So we were in the doctor’s office and ‘Maw’ needed to get some tests done. Bob Campbell was doing the poking of needle for thirty years in the Army. And for some reason he could not find a ‘good’ vein in ‘Maw’s right arm to administer thallium.
Bob caused ‘Maw’ pain as she slid down the chair. Then the scolding began between the both of them. My first impression of this very tall man at about 6’3″ in height and with gray moustache was that he was very tired that day. He didn’t look friendly either.
‘Maw’ gave this man a hard time and both of them started to outdo each other based on their career experience. I mumbled how noone cares what you both had to say. ‘Maw’ knew how to ease the man down from his pedestal with words of calm by reminding him of stress and heart condition.
He talked too much – about Texans and their pistols; about why cowboys wore those long ‘duster’ like coats (like his white lab coat and how women wore smocks or moo-moo’s as I later added); about how Geronimo (5’4″) was able to pet his horse from the confines of his prison for ten years, and had visited his grandfather’s store to get hard candy because refrigeration didn’t exist; and how real cowboys are from Oklahoma (like Garrett, one of ‘Shrimpsei’s moderator).
He went on to talk about his grandfather (the youngest of seven siblings) and how he would discipline his seven kids not to touch his gun lying on the side of the house; how he’d look each one in the eyes and told them to find the ‘stick’ as big as his thumb and if they came back with something smaller, he’d go outdoors himself and cut down one to bring back and whack the kids with.
At the funeral of his grandfather, his grandmother was angry, did all she could and had to be held back so as not to jump into the grave after the man she loved but hated so much. His grandmother kept a secret from revealed until the death bed of the grandfather that the only one person who would dare touch his gun was his favorite daughter – the apple of his grandpa’s eye. He would have written the girl off his will had the grandma told the grandpa.
So Bob continued on with his story about Norway being the better than Sweden; how technologically advanced they were as Vikings, who conquered the British Isles and Ireland. He mentioned part of the Swedish went all the way to Baghdad, Iraq — where they found gold coins in jars or square containers underneath the dwellings. This goes to show that the Norse had something to trade.
If they didn’t trade well, they’d cut them off by half with their short axes. This is in reference to Norse women who were as tall as 6’1″. But he meant cutting off their heads; while I kept thinking cutting off at the knees. There were mythological gods and goddesses, especially about a god losing one eye. Those imageries of Vikings were real – thick, heavy bodies with full beards.
Bob grew up and identified with the Norse, by the way. He almost sounds so proud that noone should mess with the Norse, who (with his description of a close friend) spat hatred towards the Swedish. ‘Maw’, however, said he looked more like Middle Eastern. I ‘sensed that he might be more Americanized, as in Native American Indian.
Then the conversation (mostly his) went on to describe how the Germans got most of the Viking’s technology of heavy water, which I knew cost very much into the millions to manufacture. He described how four buses full of ten Germans to one Norse and how the buses being sacrificed by crashing from the one narrow road to the steep ravine below.
There were German planes which would crash in the mountain side because a well-built structure containing denatured water could not be accessed except across a fjord. This very deep fjord had only one railway for transporting this denatured water. This railway was also sacrificed. And only recently there was one container full of this denatured water (heavy water from nuclear reactors) that was recovered.
After the conversation went from one room to the bathroom and then outside of the lobby, I remember him mentioning about 10,000 divisions of Germans were needed to calm the Norse attitudes. Later he said ‘Maw’ needed a reservation. I said – a bubble. I didn’t know what that meant but he sure knew something and told me more that I’m sure I needed to know.
Author’s note: I loved listening to this old timer speak of his stories. I had the pleasure to remember almost every bit of details of his elaboration because I was especially attentive to what he had to say, which I felt was important. I will need to get a micro-recorder one day to make sure I could blog more on other people’s historical accounts.
Created on Tuesday, December 18, 2007 10:24:58 PM
Copyright © 2008 by Fluffy von der Flynn. All rights reserved.
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