Boone Native takes Hollywood for a Ride

     Wendall (Spike) Condon, BHS-75, it seems, has spent a military lifetime in Germany. He's still there now and had an interesting encounter recently. He wrote, "I've had a hard time following you the last three weeks or so. I was cut off on my military computer and had to put in a work order for your blog. They finally checked it out and determined it was a "safe" site. Actor Brian Cranston of "Breaking Bad" and "Malcolm in the Middle" TV programs, along with his wife, Robin, were here on a USO tour. They came to the Illesheim Flight Simulator facility and I took Mr. Cranston in a Blackhawk simulator flight. We were in there about 30 minutes, even had time to land on a frigate. I think he really enjoyed it. Additionally, the Flight Simulator facility is expanding. We are going from three flight simulators, Blackhawk, Apache and Chinook, to a device called the AVCATT, NCM3, another Apache and Blackhawk M model. So, I'm almost out of real estate. Hope this finds you well."
     Your editor responds, "thanks Spike. So good to hear from you and thanks for sharing that experience. See, everyone has or has had, sometime in their life, something that happened to them, with them, about them, that would be of interest to our vast viewership."
K-----K
      Loren Frazier, BHS-58, always has some interesting material to pass on. He's been thinking about Irma, the most recent hurricane in Florida. He wrote, "I have several classmates/friends in Florida so it was a concern of mine. A number of years ago, during what I think was hurricane Charley, one of those friends, Gene Strandberg, BHS-58, was living in Punta Gorda, FL. and I thought I'd call him. Surprisingly, Gene answered the phone, right in the middle of the hurricane. He was hunkered down in a closet in his house along with a bottle of rum. Well, during this recent hurricane, Irma, I called again and yes, he had remembered my call years previous during Charley. When I told him I thought he had a bottle of scotch in his closet that night, he reminded me it was rum. I guess that is more of a Florida drink than scotch. Anyway, he was watching the forecasts and was hoping things would  be alright at his location. I'm sure someone else may have a hurricane story to tell........or some other story.......its up to them to keep this Korner going. If they want to continue reading it, they must contribute to it or it will be gone and they'll have nobody but themselves to blame."
     Your editor says, "right on Loren."
K-----K
     Gary Knox, United-57, has a story that reminds me of way, way, way back in my "childhood." Gary explains, "my grandparents lived in a large, two-story house with an enclosed front porch on North Marshall street in Boone. Above the porch were several windows with narrow spaces between them. I found an old tennis ball and created a game of one player baseball. I would throw a pitch against the siding between the windows.......never hitting one. If I caught the rebounding ball, it was an out. If the ball hit the ground it was a hit if I was unable to catch the grounder and make a clean throw between the windows. I kept track of base runners, scores, outs and innings. I played the part of both teams. I played this game from age 8-12 during the summer........thinking it was more interesting than the conversation in the house. In wintertime, the tennis ball was my basketball and I invented a similar game in an open, empty basement room."
     Editors Note: Here I, the Kornerman, thought I was the ONLY one that concocted such "silly" games. Hey, back then, in my case anyway, no television......etc. etc. We had to while away our time in very unique and I guess "silly" ways.
     My game/s were done with three dice. If I remember right, in baseball, if I rolled three or 18, it was a home run, 13 was a strikeout, 10 a ground out etc. etc. I, too, made up names of players and kept a scorebook. Some of the players were Ben Down, Stewart (Stu) Pover, Marty Gra and Dee Moyne. I had maybe six or eight teams organized, drew up a schedule and played lots of games on all those cold, winter, Iowa nights. Using the scorebook, I even kept individual statistics and used that for the basis of selecting season ending all star teams. I also put together a yearbook with all the final statistics on each of the teams.......along with some advertisements for Heckova watches and other made up clients. I'm not much of an artist, but I even had some illustrations of some of the players included along with their autographs of course. In fact, I a page for each team with autographs of all the players of those teams. Its really amazing how many different ways you can construct autographs.
     To me, it was so much fun and occupied so much of my time when, at that time, teenagers had a lot more time for "doing not much of anything." I'm sure if my mother were here, she would still be clamoring for me to spend that much time on my scholastic work rather than those "silly" games.
     P.S. I still have that yearbook, scorebooks etc. somewhere in this house.
K-----K
     BOONE CONNECTED DEATHS:  James Frederick, 83, Boone. Parents were John and Bernice Fredericks. James lived at the Woodward State Hospital for 54 years prior to moving to a Boone group home in 1996..........Gerald Mass, 79, Madrid. He worked heavy highway and bridge construction. Gerald's wife, Flo Ann, survives.........Larry Embrey, 76, Madrid.
K-----K
     18 days to go
K-----K
     Worldwide Korner headquarters are located at 710 Aldrich, Boone, Iowa 50036-4703. Phone number is 515-432-1530. To email your stories/memories/comments/SUPPORT........
kelleyskorner1@gmail.com.