IT'S RAINING! IT'S POURING!

IT'S RAINING! IT'S POURING!  ☂

                                                                                                KENNETH E. HALL     AUGUST 29, 2018         HOUSTON

It's RAINING!  It's POURING!  
☂
I love rain, and always have. 

It cleans the air, waters the plants and grass, and it keeps the wildlife alive and thriving.

Its sound soothes the mind and give peace to the soul.

There is a rumble of thunder in the distance, that adds to the roar of the falling water is it hits the pavement and rocks below.

It is a symphony of sound, playing for those who have an ear to listen. In its rhythmic patter, I hear guitars softly play, and children singing: 

♫"It's raining, it's pouring,

The old man is snoring,

Bumped his head and he went to bed,

And he couldn't get up in the morning...

Rain, rain - go away;

Come again some other day!"

The calendar says it should be the hottest day of summer, so the cooling midday waters are all the more welcome. 

Today is that "other day," the day when the rains came.

The sky flickers with lightning, and the thunder replies quickly. It's a good day to be inside, sitting down with the windows open - to catch the mighty last sounds of a long summer that came 
— and is nearly gone.

        ☂  ☂  ☂  ☂  ☂  ☂  ☂  ☂  ☂  ☂  ☂  ☂

Today's rainstorm reminds me of a day just like this one long, long ago, when I was just a lad of ten. The sky turned black and I enjoyed the cool wind that usually proceeds a summer rain. I refreshed myself in its gusts while swaying high atop my pear tree at my grandparents' I was glad to, for once, be out of the harsh, midsummer solar glare and the sweltering humid heat that goes with it.

Not content with the subtle suggestion made by the thunder and lightning that it was time for me to go indoors, I chose instead to remain high up in the branches, lone on my lofty perch, far away from everyone and everything but Nature. 

Then the inevitable rain droplets started to fall, one-by-one at first, but soon more followed, and I thought then that my best course of action was to continue to enjoy Nature, but from a somewhat dryer location! 

As I scrambled down from atop the pear tree, the rain intensified, and I ran toward the house fast, hoping to reach the back door, where at least there was an overhang... But I only made it as far as the old back shed, whose wide-open covered area beckoned as a port in a very real storm. 

Then the sky seemed to open up, and I decided to ride out the thunder shower under that protecting roof.

Up to now, I saw a storm as something terrifying - something to be feared - some primeval instinct told me to flee. But this particular day was different. I looked at the shower in a whole new light.

On that day I became aware of a hundred things that I never noticed before: the little subtleties of a mid-afternoon summer storm — and for the first time in my life, I REALLY LISTENED to the rain. 

Noticing the little streams of water that was running off of the shed's roof and cascading to the concrete last step below, I put pots, jars, and cans underneath to catch the water - only to see those little vessels quickly filled. The water plopped and dripped and seemed to dance in them, and I took great delight in all that was happening.

No radio did blare, no TV set did shout and scream with violence. There was only this natural phenomenon we call RAIN to experience, and I did so fully. 

I didn't notice it at first - but the roar of rainwater on the roof began changed into a steady drumming, and that, too, slackened to a slight pitter-patter. 

Soon enough, the last drops were falling. It was time to pick up the water-filled vessels and empty them, and since no more water now fell, to go inside. 

But something happened that warm summer day,  something I would remember the rest of my life: I got an appreciation for a summer shower.

It was the first day I really listened to the rain.

☂

THE MAN OUT THERE ON THE WING!

THE MAN OUT THERE ON THE WING!

KENNETH E. HALL AUGUST 26, 2018 HOUSTON

Terror comes in many forms and sneaks up on you when you lest expect it! For terror to do its job, it must take its victims by complete surprise, and show that IT and it alone is in control.

Airplanes are solid pieces of machinery, EXTREMELY well-built and designed to withstand an incredible amount of weather-related turbulence. But an airplane is not indestructible.

it is only within recent memory that Man has come to the true realization as to just how strong, formidable, and dangerous thunderstorm cells and their wind-shear can be, and these lessons were learned over time, and as a result of the deaths of a great many people. It was a high price to pay, indeed.

Long ago I was a passenger on a crowded night flight from Atlanta to New Orleans. We flew into the worst thunderstorm I have ever experienced! It was horrible! In fact, it was something out of "The Twilight Zone Movie" that was playing around that time. Severe turbulence suddenly came upon us - catching all of us completely unawares.

The whole cabin was in an absolute UPROAR! A few people who had been standing were trying to return to their seats, only to stumble like a drunkard on a Saturday night. Overhead bins were popping open, objects were falling out of them and onto the frightened passengers below, and there were occasional screams and shouts of sheer terror!

This flight was certainly no fun! In fact, FEAR ruled us all. I looked outside into the glaring eye of this monstrosity of a storm - and lightning flashed with diabolical blazing sparks as the plane and its hapless occupants were buffed about like a child's toys. Death was at this moment a great and a very REAL possibility.

I saw quite a frightening show as I looked out the window. Rain came down in torrents and rolled off the glistening wing - which reflected the electric blue and purple from the savage storm around us.

It was a sight to see!

Then a flight attendant with a serious, frightened look on her face was making her way slowly up the aisle, holding onto the seats for dear life as she did so.

I got her attention with a very serious and frightened demeanor:

"Ma'am! Ma'am!" I shouted.

"Yes, sir?" she asked, quite concerned.

I put a terrified expression on my face, pointed to the open porthole where the storm in all its fury could be clearly seen, and exclaimed: "THERE's a MAN OUT THERE ON THE WING!!!"

...quoting a line from the Twilight Zone Movie.

INSTANTLY everyone within earshot began to laugh, and panic died down just as quickly. I even heard a few chuckles and comments instead of worried cries.

Yes, I was joking, but that joke changed the demeanor of many of those frightened people who heard it, and in just a few minutes, happily, we emerged from that scary ordeal.

PANIC had ensued aboard that tiny airplane so high up amidst the thunderstorm clouds that night, and it took something radically different to take their minds off of the danger we were in.

Terror feeds off of terror, it has been said. That night, on that lonely plane so high in the stormy sky, it "was not a dimension of sight or of sound, but of MIND!"

HERE ARE A FEW OTHER AIRLINE-RELATED STORIES I HAVE ON MY BLOG:

http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2014/06/institution-of-aggravation.html

http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-heartfelt-lullaby-tiho-noce.html

http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2018/08/air-lines.html

Lightning image By 350z33 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28155641

Not my photo.

GENEALOGY IS FUN!

GENEALOGY IS FUN!
KENNETH E. HALL      MARCH 4, 2013         HOUSTON


GENEALOGY IS FUN! –
For me, it combines my interest, knowledge, and love of history, geography, and languages, and requires these very skills at the same time. In addition to being fascinating, *"looking up the family tree and seeing the twists and turns of its many branches" can be highly educational as well.

It is, like most hobbies, very time-consuming, but I keep getting more and more information, the harder I look. Some things I have found in my search, though, are, well, shall I say – a bit FAR-FETCHED. For instance, I traced one line back to ADAM & EVE! Really? I know there are extensive genealogies in the Bible, the apocrypha and elsewhere, but is that even possible?? Then there's just plain whimsy: The same sources that say our family traces back to Adam & Eve also have one branch going back to URANUS and ELECTRA!!

Come on!!! SERIOUSLY???
 
Yet another branch goes back through the murky mists of Scandinavian history to WODEN and FREYA. Now it's one thing to have a SAINT in the family. WE do! Kings and Queens, Dukes and counts, knights and Crusaders, they are all are a dime a dozen in the royal record. But when it comes to being descended from a Norse god, goddess, or water-nymph – well, I kinda tend to question the sources. That's just ME, I guess.

 However, if I were descended from one of the CÆSARS, (I believe I'm descended from Julius Caesar) weren't THEY gods?? At least they SAID they were gods until somebody killed them and likewise deified themselves and were also worshiped as such, until they, too, became victims of palace intrigue or died in wars or of natural causes.

    Biblical characters are quite a different thing: we BELIEVE they existed – and that they are Divine - but when it comes to actually hooking up with them in an ancestry chart, this changes the game, and puts these people into a different category – that of a family member. However distant, it is likely that we do spring from such people, at least on one line or two. (Joseph of Arimathea)

What about the divinity, does that come with the bloodline?

As for Adam and Eve, many believe that we sprang from one and only one pair of humans, whom we refer to by those names. Many other cultures - ancient and modern – who have no Judeo-Christian-Islamic beliefs, likewise share the Adam/Eve tradition, and some even call them by similar names! What makes it interesting is that those modern genetic scientists who study and map the human genome now claim that is is quite likely that a real Adam and a real Eve character as the common ancestors of all humanity actually existed. It makes sense logically as well.

     But it dosen't seem plausible to me that the common ancestors – the two progenetors of Homo Sapiens Sapiens – could have existed only a mere 5,000 years ago. Considering the plethora of archaeological findings throughout the world that predate the Biblical Adam and Eve, it is possible that the Adam and Eve that we know and believe in, actually existed, but that the "world" that they referred to was actually the HEBREW world, and there were indeed many others alive at the time that they existed in the "Garden of Eden."

All that, of course, is subject to debate. It provokes thought and contemplation on our origins. When all is said and done, isn't the object of this exercise to answer the age-old question: "Where do I come from?"

Many cultures, spread throughout the world, and throughout time claim that they came from another world – at least in part – that gods came to earth from a place far, far away, and mated with us. What if?  It is highly unlikely that an alien race, if one existed, could actually physically mate and have offspring with humans, unless in a very remote past, we ourselves came originally from that same distant place in outer space.
OR, maybe the faraway place was just Indonesia!

Another thought: As I trace back the family through time, I am using the information left behind by those who came before us. This is all I have to go on. I am told that this one begat that one and so-on, and so-on. But the whole thing can unravel and fall apart like a house of cards if just ONE PERSON LIED!! Momma SAID I was her child... Momma SAID that that man was my Daddy. Maybe she doesn't KNOW herself who the real father is. Maybe, with all the various liaisons and philandering that is part of being human, maybe I am really the offspring of a cannibal king with a big nose ring...and a dusty maid instead descending from a European King and Queen.
(BOTH are probably the case!)
What of it?                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Just as the fossil record is incomplete and inexact, genealogical records are also incomplete and contain errors. Does this uncertainty mean that the genealogy is flawed and imperfect? YES! Of course it is. With DNA in most cases, we can prove or disprove a relationship - but even this is not 100% and can't tell exactly who you are related to beyond seven generations.

Because we have no proof positive which specific people are our forebears and which ones are not, does that mean that we are not here? NO! Of course not. We obviously are here, and we came from SOMEWHERE, and the records are more likely to be accurate as inaccurate. Right or wrong, we EXIST, and this information is all we have to go by to trace our ancestry back as far as possible.
The cliché saying: "If you go back far enough, we are ALL related!"

In the final analysis, another phrase applies here "It's not the destination, it's the JOURNEY".
It's the making up the family tree that is so interesting.
It is just as true with genealogy as with anything else.
In closing perhaps I can quote from a song in the movie "Yentl"
"Like a link in a chain                                                                                                                                 From the past to the future
That joins me with the children yet to be,
I can now be a part
Of the ongoing stream,
That has always been a part of me!"
KEEP SEARCHING!

♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀

*"looking up the family tree and seeing the twists and turns of its many branches" was said by Owl in the Winnie the Pooh' "Tigger Movie."The character Tigger, once boasting that he was "the ONLY one" suddenly starts wondering who his family might be, and goes on a long quest - only to find out that his best and closest friends, the ones he loves most, are his family.

"This Is One of Those Moments" - Songwriters: Alan Bergman / Marilyn Bergman / Michel Legrand

This Is One of Those Moments lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, BMG Rights Management

There's a Pawn-Shop on the Corner

There's a Pawn-Shop on the Corner
KENNETH E. HALL       AUGUST 4, 2018   HOUSTON

My family motto: "IN HOC TU OFEN"

♫ "There's a pawn shop on the corner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I just had to get Five or Ten..."♪♪ was a song my mother used to sing to me when I was a kid living in Arlington, VA. I remember a couple of times driving through Rosslyn (an older section of Arlington) and seeing these seedy buildings with 3 gold balls hanging out in the front. There were, It seemed, quite a few buildings around Arlington with these strange orbs. I was curious.

My mother used to hate to go to that dimly-lit area, though I didn't understand why at the time. I do now. That section in the mid-1950's was a bit, er, sleazy, as I recall, and I only saw it through a little kid's eyes. How DIFFERENTLY things look when you are a kid!

The village of Rosslyn developed a bad reputation after the Civil War of having gambling houses and pawnshops, neither attracting a very savory crowd. With the development of nearby Arlington, Rosslyn's reputation improved greatly, even though it remained known for its pawn shops.

One day I mentioned those places with the gold balls and asked my grandfather what was the meaning of them. He told me: "Two-to-one you won't be back." That was no help. I found out later that apparently three gold balls are in homage to the Patron Saint of Pawn Shops.

Wait! WHAT??? PAWN SHOPS have a patron SAINT??? You've GOT to be kidding. One story I read claims that Saint Nicholas, of all people, apparently paid the dowries of three poor girls with three bags of gold thrown through a window. Sounds like something a Saint would do, and Saint Nicholas was a real person.

So, SANTA CLAUS is the Patron Saint of pawn shops. Go figure! I wonder who's been naughty and who's been nice?

Sounds far-fetched, I will admit, but in every legend is a grain of truth. The origin of the symbol may indeed be gold, but more likely the Medici family legend of Italy comes closer to the truth. The symbol was used in Lombardy as a banking "logo" - and three gold coins made up the trademark of Lombardy Bank. The gold ball ornament came later as pawn and trade shops used this banking symbol to attract attention.

I had never ever been in a pawn shop. They were places I tended to avoid. I lost track with my father for a number of years, and when we renewed contact, I found out that he was a successful Maryland businessman, alive and well and living in Havre de Grace, MD. He had two taxi companies in the area, a small advertising newspaper, and of all things, a PAWN SHOP!

He showed me his place of business, guitars on the wall and everything, and really I had no idea how such businesses were run. I do now, and they are not the sleazy places they, I guess, used to be - at least not today. I can't speak of those shadowy little places in Arlington. But I can say one thing in their favor: Santa Claus was on their side!

Ho-ho-ho!

----------------------------------------

NOTE: Three of anything usually indicates a copious amount.

In Chinese, the character 品 means "goods" or "wares" and can be seen above every Chinese shop. It comes from boxes stacked - indicating a store.

AIR LINES:

AUGUST 26, 2014, I POSTED A PICTURE I TOOK RETURNING FROM NARITA, JAPAN TO HOUSTON 
  "My teachers always told me no one would pay me to look out the window. ------ Guess I won that round!"



Q AIR   LINES  Q     BY KENNETH E. HALL
A COLLECTION OF STORIES AND TALES FROM AN INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT.

"PIMENTO" is a magic French word! Oh, you didn't know that??

An airline  gate agent who used to work the Paris flights told me one day that he was given a "magic word" to use whenever he was getting crowded and could not take care of a customer at that moment.

The word was "pimento." 

"Pimento?" I asked, surprised, "But that has no meaning in French that I know of..."

He said he didn't know anything about that. All he knew is that if someone came up to him and he was too busy, he'd tell them "pimento" and they'd go right back to their seats.
"Works every time!" he told me.

Our inbound plane had just arrived and we had yet another hour or so to wait for us to get on.

I sat alone in my thoughts, chuckling  about that silly word.

What could it BE?

Then it dawned on me: the way to say "not now" in French is "pas maintenant" - pronounced "pamantnon" - which the guy evidently figured sounds a lot like the word pimento!

So if you're sitting in a French restaurant, you're not yet ready to order but the waiter comes to your table and asks what you would like, send him away, en français: just say "PIMENTO!"


SENIORITY: When I started, I flew some trips with some stews who were rrreally senior! They were SO senior…(How senior,(you might ask.) ?  They we're SO SENIOR they used to tell me stories about Orville and Wilbur… WHEN THEY WERE BOYS!!!!!


JUNIORITY: For years I flew senior trips. Unless we had an emergency re-crew consisting of new-hires, I lived a strictly benthonic life... I got what trickled down...and you KNOW what "trickles down!" One day, someone asked me how I coped with always being bottom-man on Totem pole. You have to have a good attitude about it, pure and simple! I told them that I would always stand up for my "juniority!" After all, it's how you look at it: I wasn't on the bottom if you held the crew list UPSIDE DOWN!


MISDIRECTED ANIMOSITY: The airplane is an emotionally-charged metal tube flying over oceans and continents, and people, already upset over personal problems and a plethora of other things tend to take out those frustrations on others:

I was a Japanese-speaker on a San Francisco-Osaka flight. On those flights, there are mostly Japanese, and they expect there to be people who can assist then in their own language. On one service, there was a large contingent of Japanese senior high school students, and they were having a ball talking and joking with this Gai-Jin (foreigner) who knew something of their language - (me). I was having a great time with them as well, and went from one to the other asking what they wanted to eat and so forth. I came to this young Asian-looking girl and addressed her also in Japanese. [I can USUALLY tell Japanese from Koreans... I say USUALLY...] Suddenly she snaps at me like I had just roundly insulted her, curtly declaring in English: "I'M NOT JAPANESE!"
Without missing a beat or even getting upset in the slightest, I smiled and politely answered her: "Neither am I!"

While sitting in the crewroom awaiting an assignment, I met a beautiful blonde flight attendant who was reading a book in Japanese! being very shy and all, it took me about two seconds to ask her about her knowledge of the Japanese language. She told me she was the daughter of, I believe, a missionary family and grew up in Japan. She went to school through university completely in the Japanese educational system, and had authored several books in that difficult language. 

One day, on one of her very first flights as a Japanese-speaking crewmember, a Japanese businessman came up to her and another flight attendant. The other lady had been working for the airline for many years, was born in Hawai'i of Japanese ancestry - some five generations - and spoke no Japanese. The businessman approached the two, bowed politely, and both ladies returned the bow. He asked a question, directing it, understandably, to the Japanese lady, who stood there and said not a single word.The blonde young attendant answered the question in fluent Japanese. 

The businessman came up with another question, and the same thing happened. He became a bit annoyed and posed yet a third question, whereupon the blonde young lady was the one to acknowledge and respond to his query. 

Japanese businessmen typically are very quiet and soft-spoken. when not out on the town at an all-night sushi bar - polite to the max, but this gentleman had come unglued. He let forth a tirade, directing the full fury of his ire at the bewildered Japanese-American lady, who, of course, understood nothing of what was taking place in front of her.

"This is an INSULT!!! How DARE you not even SPEAK to me --- and defer my questions to your subordinate!!" he shouted - quite beside himself.

The younger of the two ladies politely bowed and explained the situation. Things aren't always what they seem. One Japanese businessman most definitely "lost face" that flight!

THE "LINGUINI" - A buddy of mine, when commenting on my interest in languages, told me once: "Kenny, you're a veritable LINGUINI!" It took me quite some time not to chuckle every time my wife came home with a packet of Linguine to cook. But it was true: I love languages and have so since I was about seven years old. I remember on a long international flight, I was sitting down studying Arabic. One lady who picked up the trip out-of-base saw me writing notes and looking up words in a dictionary. She looked over my shoulders and shook her head. 
"You're studying ARABIC?" she asked. This was straight out of the Chronicles of Nunya - Nunya Business!)
I said I was, and that I found the language interesting. 
She comes back with her opinion (which I do not recall ever asking her for...) saying: "You know, you could put your time to FAR better use by studing a more widely-spoken language like French, Spanish, German, Italian - something that you could actually USE..."
I kept writing, and didn't say a word. I wasn't going to grace a comment like that with an answer.
A girl I've flown with for years said:" Leave him alone, Honey, he already speaks those languages."
It's nice when someone has your back.

"YOU'RE WASTING YOUR TIME HERE!" About a dozen years ago, I was working a flight from Paris to Houston. I was helping several different people, and wound up by using as many different languages in the process. That was par for the course on a Paris flight. When we were on final approach, I took my jumpseat at 3R - you know - where you get to stare at all the passengers in coach and they all stare at you! This man was very nice and told me he enjoyed the way I did my job. I was feeling pretty good, too, until he said something else: 
"What are you DOING here, man? I mean, with all your language skills and so forth you could be doing so much more with your life!"
But I was a gentleman about it, and addressed him thus: "Well, yes, I suppose I could - but let me see how true that really is: "You," I explained "work the week, and have weekends OFF, am I right?" 
He nodded in agreement.
"I WORK on weekends, and have the WEEK off.... and on those weekends, I'm in PARIS! ----and I feed my family. Do you have a better offer?"
He smiled understandingly, knowing I enjoyed my job immensely. He gave me a firm, sincere  handshake when the flight was over.
I don't consider a minute wasted in my nearly 22 year long career flying.

♫ "*TOMBE LA NEIGE!!!"  We were heading inland over the English Channel one winter morning, when the captain announced we would be delayed due to a snowfall in Paris. A French passenger got very angry and told me "WE" were to blame for the delay. I looked straight at him and, in true logical Gallic fashion, said to him, politely: "Mais, c'est VOTRE neige, monsieur!" (But it's YOUR snow, sir!)
Anger quickly left his eyes and he nodded in agreement, as did the other French passengers around him. Guess I won that one!

4/20/2014 - "HOLIDAYS": It's nearly eight o'clock on a chilly spring evening here in London. The grey skies and pouring rain have, at long last given way to a clearing sky and the promise of a beautiful day tomorrow. The sun peeped briefly out of its dark hiding place, as if to reassure us all that it is indeed still there. Today is a holiday, or so the calendar says. Someone of great importance long, long ago, chose this particular day from among all others to celebrate some significant event. All the shops and restaurants are shuttered tight, and the few people who venture out onto the city sidewalks amble about quickly and unsmiling. For several days up until now I have had the pleasure of being home. In a few days, after the solemn festivities have come to an end, I, once again will be free to be home with my family. But today, since it is revered by so many others, I shall spend apart from my loved ones - in the company of strangers - in some far-flung corner of the globe. Like nearly every holiday, it, for me, is but another day of work - void of the significance assigned to it. I do take pleasure, though, in being of service to those who, like me, are traveling on such a day. Far more pleasure still do I get thinking that, God willing, I will soon return to family and friends. They will greet me and ask me how was England or Japan, or wherever I've been, and I will smile, say it was wonderful .... and give thanks to be home.
& MORE AIR LINES: @There isn't a flight crew member around who hasn't seen his or her share of the weird or the noteworthy while out on the line. "I tell ya, I could write a BOOK!" I used to say.   AIR LINES is a fledgling attempt to write down some funny, sad, exciting, strange, and just plain BIZARRE things that I have seen in a career that spanned over two decades and took me to many places in the world. Here are links to other stories which air crew and even the flying public can relate to:

QU MEDICAL EMERGENCIES - We have all had them; they are never fun, and it is heartbreaking when your stuck inside a metal tube at 30,000' and the only help a sick or injured passenger has is YOU. I have one heartfelt story which I would like to share:
I call it "A Heartfelt Lullabye":

F http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-heartfelt-lullaby-tiho-noce.html


Q AIRPORTS!!! ---- DON'T GET ME STARTED!!!  Q
Why do so many people HATE to fly? This is a whole other story!! Please check it out! 
F  http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2014/06/institution-of-aggravation.html
-----------------------

*"Tombe la Neige" (in English: "The Snow is Falling") is a French-language song written and sung by Belgian-Italian singer Salvtore Adamo. Released in 1963, it and became a worldwide hit and one of Adamo's best-known songs.