I might even volunteer. But, y'know, leftovers make you feel good twice. D'ja ever think about that? When you first put them away, you feel really intelligent- "I'm saving food!" And then, after a month, when hair is growing out of them and you throw them away you feel...really intelligent- "I'm saving my life!"

When you make a sandwich at home, do you reach down past the first three or four pieces of bread to go down and get 'the good bread'? It's kind of a self preservation thing, y'know? What you're really saying is, "Let my family eat the rotten bread! I'll take care of Numero Uno!" And down you go into the loaf. Down, looking for the two that you want, a matching pair. And you have to be careful pulling them out so they don't tear. And then when you get them to the top, the upper eight slices fall the other way. I never straighten them out. I think, screw it, let 'em think a burglar made a sandwich. Not my job, straightening out the bread.

Gotta tell me. In the refrigerator, who is it, please that puts into the refrigerator the half-gallon containers of milk with only that much left in them? I get one of those every time. Hey, here's some milk- fooom! ...God, not enough to drink. Better put that back, huh? I know my responsibilities.