We'd watch reruns of "Boston Blackie", too. But Frank didn't like Boston Blackie too much, it was a fairly unimaginative detective show. You know, he liked my sister and we had a television. We also had a swamp cooler that would be up and running by nine am on those hot summer mornings where the temperatures would soar far past a hundred, sometimes as much as 113 even more! And the old wood frame houses he lived in at the time would hold the heat like ovens. So he'd probably just come over to chill out a bit, too.

Truthfully, even then, Frank reminded me of Boston Blackie. Not just because of the mustache he was growing, but because of the intro: " Danger! Excitement! Adventure! ... enemy of those who make him an enemy, friend of those who have no friends".

(It took me a long time, from when I was a kid til just now, to remember why I thought Frank was a little like Boston Blackie.)

So because it was summer and hot inland where we lived, and because who knows why really (maybe the subliminal mind absorbed the sign above the cabdriver's head saying "Harbor Cruises to Catalina") and we knew it would be cooler along the coast, we'd start working on my parents to take us all to Catalina for a day, where they could have fun, too, and they'd eventually give in and we'd all go to Catalina one weekend.

But not on a harbour cruise, the fast little boats. On the big ocean liner that was like going to Europe. And you'd debark for the day and have some adventures, and Frank and my sister took off on their own with a reminder from my Dad to be back to the pier before 4 o'clock or you'd be stuck all night on the island. At 4 o'clock the steamship sounded its fog horn blast and it seemed half the island was running towards the ship. Not us, we were all back together standing by the big ropes ready to board.

Jesus, I was a lucky little kid!  ¶ 1/13/2011 04:04:00 PM