CANNONS CAN BE DEADLY
Hot nights were a fact of life in the 1930s and I remember we had to find ways to cool off or suffer a sleepless night. Air conditioning consisted of opening windows, doors and blowing the hot air around with electric fans. If the mosquitoes were not out, we could sleep outdoors on the grass and hope for dew, chew ice and prey for rain. We did not have a screened porch. Most of the time we all got into our car and drove around with the windows open and hands out the windows. Bud would stand with his upper body sticking out and sometimes sit on the window opening with his hands on the roof. He just did that to make me think I was going to be an only son. Sometimes Dad used those long evenings of daylight to drive by property that he was going to bid on for his services as a land surveyor. Bud and I had our favorite places to go.
We liked to go to Hoover Field (Airport) just off old Boundary Road near US Route 1 past Arlington Cemetery where the Pentagon is now. It was on the right side going south. The airport was built on the swampy ground along the Potomac River and was the hometown of Washington DC’s mosquitoes. It would be safe to say the mosquitoes were measured by the ton per acre. If we were lucky we got to see the old Tri-Motor Fords and the new Douglas DC-3’s come and go. Eastern, American and Capital were the airlines of the day at Hoover. There were not many flights in the evenings and only the mail planes flew at night. If the breeze was off the Potomac, the mosquitoes were out we could not stop but, if the wind was out of the west, we could walk around and look at the airplanes. Since honesty is the best policy, we really liked to go there because across US 1 there was “The A&W Soda and Milk Bar Drive-ins.” The owner of the A&W was a little known man by the name of J. Willard Marriott, the inventor of the Drive In Hot Shoppe. Drive-ins were roadside fast food restaurants that used carhops (waiters and waitresses) to serve food and drinks to car occupants by foot and some by roller-skates. Wind permitting, we could sit in the car and have a carhop take orders and deliver to our car. They had a tray that attached to the door for the food and drinks. A&W was world known for its root beer floats made with their own brand of root beer and ice cream. We are talking about cream ice cream, the very fattest of fat cream ice cream and real true root beer made from real roots of the finest beer. They also made whole milk milkshakes with that same fat enriched ice cream so thick it came with a spoon. They would put three scoops of ice cream in a mixer with a splash of whole milk, which is milk direct from a cow, cream in, and flavoring. When the mixer got up to speed, it was done
with-lumps of ice cream left in. They had grilled fried hamburgers and hot dogs that would really fat soak the buns. We are talking about the finest American food money could buy. Root beer float, 15 cents; milkshakes, 20 cents; hamburgers, 10 cents; and hot dogs, 5 cents. I always had a chocolate flavored milkshake with vanilla fat in cream ice cream shake with a spoon and Bud had a vanilla milkshake. Bud always finished last and would say, “I still have some left” and I would have to listen to him slurp the last of his. Bud knew how to push my button. In those days Dad may not have had enough money for snacks and when he didn’t, we went to number two spot.
Our second favorite cool off place was Arlington Cemetery. The cemetery was filled with cannons and The Battle Ship Main Memorial had them in a ring around the mast. Cannons could be found on both side of every front door to every Federal and State Building, County Courthouse, Moose Lodge, VFW Hall, Town Circle and some post offices. Never trust an unloaded Civil War cannon that is just sitting with its wheels anchored in cement pointing out in defense of its possession.
Bud would play on top of the cannons by walking the barrel and balancing on the wheels, jumping off and climbing back on top. He never seemed to tire. I liked to play around the cannons on the ground. I would load and shoot the enemy coming up the hill in their endless attacks on my position. I fought the enemies of our country past and present and never was I wounded or even nicked one time. I have to admit the cannon I picked to load and shoot to defend my country was the same one Bud picked to run and jump off. To him the barrel was a runway to fly from. With a lot of cannons to choose, he had to have mine. If I moved, he did too; older brothers will never change.
One very hot Sunday found us at our stations-I defending, Bud jumping into flight. Bud had gotten so good at cannon walking forward he started going backward to add spice to his life and misery to mine. Bud decided to invent a new aerial maneuver by jumping from the barrel to a wheel, balance as long as possible before jumping to the ground. He felt he could turn around on the wheel and jump back to the barrel, maybe. Had he been able to do it, I am sure it would have been a first and a record to add to his long list of firsts for defying death. I was preparing to fire our cannon at the charging enemy as Bud was jumping to a wheel, slipped and fell between the wheel and the barrel, and was skewered in the right leg between knee and thigh by a very sharp hook on the cradle of the cannon used to put a chain on to pull the cannon into position or to correct its aim. I ran to Bud as I screamed for Dad. There Bud was, hanging helpless like a pig about to be slaughtered on Uncle Web’s farm. That was my big brother wounded, hanging and dangling off a civil war cannon unable to reach the ground. I got under him and supported his weight on my back. I cried and blubbered and screamed for Dad and Bud tried to comfort me telling me not to cry and worry he was OK. OK? He was hanging and dangling off a cannon on my back with blood all around. Dad was there in an instant I am sure and unhooked Bud. He told me to run for the car. All during the mad dash to the hospital in DC, Bud was thanking me for thinking of lifting him and calling Dad. I was the one who cried all the way to the hospital, and Bud was comforting me. Many stitches later and a tetanus shot for both of us, we went home. Why I got a tetanus shot, I will never know. Maybe there was a hospital special that night?
Bud carried two deep parallel scars an inch apart and about two and a half inches long in that leg for the rest of his life to remind us of the time many years ago when he was shot down and wounded in battle by a cannon. I saved my brother’s life under fire, and now I can’t remember if it was hot that night or not.
We liked to go to Hoover Field (Airport) just off old Boundary Road near US Route 1 past Arlington Cemetery where the Pentagon is now. It was on the right side going south. The airport was built on the swampy ground along the Potomac River and was the hometown of Washington DC’s mosquitoes. It would be safe to say the mosquitoes were measured by the ton per acre. If we were lucky we got to see the old Tri-Motor Fords and the new Douglas DC-3’s come and go. Eastern, American and Capital were the airlines of the day at Hoover. There were not many flights in the evenings and only the mail planes flew at night. If the breeze was off the Potomac, the mosquitoes were out we could not stop but, if the wind was out of the west, we could walk around and look at the airplanes. Since honesty is the best policy, we really liked to go there because across US 1 there was “The A&W Soda and Milk Bar Drive-ins.” The owner of the A&W was a little known man by the name of J. Willard Marriott, the inventor of the Drive In Hot Shoppe. Drive-ins were roadside fast food restaurants that used carhops (waiters and waitresses) to serve food and drinks to car occupants by foot and some by roller-skates. Wind permitting, we could sit in the car and have a carhop take orders and deliver to our car. They had a tray that attached to the door for the food and drinks. A&W was world known for its root beer floats made with their own brand of root beer and ice cream. We are talking about cream ice cream, the very fattest of fat cream ice cream and real true root beer made from real roots of the finest beer. They also made whole milk milkshakes with that same fat enriched ice cream so thick it came with a spoon. They would put three scoops of ice cream in a mixer with a splash of whole milk, which is milk direct from a cow, cream in, and flavoring. When the mixer got up to speed, it was done
with-lumps of ice cream left in. They had grilled fried hamburgers and hot dogs that would really fat soak the buns. We are talking about the finest American food money could buy. Root beer float, 15 cents; milkshakes, 20 cents; hamburgers, 10 cents; and hot dogs, 5 cents. I always had a chocolate flavored milkshake with vanilla fat in cream ice cream shake with a spoon and Bud had a vanilla milkshake. Bud always finished last and would say, “I still have some left” and I would have to listen to him slurp the last of his. Bud knew how to push my button. In those days Dad may not have had enough money for snacks and when he didn’t, we went to number two spot.
Our second favorite cool off place was Arlington Cemetery. The cemetery was filled with cannons and The Battle Ship Main Memorial had them in a ring around the mast. Cannons could be found on both side of every front door to every Federal and State Building, County Courthouse, Moose Lodge, VFW Hall, Town Circle and some post offices. Never trust an unloaded Civil War cannon that is just sitting with its wheels anchored in cement pointing out in defense of its possession.
Bud would play on top of the cannons by walking the barrel and balancing on the wheels, jumping off and climbing back on top. He never seemed to tire. I liked to play around the cannons on the ground. I would load and shoot the enemy coming up the hill in their endless attacks on my position. I fought the enemies of our country past and present and never was I wounded or even nicked one time. I have to admit the cannon I picked to load and shoot to defend my country was the same one Bud picked to run and jump off. To him the barrel was a runway to fly from. With a lot of cannons to choose, he had to have mine. If I moved, he did too; older brothers will never change.
One very hot Sunday found us at our stations-I defending, Bud jumping into flight. Bud had gotten so good at cannon walking forward he started going backward to add spice to his life and misery to mine. Bud decided to invent a new aerial maneuver by jumping from the barrel to a wheel, balance as long as possible before jumping to the ground. He felt he could turn around on the wheel and jump back to the barrel, maybe. Had he been able to do it, I am sure it would have been a first and a record to add to his long list of firsts for defying death. I was preparing to fire our cannon at the charging enemy as Bud was jumping to a wheel, slipped and fell between the wheel and the barrel, and was skewered in the right leg between knee and thigh by a very sharp hook on the cradle of the cannon used to put a chain on to pull the cannon into position or to correct its aim. I ran to Bud as I screamed for Dad. There Bud was, hanging helpless like a pig about to be slaughtered on Uncle Web’s farm. That was my big brother wounded, hanging and dangling off a civil war cannon unable to reach the ground. I got under him and supported his weight on my back. I cried and blubbered and screamed for Dad and Bud tried to comfort me telling me not to cry and worry he was OK. OK? He was hanging and dangling off a cannon on my back with blood all around. Dad was there in an instant I am sure and unhooked Bud. He told me to run for the car. All during the mad dash to the hospital in DC, Bud was thanking me for thinking of lifting him and calling Dad. I was the one who cried all the way to the hospital, and Bud was comforting me. Many stitches later and a tetanus shot for both of us, we went home. Why I got a tetanus shot, I will never know. Maybe there was a hospital special that night?
Bud carried two deep parallel scars an inch apart and about two and a half inches long in that leg for the rest of his life to remind us of the time many years ago when he was shot down and wounded in battle by a cannon. I saved my brother’s life under fire, and now I can’t remember if it was hot that night or not.
posted by JackSML | 2:07 PM
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