Numero Uno

by Robert Darnell  [Date: 3/7/87]


My name is Myrl and my brother's name is Myrl. We grew up on a beautiful mountain over looking the sparkling Caribbean.

We grew and developed and basked in the glory and accomplishments of our older brother, Larry. It was he who became Numero Uno first. We followed his adventures and travels to the great U.S. and to Chicago, on to Texas, Houston, and finally, Country Place.

After hearing of his experiences all us young brown blooded tobacco leaves could only dream of following in his footsteps. We stretched and we grew and we developed. Then the day came and we were picked. And sure enough justo like Larry we were made into Numero Uno's. Numero Uno, wow, just like Larry and every body congratulated us.

Next we were shipped and thanks to the God of Tobacco Plants, it must have been Larry's influence because we were shipped to our kind of town, Chicago, U.S.A.

The owner of the fabulous tobacco store to which we had been assigned took one look at us and thought to himself "Those two, Myrl and Myrl, would surely like to go to the same place that Larry went to. The deserve it and the people there deserve them.

Zoom, were on an airplane and zoom, zoom, we were at Country Place in Texas, the ultimate destination.

Here we are today on a table looking out on the golf course and there is the tribute to Larry -- his box on a place of honor in the humidor. And there we will join him as soon as we have finished our final act and wafted the flavor of a Numero Uno into the winds of Country Place.

***

Reply [3/87] :
Mr. Darnell,
It is rare indeed when a customer is so inspired by one of our products as you  were, or rather, I'd prefer to think that many are so inspired, but we just rarely hear about it!

Thanks to your son, I have taken the liberty of rewarding your efforts.

Dennis DiPiazza, Manager.


end

Syncopation, in Sync with Patrick

by Jerre Darnell

Ignore the door
There's no one there

A knock and a ring
Can't hear a thing

Up and down the stairs
Playing musical chairs

Pop Culture's got our ear
There's no fear, we're in gear

Ignore the door
It's now the floor.

[circa 2000]

Spain

by Robert Darnell  [Date unknown]

Monday
Jerre and I took off with great anticipation for the DFW Airport to catch out plane to Spain. It was exciting to be going to Europe and the Med for the first time. Stopped at Sam's in Fairfield for some good BBQ.

The plane left on time and headed East. The sun receded fast behind us and it got dark quickly. It came up again in about five hours. we had a good dinner, watched a movie. listened to music and slept.

Got to Madrid about 11:00 and thought we would have a 3 hour layover. But somehow we lost and hour and it took a long time to change planes so we didn't see any of Madrid. Got to Malaga in an hour and missed our tour guide. Had to handle our bags and get to the hotel on our own. Our name was not on the tour list so we did not have a reservation at the hotel but we had no trouble getting a room. Got settled in and started gawking around like good tourists. The hotel had three pools, a short walk to the beach, and a golf course. It was an old hotel but of the luxury class so was adequate.

It had one big restaurant where you could eat most anytime except maybe right in the middle of the night. There were three small eating places in back of the hotel. One a pizza place, one a Swedish coffee shop, and one a health food bar.

The place also had a health club and sauna bath.

Tangiers
We left the hotel at 7:00 AM to go down to [...] to catch a boat across the Strait Of Gibraltar, to Morocco. The bus ride was scenic and the weather very cool. The boat was rather large with several lounges, a dining room, a couple of lounge decks and a small swimming pool. It was cold enough out on the Med that you could use a sweater, but we didn't have any.

We lounged and sunned. Saw a school of porpoises that followed the ship for a while. Africa loomed up pretty quickly and then there were the white buildings of Tangiers. No tall buildings but spread out over the hillsides and along the beaches.

As soon as we landed our tour guide told us that we better not get separated from him or we never would find our way out of Tangiers. It is just one massive maze of narrow streets and alleys with no visible rhyme or reason to anything. Everybody is either running a shop trying to sell something or walking around on the streets trying to sell something. Our guide even bought a drink of water from a street vendor who was selling water out of a goatskin to be drunk out of a community cup he was carrying.

We walked thru the street markets and shops midst the constant clamor and pandemonium of ten or twenty street vendors pulling at you all the time.

Went to a rug market which consisted of mysterious rooms, stairways, and doorways, with rugs everywhere. The rugs were really great bargains but nobody in our group bought anything because there was no way to carry them.

We toured in the bus up the hillsides in the better residential areas. Saw the mansion of the Sultan of Saudi Arabia. It was elaborate beyond description. He maintained it just in case he might want to come there sometime.

We rode some camels and took pictures. Saw the US Consulate which was very nice and in good taste. Not gaudy. Many of the areas were served by water fountains from which everyone gathered their water. Much like ancient times. The men wore robes. The women wore robes and veils.

We ate at one of their better restaurants. First course was soup, second, Shish-ka-bob, third, chicken, last a tart served with beer and wine. Plenty of hard bread.

Had a band of five old men playing Moroccan music, and one belly dancer. Enjoyed the meal very much but didn't eat much.

The only things we bought were a leather bag and a T-shirt.

Saw miles and miles of Atlantic beaches which were not used at all. Very beautiful beaches but too far from town.

The open markets were full of vegetables, meat, bread, ... etc. all laying out in the open with flies getting on it.

The beach near the middle of town was very crowded in the afternoon.

We took the boat back late in the afternoon. It passed close by the Rock of Gibraltar.

end

Old Mom

A letter by Robert Darnell [Date unknown, Note: Old Mom was 85]



Old Mom,
This is your old friend Bob.

All my friends ask me how my beautiful mother-in-law can be 85, look 60, and act 40?

I tell them it's because she eats apples and carrots and takes a beauty nap every afternoon.

They are all doing that now.

Don't forget I'm going to get you some jogging shoes and work-out suit next birthday.

Have a good time in California. I love you and thanks for your daughter.

Love,
Bob


end

Reagan :: Andropov

by Robert Darnell [date unknown]


Our Sunday morning paper, "The Houston Post," had an article by Carl Sagan on the possibility of nuclear war and the results.

The article prompts me as one small speck of a speck on this planet, an American citizen, to voice my protest against the horrible possibility of a nuclear war.

Mr. Reagan and Mr Andropov, you are the chosen leaders of our two countries. I would advise you post haste, now, today, pick, and assign, a task force of the greatest minds available from each country using the great computer hardware that we have available to solve the nuclear arms problem.

This is a unique planet that we have here, full of so many interesting living things, with its waters and lands.

None of us with minds want to see this beautiful thing blown up and destroyed by two factions which in the really great scheme of things are truly only minute.

Please, without posturing, politicizing, bullying, bettering, or forcing, put the two task forces to work at once.

In our business we say we don't have problems, only opportunities.

However, that might be it seems to me that you two chosen leaders in assessing your accomplishments -- such as invading Afghanistan or kicking the Cubans out of Granada -- would certainly prefer the accomplishment of eliminating the possibility of nuclear war.

I know that I am saying what is in the heart of every man, and I want to say it.

end

Labor Day Weekend

by Robert Darnell  [date unknown, but note: When Alicia and Jennifer were four]

For Labor Day Weekend Jerre wanted to get a beach house down at Galveston for all the family and everyone else who wanted to come down. Rob was agreeable as he always is so they leased one at Sea Isle on a canal lot. Beck wanted to be on the beach so we changed it and got one on the beach of Jamaica, which is much better.

Jerre, Beck, Alish, and Rob, and David, Jan, David, and Jennifer went down Friday. One of the first things we noticed was how bad the mosquitoes and ants were, so we started swatting, and spraying, and scratching immediately. We stayed down there four days and pretty soon we were used to them and didn't pay them much more attention.

Jerre cooked for a week, enough food for an army, before we went and we really had a car full going down. All four of us rode in the front seat with the back seat loaded to the roof, and trunk piled full of gear and food.

Our house was right on the beach and had a "mountain with trees on it," right off the front deck. The mountain and trees were not what is commonly thought of when you hear those words, but it was four-year-old Alish's description of a big sand dune with driftwood logs in it. Her description was just right.

Friday night Melanie, Fred, Melanie's brother Hot Sam in Lake Jackson, stayed Friday night. Breakfast in the morning with eggs, bacon sizzling in the pan, toast, jelly; it was out of this world.

Several of Becky's friends came down and spent Saturday night: Nat, Lisa, Amy, Sara, Wendy, Chad, Chuck, Chan, Chilly, Chub, Termite, and Micro. They slept on the floor in sleeping bags, blankets, mattresses, and couches. There was a small hassle about separating the boys and girls by it was mild and no problem.

Sylvia didn't come down until Sunday. It was her first time in the sun and she roasted, fried, broiled, baked and basted until she was well-done.

Also, Sunday, some of Jerre's co-workers, Carla, Bitsy, Chuck, Mike, and Dwayne, came and brought a sail boat, catamaran. Dwayne and Mike took everyone sailing who wanted to go. There was a good wind and a great day for sailing. None of them stayed over night, but left late in the evening.

We stuffed our gut all the time we were there. Beer, chicken salad, potato salad, stew, cookies, cake, baked beans ... beer, hamburgers, condiments, beer, dips and chips, and beer.On Monday Joe and Carla Vick came and brought some shrimp. We boiled them and they were just fantastic. There was plenty of booze, beer, and coffee, and cokes for everyone the whole time.

One afternoon we went crabbing back on some old pier, but only caught one crab. Some people were water-skiing just off the jetty's, so we figured they had the crabs jetting. Beck caught the only one and it was a perfect Blue Crab. We were hoping to get about sixteen of those and have a crab boil, but we didn't. We let the lone one go back in the surf. It went dashing off sideways and gave us the claw on the way out.

David and David went down on the seawall to a fishing pier one night to do some pier fishing. Almost 2:30 in the morning, Jennifer woke Jerre up, who woke Bob up and saw that the Daves were not back yet, so off they went looking for them. They looked up and down the seawall and pier for the Davids and then went back to the house. Naturally they were already there and in bed. That's when thirty-year-old David was wondering when he will be old enough to stay out without his Maw and Paw coming to look for him.

Joe Vick in striking up a conversation with Jennifer asked how old she was. "Four." she said.

"What are you going to be when you're grown up?" asked Joe.

"Five," said Jennifer.

All those interested watched the Oilers' game Sunday and they beat Los Angeles so that made everybody happy. Especially with the kick returner's 95 yard kickoff return for the game winning touchdown.

All in all it was a great four days walking on the beach, laying on the beach, surfing, sailing, eating, drinking, fishing, and loafing. Not a bad way, to spend Labor Day, we all say!

end

Special Occasion

Friday, February 3, 2012

Special Occasion 

A man opened his wife's drawer and picked up a silk paper wrapped package:

'This, - he said - isn't any ordinary package.'
He unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box.

'She got this the first time we went to New York , 8 or 9 years ago. She has never put it on , was saving it for a special occasion.
Well, I guess this is it.

He got near the bed and placed the gift box next to the other clothing he was taking to the funeral house, his wife had just died.

He turned to me and said:

'Never save something for a special occasion.

Every day in your life is a special occasion'.

I still think those words changed my life.

Now I read more and clean less.

I sit on the porch without worrying about anything.

I spend more time with my family, and less at work.

I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to, not survived through.

I no longer keep anything.

I use crystal glasses every day...

I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if I feel like it.

I don't save my special perfume for special occasions, I use it whenever I want to
The words 'Someday....' and ' One Day...' are fading away from my dictionary.


If it's worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen or do it now....

I don't know what my friend's wife would have done if she knew she wouldn't be there the next morning, this nobody can tell.

I think she might have called her relatives and closest friends.
She might call old friends to make peace over past quarrels.

I'd like to think she would go out for Chinese, her favorite food.

It's these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had come..

Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.

Live for today, for tomorrow is promised to no-one..

If you got this, it's because someone cares for you and because, probably, there's someone you care about.

If you're too busy to send this out to other people and you say to yourself that you will send it 'One of these days' , remember that 'One day' is far away... or might never come......