(More) Stories I can tell (sorta)

Last week, I made a blog with some stories of my family and my waylaid youth. While the stories themselves as it turns out, were not 100% accurate, they seem to have a hit a sympathetic note with the regular readers at this site and I will do more of the same at a future date. In the meantime, my big brother Larry replied to the blog after he and I talked about some of the stories that I told.

A little background. My brother Larry is most likely the most intelligent individual I have ever known. Take an average person’s IQ, double it, and that is just about where Larry stands. I have copied and pasted his reply in full from the earlier blog, though I will put my own spin (of course) on some of what he has said. Without further ado, I introduce Larry G to MyMac.com and God help us all.

Hi everyone, this is Guy’s brother, Larry. I have a few corrections

My widowed mother looked at Australia as (back in the 1950s) they were offering free one-way passage to individuals and their families who had critical skills needed to further develop the country. Mother had lived in the cold north most of her life (Chicago, Albany, Indianapolis), and decided that she was “never going to be cold again” (shades of Scarlett O’Hara!), hence Australia. When, as Guy described, she realized she’d probably never see her family again, she went with Plan “B”, moving to Fort Lauderdale. When we left Indianapolis, we took the long route, through Providence, RI, to see my late father’s family, and then on to Florida. (I knew about this, but had forgotten when I told the story) The house, in fact, was ready, but the movers hadn’t arrived yet–and didn’t for another week or so. (THIS I didn’t know about. My Mother on occasion..um..EMBELLISHED some of her stories. I’m a lot like her in this.)Remind me to tell you about the spiders some day…(I have a funny story about our sister Nancy involving spiders that I will tell…soon. Nancy, be warned!)

Guy mentioned the idyllic environs of Fort Lauderdale in 1959, and I can assure you they were idyllic only on the surface. Government, and especially the police, were extremely corrupt, with gambling operating in the open throughout the city. Segregation and brutal enforcement of same was still the rule–schools in the Fort Lauderdale area not being desegregated until 1965 (with many local educators protesting mightily)(The elementary school that Larry, Nancy, and I all went to had a Principle that was one of the worst examples of racist behavior I have ever known. Why this woman was allowed to run a school is beyond me. Both Larry and Nancy had this woman during their entire stay at this school, but they finally retired her in my 5th grade). A Jew could not even get a hotel room on the beach in the better hotels as recently as 1963 (my stepfather tried to get a room for his visiting boss at one of the nice hotels, and was turned down because they “didn’t allow Jews”–my father finally reserved a room in his own name and gave the key to his boss…). (Oddly enough, one of the “finer” hotels in Fort Lauderdale was the Pier 66 hotel on the 17th street causeway. When I worked there parking cars, it was commonly reffered to as the “Jewish” hangout in South Florida. Draw your own conclusions) Fortunately, most of South Florida changed with the times, and the blatant racist behavior of the 1960s and prior years was swept under the rug, though as in most communities, vestiges of it still exist. Crusading district attorneys wiped out the wide-open gambling that gave our fair city the nickname of “Fort Liquordale”. (It was also called this because of the huge College spring break festivities that occurred. I always went down to the “Strip” to try and pick up drunk college girls. I never had much luck, but it sure was fun trying)

I’m not saying that all the problems went away, but Fort Lauderdale didn’t suffer from the terrible riots that Miami, just 30 miles south suffered in the 1980s.

I have a stack of corrections on the “ashes” story, but I think I like Guy’s version better, so I’ll let it go. (My version came from Mom. While the truth is probably closer to how Larry described it to me after I posted it, my version is funnier so I’m sticking to it)

Ah, the firecrackers… One of my favorite stories. I was off in the Air Force at the time, and missed that experience, though I knew most of the key players…

Cheers!

Thanks for chiming in Larry! Keep reading and keep me honest in the stories. Though if my version is better than the actual truth, that’s how I’m gonna write it!