[Found here, and if you don’t know who they were, click here, here and here.]
Category: History
30 April 1975 – 40 Years Ago: Never Forget The Fall Of Saigon and the bloodshed that followed.
On 30 April 1975, the capitol of South Vietnam was captured by the NVA and the Republic ceased to exist. The gruesome carnage that followed as the communists overran the country had not been seen since WWII, yet it was described in the US media left as a march to freedom.
Tell that to the survivors and see what you get.
Of those who escaped the bloodshed, most arrived on US soil with little more than their lives, and many passed through Camp Pendleton’s tent encampments as refugees where they were fed, clothed and provided medical treatment. These people, with no country to return to, were grateful for the opportunity to succeed and prosper, and they did. The Vietnamese community in Southern California is a modern story of successful assimilation (without the burden of false handouts called Affirmative Action) and yet they preserved their ethnic heritage. Little Saigon is a prime example of a thriving business district created from next to nothing. Then this happens.
A Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of The Fall of Saigon was scheduled over a year in advance, with thousands expected to attend ceremonies at Camp Pendleton, the gateway to freedom for many Vietnamese refugees.
A U.S. policy that would prohibit the use of South Vietnamese symbols on federal property has killed a commemoration ceremony at Camp Pendleton for the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.
The decision to scrap the location has sent organizers scrambling for new options in the Little Saigon area – with two weeks left until the planned event at which 5,000 to 10,000 were expected to attend.
“We call it a banner of freedom and heritage and not having it would be a big deal,” Kenneth Nguyen, the spokesman for the commemoration’s organizing committee, said of the South Vietnamese flag. “We’re looking at other possibilities, but we won’t know until Monday.”
[…]
The all-day event, scheduled for April 25, has been in the planning for more than a year. Camp Pendleton was chosen for its significance as the first base on U.S. soil to house Vietnamese refugees after they fled their homeland.To many in Little Saigon, Pendleton represents the refugees’ first step in becoming a successful American community.
[…]
As news of the cancellation swept through Little Saigon, the reaction was one of disappointment and sadness – and disapproval of the U.S. policy.“It is true that the flag is the flag of South Vietnam as a nation and that nation is no longer recognized,” Garden Grove Councilman Phat Bui said. “But it is also a symbol for the Vietnamese community worldwide. It is a symbol of the refugees and of freedom. It’s a mistake not to allow it.”
[…]
Not everyone, though, agreed with the decision to move the ceremony away from the Marine base.“It’s unfortunate, but I understand. If I was in the U.S. government’s position, I would have done what I had to, even if I regretted it,” said Leslie Le, a former colonel in the South Vietnamese Army. “But as a community, we don’t recognize the government of Vietnam as really representing the people. … We could have still held it at Camp Pendleton and asked everyone to wear the color of the flag. That wouldn’t have been prohibited.”
[Source]
With only weeks to go, the Commemoration was moved to Little Saigon and I plan to attend. You’ll recognize me as the tall white guy waving The Flag of The Republic Of Vietnam.
Nancy & Sluggo & Aunt Fritzi
Ernie Bushmiller was one of the most surreal cartoonists of his time, and this is a good example. Nancy’s and Sluggo’s bodiless heads pop up from side-by-side Jack-in-the-Boxes without any indication of who or what flipped open the latches simultaneously or why.
Nancy’s parents never appeared in the comic and their absence was never explained; her only caretaker was her Aunt Fritzi.
Fritzi Ritz was once an elite party girl, a flapper, who predated the Nancy comics by a few years until Bushmiller took over the strip created by Larry Whittington in 1922. Bushmiller modeled Fritzi after his own fiancée (according to Wiki) and Aunt Fritzi eventually served as Nancy’s benefactor and disciplinarian. We can assume that she recognized Nancy’s psychosis, even though Fritzi was not quaified to raise a child with mental troubles. Although not an ideal model for a young child, Fritzi did the best she could given the circumstances.
[Images found here and here. BTW, Sluggo didn’t appear until 1938, and his last name was Smith – fun facts to know and tell. Related Nancy stuff here.]
M. Gaudron’s Contribution to The World: The 1910 Aerial Torpedo Boat
“This machine is the invention of M. Gaudron, a Frenchman, who claims that in this perfected ‘aerial torpedo boat’ 100 feet long five passengers can be carried at a speed of 30 miles an hour.”
The article doesn’t mention where the passengers might be carried to at 30 mph, but after 114 years, who cares. [Found here.]
The .Gif Post No. 384 – Current Events
Saturday Matinee – Taxco GoPro, Pecker Dunne, The Allman Bros. Band & Zappa’s Awesome Cover
Rémy Métailler takes a leisurely bike ride downhill through Taxco, Mexico, January 2013 [via].
28 minutes and one second of the Late Pecker Dunne.
Allman Brothers at the Fillmore East, 1970. Jam city.
That should keep your mojo going for a while.
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow.
1967 High School Girls
Hat Molds
I’m guessing they’re wooden, and some appear to be from the 1920s, perhaps earlier.
I don’t know a lot about hats, except that early makers of felt hats used mercury in the process, and the accumulation of that metal in their systems eventually affected their mental stability, resulting in the phrase “Mad as a hatter.”
Originally, cowboy hats and others were functional rather than a fashion statement. Brims were flat, designed to shade the sun and drain the rain, but once movies came about, the sides of the brims were turned up to show the actor’s faces. I suppose the crease in the top kept water from flowing off the sides and toward the back.
The side “dent” is a mystery, unless it was where a man grabbed it just before saying,
“Well, helloooo, ladies.”
[Found in here.]
Chastity Suit?
Jaqueline Gadsden (aka Jane Daly) on the set of “The Mysterious Island“ in 1929. Although it was a silent movie (one of the last), it was filmed in color (one of the first).
[Image found here.]
Fire and Ice – February 2015
Philadelphia firefighters work the scene of an overnight blaze in west Philadelphia on February 16, as icicles hang from where the water from their hoses froze. Bone-chilling, single digit temperatures have gripped the region, prompting the closure of all parish and regional Catholic elementary schools in the city of Philadelphia.
Ice encases a traffic light and two fire fighting ladders, formed from water used to fight a fire, near the scene of an overnight blaze in west Philadelphia on February 16.
Vehicles and a building are covered with ice as firefighters worked to keep a warehouse fire down in the Brooklyn borough of New York on February 1.
Beacon Street in Boston on February 16.
That last one wasn’t the result of fire hoses, but it’s awesome. Beside the threat of ice and snow collapsing roofs, the huge icicles are potential killers down below.
[All images and captions from here, via here. Click photos for full size.]
Tacky Raccoons 