What’s In A Name?

I took a Southwest Airlines commuter plane in Santa Ana called John Wayne on my way to San Francisco. Yes, The Duke walked these parts, made blockbuster westerns then left his name for an International Airport.

A few weeks later in San Jose, I took a plane for Bob Hope International at Burbank in L.A. Bob was hugely successful as an entertainer and played golf with the Presidents. He was a big hit in radio, theater, television and the movies but never won an Oscar as an actor. But he just took it all in stride and was quoted as saying, “Oscar Night at my house is called Passover.”

Anyways, we drove around Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive and passed by Staples Center where NBA action is. But ticket prices are too expensive! D_mn! There’s an interesting freeway called Rosa Parks and my mind went racing through America’s ugly past.

Rosa Parks was the black woman who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. Blacks are supposed to sit at the back of the bus according to an ordinance in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s. At the time, America was still deep in racism and slavery issues and Rosa Parks sparked a movement that culminated in the government’s acknowledgment of equality among the races. She died in Detroit in 2005 at the age of 92 and now lies in state at the Capitol, an honor usually reserved for Presidents of the United States.

So, what’s in a name? History my friends, history.

No Evidence

Filipinos often send balikbayan boxes to the Philippines and a friend is starting a forwarding business in California. So I get to travel all over the place picking up these boxes that almost always bulge on top in futile attempts to fill all sale items they can find in just one box! And today we are picking up a box in Sacramento from a woman who is manning a shelter for single women and homeless kids.

When we arrived she was upset, and from her account she was apparently annoyed at a particular newcomer who told her “f_ _k you!”

Below was her “quick” response:

“You can’t f_ _k me?!  In my life there was only one man who ever f_ _ked me, and that was my late husband. But you have no evidence about that because we have no children, but you have three, and no husband. So you are the one who is f_ _king s_ _t!”

UH-hmmm, it was quite funny. The newbie looked eighteen (18) and the Filipina manning the shelter was past eighty (80). Hehe, women….

Grand Canyon

After hours and hours of driving from Long Beach in California through arid desert landscapes across state borders to Arizona, we came face to face with that jaw dropping Grand Canyon!

Whoooah! The Grand Canyon is actually a gathering of huge crumbling rock mountains carved by the elements through time. Sudden vertical drops of the gorges and their sheer size plus astounding color changes throughout the day make for a dramatic landscape. The towering red and orange solid rock mountains dwarfed everything else turning tourists into moving ants as we strolled along the edges of the South Rim. You will feel small and insignificant in the presence of such overwhelming natural wonder.   

When we left I was full of vigor and vitality and excitement, a feeling I haven’t felt in years. Life is beautiful, I thought to myself. Then traffic turned into a halt down the road as we quietly watched a herd of elks rising from their beds.  It was almost eight o’clock in the evening but the lingering twilight still pierced shafts of rays in the woods.

Gump!

I like movies and one of my favorites is that mammoth of a film called Forrest Gump. Then the fantasy came alive, sort of….

I arrived in Los Angeles three days ago from Monterey, and yesterday we were at Santa Monica enjoying the beach. Then we had lunch at a restaurant called Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Sounds familiar? Yes it is. The diner’s motif is inspired by that blockbuster hit Forrest Gump. This was really exciting for me and I had fun just reading the menu.

I got Mom’s Favorite Fish and Veggies and Run Forest Run smoothie! But what I can’t understand is that why I could’t find any Lt. Dan drink? Anyways, after paying the girl in the counter, I jokingly commented, “So how did you come up with this gump restaurant idea, and did you get any permission from the producers of the film?”

Her face turned white and said, “I don’t know anything about that, and hmmm, hey, I just worked here!”