July 27,28 2013 hecho in mexico

have been in mexico for two days.  my fist trip to mexico was while in officer basic.  we drove from san Antonio texas to Monterey mexico.  back the it was still safe to so or we were foolish to do so.
we stayed at "motel" in Monterey. spent the evening drinking wit some young mexican folks.  Sunday we went to the bullfights. to our surprise one of the matadors was drinking friend from the night before.  from what  i remember the bull should have won that fight.
a few years later, while stationed in el paso we made frequent trips to juarez. the food and drink were cheap, they had great steaks.
twenty years ago went to a mexican prison  to provide anesthesia on a medical mission on isola tres marias.
been scuba and snorkeling in cancun and cozumel.
today i am at casa oracion involved in latin studies.

July 24,25,26, 2013 Priest Memories

Thursday night i hosted a fete for a departing priest which got me to remembering priest I have worked with over the years.

The first priest I remember was the pastor at St. Rocco's- Msgr DiGiovanni who prepared  me for Communion, He waled with a staff that he often used to correct our incomplete genuflections.  Fr. Cunningham and Fr. Stafford were the pastor and the curate at St. Ann'e in Flushing  where I received Confirmation.  In the Army I encountered a Fr. Thomas, an army chaplain in Viet Nam.  When not in combat I would go to a leprosy  orphanage where I met Fr. Tran who ran the orphanage with a group of VietNamese nuns.

When I returned stateside I wandered  away for a while until I met Fr. O'Connell who was the Chaplain at SHAPE who was followed by Fr. Mastroantonio.  O'Connel was light hearted Marcantonio was despondent.  There was also Fr. McGee, the Irish chaplain to the  British forces, who was the  priest  that married us

When I was transferred Kaiserslautern I worked with Fr. Alcuin Greenburg, a jewish convert to the faith who was a Benedictine Monk serving as an army chaplain to Landstuhl Hospital.  There was also Malachi Higgiston who I met  at  Cursillo , who was stationed in Kaiserslautern.

Stateside again I  worked with Fr. Colonel Speitel at Fort Dix. I reconnected with Malachi at Fort dix    who sponsored me through the diaconate.

While in Italy there was the catholic chaplain Fr. Weydowich.

After my military career i lived and served in the Upper Darby area of Pennsylvania.  Monsignor Fitzgerald was a typical Irish  Philadelphian, Fr. Bill Chirriaco, Fr, Dominic, a Viet Namese priest,  whose English was better than  an irish immigrant priest who was in town to serve the illegal irish immigrants.

Coming to Alabama there was  Joe Allen who rejected my help. Then there was  Fr. Murphy at St. Johns where i have been for 20 years.  Since Murphy left and died there was Monsignor Sexton and now Phil O'Kennedy as pastor.  Ran through a number of associates, Allen Mackey, Thomas Woods, Joe Lodi, Fr. Jose, Mark Spruill and Fr. Roy Runkle who is the departing priest we feasted with last night.

All of these men have had varied influences on my life, for which I am grateful/

July 22,23, 2013 Medical Experiments

Went to enroll as a subject in a medical experiment.  This not my first time as a subject.  I do not know if they still do it but way back when colleges use to be recruiting grounds for medical test subjects.  I was  once put to sleep with drug that later was marketed as ETHRANE, an anesthetic that was widely used in the 1970's but is now off the market.
I was in a cohort study looking for a correlation between pre medications  before anesthesia and memory awareness.   That study led to the development of VERSED, a popular amnesic that is still in use today.
When i worked at the Aeromedical research center at Fort Rucker Alabama, i was involved in the development of a new helmet for helicopter pilots as well as an experiment in oxygen consumption during simulated "auto rotation" events.  Guess what ? if your helicopter is about to go down, you consume more  oxygen.  I also conducted studies in the reduction of blood loss for  total hip replacements by the use of a group of blood pressure lowering drugs, most of which are now off the market.

July 20,21, 2013 Royal Memories

Today I learned that  Belgium has newly crown King.  I consider King Philippe,  his Queen Matilde and his two young princes and two young princesses are my royalty family since i have been spending so much time there the past years.  So my memory is about how close I have been to royalty.  Once on leave in New York i wanted to go the theater, so I purchased some tickets at the USO.  When I arrived at the theater the usher "upgraded me".   Waiting for the curtain to open i was aware that the three rows in front of me were empty.  Minutes  before the music started two men in dark suits with earphones  stood by the empty rows.   Moments later in walked an entourage.  They took their  seats.  it was then just before the house lights dimmed that i recognized I was sitting directly behind Princess Grace Kelly, Prince Ranier and daughter Princess Caroline.  I have forgotten what show i saw, but  I will always remember going to the theater with Royalty.

July 17,18,19, 2013 Library memories!

Things were quiet today. Spent most of it doing research. So I think of the library of my youth.  The Queensboro Branch of the Queens Library System.  It was an odd shaped building, six sided, that sat by itself on an island of land across from the A& P on Main Street.  I actually remember some of the books I took out.  There was  Booth Tarkington's Penrod. A four book series that dealt with being cadet at West Point.  Reading those I memorized the answers to questions the new plebes were required to know.  One was - How's the cow!  She walks, she talks ms he's full of chalk.  The lacteal fluid extracted from female of the bovine species is highly prolific to the nth degree.  The novels of Ian Fleming were another favorite along with any thing about World War II.
At the library I would read the New York Times and the Herald Tribune. I would also listen to classical  music  on their record players.  The library was always a comfortable place for me.  Perhaps that is why I am married to a librarian.

July 16, 2013 Buona Festa!

Today is the Feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel.  A really big day for us Italian=Americans.
Each year in Corona new york, where my paternal grandparents lived there would be  grand street festival.  The food was abundant trays of sausage and peppers, brown paper bags of hot zeppole covered with powder sugar, tranches of pizza, various home made wine booths.  Loud music with men crooning neapolitan love songs. Italian ices served by the Italian Ice King of Corona. There were never ending bocce games, bright lights and carnival rides.
But most importantly there was the procession with the statue of Our Lady.  The statute was life size and usually stood in the right nave of a little chapel, that was a mission from st. leo's church.  The statute had a series of garments that would be changed each year in the days leading up to the Feast.  A novena was made and during the none days of the Novena the "widowers would sit near the statute to receive the  donations.  The dollar bills were "prayerfully"pinned to the garments of Our Lady.  No one and  I mean no one was allowed to touch that statue lest you received the wrath of the widows.  During the afternoon of the  feast day the statute would be placed on a "sled" and carried in procession through the streets of Corona by young men.  one of the widows on the "  again to "sled"to receive and protect. Music would be played by band that consisted of brass horns and drums.  The streets were full.  There was little chance of trouble because  the "boys from the social club" always had an eye out.  I loved the days of the Festa . I looked  forward to it each years and miss it dearly!
Buona Festa

July 15, 2013 New Car Memories

Joshua went and bought his first car on his own, a low milage 2012 Ford Fusion! After inheriting my 1964 Corvair from my brother Joseph as he went off to the Air Force.  The first car I bought  from a dealer was a Green Volkswagen Hatchback.  Unfortunately, it did not last long.  On a ski trip to Vermont we hit some heavy snow slid out and that vehicle was totaled.  It was back to the Corvair.  The next time I bought  a new car was coming back from Viet Nam.  Through AAFEES we were able to preorder a vehicle to pick upon our stateside return.  I had been drooling over an Audi 100 LS, silver metallic, five speed.  I picked it up in San Francisco.  That was interesting in that I had never in my life drove a manual transmission.  I taught myself to to drive a stick shift on the hills of San Francisco.  That car lasted through Anesthesia school and part of my assignment at Fort Rucker in Alabama.  There I became interested in showing  my English sheepdogs, so I replace the Audi with a Red Pontiac station wagon.  That vehicle lasted till I left for Belgium, so I replaced it with a Oldsmobile Omni.  While in Belgium, i replaced the Omni with my all time favorite vehicle the 1982 Saab 900 Turbo, midnight blue. That was  ultimately replaced with a little red Sentra to commute in and around Philadelphia. Following that was green Ford pick up, a used white Crown Victoria and now my second favorite car the Chrysler 300.

July 13, 14, 15, 2013 Baseball

My nephew posted on Facebook that he saw the movie 42.  A biography of Jackie Robinson.  My memory for today is seeing him play at Ebbet's Field along with Roy Camponello  Pee Wee Reese , Duke Snyder and Gil Hodges.
Ebbets field was one of the original baseball stadiums, the home of the  Brooklyn Dodgers.  It is gone now but i do recall it had windows.  We sat in an upper section.  Actually my seat was behind a steel beam.  I was less than 10 years old because the Dodgers left Brooklyn for LA in 1958.
New York had three baseball teams then. The beloved dodgers at Ebbet's Field, the Yankees at the Stadium and the Giants at the Polo grounds.
I remember the construction of the Shea Stadium for the  NY Mets on a piece of ground that until that time full of junk yards.  My father and a friend of His ran a small auto repair shop there for a while.
I have not been to many major league baseball games recently.  The last time was when my father  turned 90.  We had a family outing to watch the Mets play the Yankees at  the city stadium which replaced  the Shea.  It may be nostalgic but the new stadium does not have the ambience of Ebbet's Field.

June 11, 12 2013 "confession"

Spent the day at church office doing research.  A lady walks in and asks if she could confess to me
She was  on the 5th step of her AA recovery journey.  This got  me thinking about "confession" the sacramental kind.  Any catholic of my age remembers the "confessionals" of yesteryear.
I liked going to confession.   The box had a woody, old velvet aroma. I looked forward to the slam of the slide signaling the  priest was ready to hear my list of sins as well as the slam after absolution  It always made me sense that I had accomplished something.
I have gone to confession at fire bases in Viet Nam, dessert tents,  in cathedrals, basilica and chapels. i have gone to confession with priests of many language groups.  The result is always the same. I am absolved,I do penance and start back on the road to God.
My two favorite movies that deal with the sacrament of penance are "The Mission" and "Moonstruck".

July 9,10 2013 Buns in the oven!

There was a "cooking with the saints " class at church.  They made hot cross buns and somehow connected  them with St. Gerard Majella.
St. Gerard is Spanish and the patron of expectant mothers.  Hot cross buns are of English origin and a Lenten sweet.  Perhaps the question "Do you have a bun in the oven"? is the connection!
So should I remember pregnancy or Lent. Lets g with pregnancy.
 The only pregnancy I am intimately aware of was Paula's.
As far as I remember the first months of her first pregnancy was without incident.  i don't even remeber her getting morning sickness,  then again I was in Germany while she was in Belgium.  With the second pregnancy we were in Philadelphia, one scary moment was after some one hit her broadside in our SAAB.
Both pregnancies produced  healthy sons!  for that I a thankful to St. Gerard!
And the  hot cross buns were delicious!

July 7,8 2013 Auto Memories

yesterday i accompanied Joshua on his first foray to buy a car on his own.  I remained silently in the rear. so it got  me thinking about earlier cars I have possessed
The first car  i drove was a 1964 White corsair with red interior- yep the ralph nader special.  It came into my procession after my brother left for the air force.  It served well in those days even though mr. Nader intimated I would crash and burn.  After that there was green VW hatchback which i wrecked driving upstate in a snow storm.  MY remembrance was dim I think i went back to the Corvair. until i return from Viet nam in 1973.  I pick up a Audi 100 LS, grey metallic,  that was replaced  when i started taking my sheepdogs to shows with a  Red Pontiac station wagon.  Somewhere  along the line there was a beige OMNI which i took to Europe.  I sold that when I purchased my SAAB 900 Turbo. that was wrecked  in Philadelphia ( my all time favorite car). believe it or not it was replaced by a little red  Sentra.  I drove the sentry to Alabama and replaced it with a Ford pick up truck.  The truck was replaced with a used Crown Victoria (my second favorite car).  For years ago i purchased my present Chrysler 300

July 5, 6 2013 Momento mori,

July 5th was the fifth anniversary of my mothers demise.  A quiet day for me of reflection, Mass and Eucharistic adoration.

Its been raining for two days now which reminds me of the monsoons in Nam.  Each day the rain would come, the  ground became a thick muck. walking was a chore. See ing was a chore. One day I witnessed  a huge puddle being formed at the edge of an airstrip.  the puddle was the  size of a pond.  The amazing thing was that some villagers came with poles to fish in it.  The everlasting question was where did the the fish they were  bringing in come from?.  Have never been able to answer that!

July 1, 2, 3, 4 2013 Freedom Days

Last few days have been taken up with dissertation research and pastoral meetings.
So we have arrive at the 4th of July,  As a  youth 4th of July was usually celebrated by outdoor grilling.  The menu included hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken and of course sausage and peppers. We didn't roast many marshmallows but we had cannoli's in the refrigerator or my mother's  graham cracker and chocolate pudding layered desert.
Water sports were under the sprinkler or at the fire hydrant.,We catgut fire flies, using sparklers to chase on an them . Smoldering punks were lit to ward off the mosquitoes as we sat  in front of the house waiting for the fireworks.  We stated over the tree tops of Mount Hebron Cemetery.  the sky was illuminated by the fireworks that came from "the aquacade" which was a remnant from the 1939 Worlds Fair.  ( Actually the pool we used to go to for the summer).
But to add a serious reflection here is a "poem" i wrote

                                today we celebrate liberty not license.

                      today we celebrate independence not indenturedness
                     Interdependence triumphs over autonomy on this day.

           We celebrate neither soldier or politician but the ideal they swear to uphold
             Freedom used for another is a virtue freedom used only for self is a vice.