McDougal Salutes the Class of '54

To the greatest class of all time, the St. Paul class of 1954. From Hogue and McDougal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mluh8BrZpTw

Buzzy

Once upon a time in our youth

There was a very happy gang

Who were sometimes a little uncouth

But being teenagers we didn’t have sense

to give a hang.

We went to Saint Paul’s High School

One of us was lanky and tall

A smooth talker who was no fool

Even when convincing you spring was fall.

Buzzy was his nickname

Gerald Farnsworth Fitzgerald his real

Yet we loved him just the same.

Arguing with him was no big deal.

He played football, basketball and ran track.

One winter night with eight of us in a 40’ Hudson car

He argued with us to go back

As we slid down a toboggan slide under a bright star.

Buzzy through it all always hit the books

Even when we were mischievous as Tom Sawyer

And giving him mocking looks

You see Farnsworth like his dad went on to be a lawyer.

Nigh on fifty years Buzzy practiced law and many briefs he had to file.

Married to Carol, three children, three grandchildren

they had.

Charitable endeavors became his style.

Thus when mortal life ended is it really sad?

Because now before heaven’s court

There is a new barrister standing at that bar

Arguing when their time comes a case of this sort

To grant clemency to the rest of the souls who rode in that

40’ Hudson car.

Marilyn My Love

The 40’ Hudson car was the legendary “Blue Goose” of our tenth year in High School. Mr. Bejin, Joe Bejin’s dad, had some dents taken out in his trucking company’s garage after the girls using the goose backed into something denting the trunk on the way to the boys’ baseball game. ( Joan Heidt was steering and Lynn Van Tiem was working the gear shift) Then a short time later we guys crashed head on into a milk truck (my first accident). Joe’s dad not only had the dents taken out but had the car painted a deeper blue with matching fender skirts.

The following story tells of the last trip of the “Blue Goose”.

Back in the summer of 1952 my cousin, David McCarron (18), myself (Had just turned 17.) and David’s friend Bob Walker (His dad was our football teams doctor.) were invited to Niagara Falls by our California Cousin, Betty Lou, who was traveling companion to actress, Jean Peters. They were in Niagara Falls with the film company making the movie: “Niagara” starring Ms. Peters, Joseph Cotton, Don Wilson and Marilyn Monroe. The following poem is my tribute to that adventure and the last of “The Blue Goose”.

My forty Hudson putted along

To the hotel garage in Niagara Falls

Here I hoped to see a living song

As I parked in one of the stalls.

Once inside the hotel room

Of movie star, Jean Peters

My heart gave a boom

As a knock caused a few titters.

In Marilyn Monroe came through the door

Draped only in a towel and bath robe

I prayed not to be a seventeen year old bore

As she touched her left ear lobe.

She asked Jean to borrow a blouse

Standing there, no-make-up, raw beauty

“Gee Lord keep me from being a louse”

As I thought: “She sure is some cutie”.

Later that evening we all had dinner.

She sat across from me, down just a bit

And in my mind I was quite a sinner

But all I could do was be there and sit.

However in my dreams I wanted to

Dance with her, Maybe an adagio

She looked at me and I wanted to coo

Not knowing my rival was Joe DiMaggio.

On our way back home David, Bob Walker and myself were brought back to the real world as I forgot to check the oil in the Hudson and the engine blew up thus the end to the “Blue Goose”.

We were in Canada half way home. Hitch hiking we caught a ride with a hog farmer and his son so we had to ride most of the rest of the way to the border in the bed of the truck with the hogs. We were lamenting: “Whose going to believe that two nights ago we were dining with the stars and now we are riding in a back of a truck with a few pigs?” Looking back they served ham with that dinner. “Could this have been the pigs pay back?”

It All Started With “The Log”

By phone back in nineteen hundred eighty five

I talked to a guitar and recording innovator so alive

He told me of working with a guy named Bing

And the close miking technique used to sing.

Also he, Bing and a company named Ampex

Advanced multiple track recording available to any sex.

Inspired by the Andrew Sisters, he and wife, Mary Ford,

Recorded many “fifties” hits no matter the cord.

Remember “How High the Moon”

A song I used to badly try to croon.

“The World Is Listening To the Sunrise”

Listened to under the stars of the night’s skies.

“Brazil”, “Lover When You’re Near Me”

A warm feeling not difficult to see

“Bye, Bye Blues”, “Tiger Rag”

His magical secrets are out of the bag.

It all started with “The Log”

That took guitar sound out of the fog.

A 4x 4 piece of lumber

Woke a musical sound from a deep slumber.

It evolved into an electric guitar made by Gibson

Played by millions having lots of fun.

The world’s most popular was given his name.

The unique musical sound will always be the same.

This man known for “The Gibson Les Paul”

Probably was picking “Vaya con Dios” as he wandered down the long hall

The end of which has a shiny, shiny light

To a new world that must be a wondrous, wondrous sight.

A Tribute to Walter Leland Cronkite

Born in the show me state
In the shadow of the war to end wars
A calm soul entered whose fate
Was to influence the news media’s mores.

It was an article in "Boy’s Life" that
Sparked his journalistic dream
Working on his high school newspaper he hung his hat
As his soul knew he would fulfill his life’s scheme.

Working for United Press during World War II
He covered the action from beginning to end
The D-Day invasion and bombing missions he flew
To the folks back home the news he did send.

After the war television was the thing
Host of "You Are There"
Interviewing "Joan of Arc" was Walter’s sting
Yet pulling it off he made the audience care.

Next "The Morning Show" on CBS
His partner, a puppet, named Charlemagne
What the executives were thinking was anyone’s guess
Then the series "Twentieth Century" his champagne".

A fifteen minute news summary his break
Expanded to a thirty minute broadcast
More depth, variety and content for our sake
The legend began that would always last.

September of 63’ he interviewed JFK, the president
Who gave a hint the war in Vietnam would be stilled
Two months later Walter Cronkite broke a precedent
Announcing with a tear the president had been shot and killed.

More tragedy in 68’ the death of Martin Luther King,
Bobby Kennedy. Walter calmed the nation
When only sad songs we could sing.
He told us: "Vietnam is a stalemate" with no elation.

His enthusiasm for the space race
Won him a moon rock award
"Go Baby Go" as Apollo XI started its chase
To the moon’s backyard.

He even influenced world affairs
When in 77’ he interviewed Anwar El-Sadat
Who agreed to meet Menachem Begin showing each
country cares
A treaty was signed which met quite a lot.

Walter mostly retired in 81’ with his wife
Spent much time on Martha’s Vineyard, his summer home
Sailing "The Betsy" name after his mate, the love of his life.
Wrote "A Reporter’s Life", a story quite wholesome.

The earthly end has come for Walter
A beautiful life was his
Now with Betsy He’s at heaven’s alter
And that’s the way it is.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

A Tribute to Jose

There is a reason
The Great Buddha must leave
A beautiful soul for each season
So we can all believe

In the mighty laugh.
Jose made this come true
Offsetting tragedy's mask with the other half
Thus saving us from eternally being blue.

Once a musician with Carlos Santana
A comic like his godfather Cantinflas
His aura shown like a colorful bandana
That he was really boss.

The spirit of Comedy Day
Energy expended by this man: Jose Simon
Makes it a tradition which will always stay
Carried on by friends now alone.

The Peanut That Went to the Moon

Fifty odd years ago, I met a guy named Jay Fiondella

Ahh!! He was quite a fella.

We became partners in a company called Space Imports

And the Exphobe, the first one-eyed space creature and weird features of other sorts.

However, this one-eyed creature from outer space toy is just to show you synchonicity.

Because Jay's passion was really his gourmet restaurant of charming simplicity.

With $10,000 he started a celebrity dive called Chez Jay or as we used to call it: Jay's.

Great food, peanuts and pretty women who made men gaze.

It was next to the Santa Monica Rand think tank.

Brilliant minds who plotted against the communists, to be frank.

It also attracted many Hollywood stars

Who made it one of their favorite bars.

I once got drunk there with actor Lee Marvin

And a comely woman named Carmen.

Also took there Howard Hughes' last love, the lovely Yvonne.

A beautiful creature from some heavenly salon.

I was introduced to the place by David Sheehan of Hollywood Close-Ups fame.

Whose column in The Outlook was one of the reasons everyone came.

Like Santa Monica college friend Doug McClure,

Co-star of the Virginian. A handsome dud that's for sure.

Jay's had a nautical motif.

A diver's helmet with a skill for comic relief.

Peanuts on the tables, peanut shells on the floor.

Thrown there by beer drinkers hoping to score.

Oh, the celebrities: Paris' grandpa, Barren Hilton,

Henry Kissinger, his spectacles tiltin',

Warren Beatty practicing his Shampoo role

In the secret room the other side of the toilet bowl.

Astronaut, Alan Shepard hung out there.

Ate the peanuts with abandoned care.

When he made the golf shot on the moon,

In his pocket was a peanut from Jay's, resting as in a cocoon.

There are many famous restauranteurs from this time.

Toots Shore's with Jackie Gleason standing in line.

Lou Walters' the Latin Quarter,

Barbara's dad's place this side of the border.

Famous restaurants such as the Brown Derby, Romanoff's and Ciros

Many more who are number one in front of many zeros.

Jay Fiondella and Chez Jay's is up there, too.

But he had one thing the others didn't. Here's a clue

That makes real star gazers want to swoon.

Chez Jay's had Astro-Nut, the peanut that went to the moon.

©2009 W.E. Hogue

Photo credits: Chez Jay's http://www.chezjays.com/, Jay Fiondella www.latimes.com.