MARY ANNING AND THE DINOSAUR HUNTERS

 

 If anyone hears of this film being available on DVD, please comment below and let me know.

Mary Anning and the Dinosaur Hunters 

  

CREEPY NIGHTS AT THE GAS STATION

 

 

       In the late 1970s in Bellingham, Washington, I quit my bank teller job to work at a gas station.  It was an always-open station, where you paid for your gas at a drive-by booth.  Having the night shift, I would man the booth and, during slow hours, would hose down the oily pavement, etc.

       Now and then my boss would come and do the books in the booth's little back room.  Once when he was there, a night driver tried to get me to let him come into the booth to use the phone.  This was a no-no but he persisted, until the boss stepped out of the back room and told the surprised driver to beat it.  It was likely a robbery attempt.

       Then the boss told me of a recent occurrence that happened while he was alone in the booth at night.  A women got gas and drove up to pay, and he saw the legs of a man lying on the floor behind the front seat.  Clever as my boss was, he took the woman's credit card and ran it through the machine, then said, "It shows that there's an alert on your card.  I'll have to keep this."  The woman of course complained, and the boss said that the alternative would be for her to come into the booth while he checks it out.  So, confused and angry, she got out of her car and walked around and into the booth.  Then the boss locked the door, apologized and said there was a man on the floor in her car.  She was shocked, and just as he said this, her car door opened and a man jumped out and ran away.  The boss saved her life.

 

CORKY AND WHITE SHADOW

 

        I loved this serial on "The Mickey Mouse Club" when I was seven, and had a crush on Darlene Gillespie.  My brother Paul tried to please me by taking a photograph of Darlene as Corky on TV.  Sadly it didn't work to take photos of a TV screen.

        Now we don't have TV service or streaming or anything like that, but if there's any Corky and White Shadow enthusiasts out there who can't get the serial other than on YouTube, here you go.  Enjoy.

 

 CORKY AND WHITE SHADOW, THE COMPLETE SERIAL

 

Introduction and Episode 1 "The Holdup"

Episode 2 "The Birthday Party" and Episode 3 "The Birthday Song" 

Ep. 4 "White Shadow's Discovery" and Ep. 5 "White Shadow's Clue"

Ep. 6 "The Trap" and Ep. 7 "The Getaway"

Ep. 8 "Corky Trails the Dude" and Ep. 9 "Snitch Finds a Clue"

Ep. 10 "Corky Gets a Surprise" and Ep. 11 "The Rattler"

Ep. 12 "White Shadow Takes a Hand" and Ep. 13 "More Trouble for Corky"

Ep. 14 "The Jail Break" and Ep. 15 "Outlaws on the Loose"

Ep. 16 "The Search" and Ep. 17 "White Shadow's Secret"

 

 

PINK FLOYD

 

       I don't like concerts.  It's too much of a hassle dealing with the crowds, and paying a lot for a ticket, and with all the noise that interrupts the music.  And the worse thing is sitting too far away to see the performers' faces.  I prefer watching a video with the music in its purity and with closeups of faces and expressions.  Nevertheless, Pink Floyd seemed untouchable and I had a lot of their albums, so I succumbed to going to their concert when they came to Seattle in 1975.

       My nephew Tom, ten years younger than I and a musician himself, came with me.  He wasn't familiar with Pink Floyd, but loved live concerts.  I was thrilled to find that we could go right up to the stage and watch the group from just a few yards away!  I could watch their faces!  And their music overpowered the audience noise behind us.  So, it was the best concert I've ever attended (out of about four).

       When they played "Careful with that Axe, Eugene," and a certain part of the song came, I yelled into Tom's ear, "This is where they scream!"  And suddenly there was an explosion and I was blinded!  I didn't even notice the scream because I was shocked and blind.  The auditorium was pretty dark except for the spotlights, and some huge pyrotechnics had been set up between us and the group.  A tremendous, bright flame had flashed up in front of us, and blinded me for several seconds.  It was great!

       My favorite Pink Floyd song is "Echoes," which takes up one side of their Meddle album, and I was terribly disappointed that the concert came to an end without them performing it.  The group waved their farewells and sauntered off the stage.

       But then, after a bunch of encore calls from the massive audience, out came the group again, and played all twenty minutes of "Echoes"!  So it was a perfect concert.

 

Someone taped the whole 1975 Seattle concert and you can hear it on YouTube, 

and at the beginning of the scream in "Careful with that Axe, Eugene,"

you can imagine you see me up there by the stage, groping in the dark.

 

 

SKIN DIVING WITH JOHN LATIMER

 

       John Latimer was an amazing guy and a close friend.  He let me ride my motorcycle in his dried-up corn field.  I traded my revolver for his long-range walkie talkie.  When driving our Explorers group down the icy street, he purposely spun around 360 degrees.  He bought a small airport.  He bought a motel at Soap Lake WA.  And one day he and I went skin diving in Winters Lake near Sultan WA.

       We both put on our face masks and flippers, found some large rocks too help us descend in the water, and swam down to the lake's weedy bottom.  Then we looked at each other, and seeing our face masks and puffy cheeks, we both burst out laughing.  Laughing is something you don't want to do twelve feet underwater.