I was the one yacking about Halberstam. I've read some of his work and heard him interviewed on New York And Company a couple of times. I think he's got a knack for putting together good overviews on the subjects he deals with. Like if Oliver Stone were more critical and a journalist.....
When I was 16 & obsessed with
the half mile my father took me to
West Point to visit his friend the
historian Josiah Bunting. We ate our
meals in an enormous mess hall &
one morning Halberstram happened
to sit down with us. I don't remember
the actual conversation but all of a
sudden Halberstram told me to
take my toast & wing it like a frisbee
toward a table of Generals who were
learing at us pinkos. So I did. I put
everything I had in that little piece
of crispy white bread & sent it sailing
up to the cavernous ceiling & across
the hall directly to its target table.
After everyone in the place had stopped
staring at me & talk had resumed
Halberstram turned to my dad & said
"See, Barry, they can't do shit.
It's not in the book"
|
- steve 10-01-2001 4:36 pm
When I was 16 & obsessed with
the half mile my father took me to
West Point to visit his friend the
historian Josiah Bunting. We ate our
meals in an enormous mess hall &
one morning Halberstram happened
to sit down with us. I don't remember
the actual conversation but all of a
sudden Halberstram told me to
take my toast & wing it like a frisbee
toward a table of Generals who were
learing at us pinkos. So I did. I put
everything I had in that little piece
of crispy white bread & sent it sailing
up to the cavernous ceiling & across
the hall directly to its target table.
After everyone in the place had stopped
staring at me & talk had resumed
Halberstram turned to my dad & said
"See, Barry, they can't do shit.
It's not in the book"
- frank 10-04-2001 10:53 pm [add a comment]
Fantastic! I suppose that my father would have let me fling the toast if Halberstam were putting me up to it.
Was your father a military man? And was he considered a pinko? I know there were such confounding people-sixties era, military pinko's.
- steve 10-05-2001 1:53 am [add a comment]
My father was one of the last
instructors of celestial navigation
for the US Air Force during the tail
end of the Korean War. He enlisted
during his senior year at Chapel
Hill to avoid the draft. He is what
used to be called a "war buff."
My mother's family had the brass
hardcore deep in old Virginia,
including my great uncle General
(3 stars) Withers Burress. He
commanded the 237th Negro Infantry
in WW1. During my childhood's summer
visits to Salem, Virginia, very old,
often crippled black soldiers would
show up unannounced to pay their
respects & I vividly remember
sitting at the kitchen table with
" the General's beloved niggers."
My main memory of "Uncle Pinky"
is the smell of Jack Daniels. The visit
to West Point was to see my dad's
friend who was on a teaching gig.
They were definately Pinko War Buffs.
The Tomahawks are hitting Kabul.
My Cheyenne friend Little Magpie
says when you smoke you need to ask
for something.When the towers
went down I was worried about
my friends in the city; now I'm
just worried. I want to visit all
of you for a climb up the vine.
Say when.
- frank 10-08-2001 6:34 am [add a comment]
When.
- jim 10-08-2001 5:35 pm [add a comment]
Soonish. Sooner if the cabin sells
this week.
When in..we the people.. trust no
text that BEGINS with a rhyme.
- frank 10-08-2001 6:17 pm [add a comment]