Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

That's what you get for having such luscious trees up in New England - lots of leaves. Whatever happened to the idea of mulching them up to feed the lawn instead of removing them? I guess that didn't work - they didn't rot quickly enough to not choke the grass or something. Here in NY we've had an unusually colorful fall - the leaves are about 65% down.
We go up to Westchester parks to watch local soccer teams - amazing sport - lots of foreign groups and private schools playing, even girls. We saw Greeks playing Irish, Polish vs Russians, etc. The most impressive and tough are the South Amer teams - short, stocky guys (ElSalvador vs Guatamala last week), fearless, fast, agile, and good tactical planning. Amazing - sorry to say, but it makes baseball look like a lazyman's game.

There is some debate over what to do with these little darlings. Some people just cut them up with the mower, others just leave them, I am of the school that believes that the tanic acid [or whatever it is] burns the grass and leaves bare spots. I don't think it makes very good mulch either, and mulch is a lot of work. I'm not a maniac on a fine lawn I just want them gone. I would like to invent some enzyme that could be injected into trees that would cause leaves to decompose faster and ferterlize at the same time. I come up with at least two crazy ideas a week. I need a whole company to work on this stuff. A friend of mine was in the theatre building sets. One day he needed to touch up a set and rather than using a new brush for the paint he tore up a peice of rubber from a pipe insulation and wrapped it around a dowel. Worked just fine and he thought about making more of them but didn't. A few years later they came out with disposable foam rubber brushers. Theres about a million bucks gone, oh well. One of my ideas was a battery powered weed whacker. This was about four years ago. Would have a rechargeable backpack. Didn't work on that either, then Black and Decker came out with one.. glad they did. Got a great idea for a car but can't go into it here, need an engineer. I won't touch your baseball comment about a lazymans game I think someone else will. I used to do a lot of sailing, now that is a lazymans game.

Please go to www.tie-stay.com. At this website you can buy a piece of plastic called a Tie-Stay that fits on the back of your tie and holds it in place. I invented the Tie Stay in 1972, although mine was made of wire, and it fit through a buttonhole and attached to the back of the necktie. I even called it Tie Stay, but did not patent it. I do have a 1972 notarized drawing. I tried to sell it to Wembley Tie Co. but they declined, and not knowing how to market it I just sat on it for several years. In 1993 a lady I worked with and her husband bought a small factory in the Northeast, and were looking for products to manufacture. I showed them my Tie Stay and they were impressed, and we had a verbal agreement where they would manufacture and market it and pay me a royalty of five cents for each one sold. They moved to their factory and I never heard from them again, and I was unable to contact them at the phone number they gave me. I stumbled upon this website a few years ago, and although the product is plastic instead of wire, the concept is the same as mine, and the name Tie Stay is mine. I don't know if the manufacturer of this product is the couple that I knew, because their address is in Texas, but it sure seems like someone used my idea. So, what I'm trying to get across to you Peter, is that if you do invent something, make sure you get it patented, and all agreements in writing. Good luck!

Wally thank you for the advice. I will look up tie stay. You wear ties? Any way for our major project we have an ongoing patent attorney. She keeps us straight. This is in addition to all the other lawyers that we deal with. One for this and that. I think were up to 5, I lost count. Hey thats life. Most of my hairbrained ideas are not worth the time to spend on it.This car on the otherhand...? I think its a pretty cool idea. I would give it to someone if they would follow up with it and give me one whan its done. I'm sure I'm full of it. My father was worse than me. Hows the weather where you are any palm trees ?

For what it's worth, I found the following, which seems to be a government site with information about getting patents, which can now be gotten online - - -

http://www.uspto.gov/main/patents.htm

I'm retired, so I rarely wear ties, and I don't really need a Tie-Stay. There are no palm trees around here, only deciduous and a few conifers. Peter, I hate to break the news to you, but the car has already been invented!

When I was young and stupid I thought that everything that could be invented had already been invented. I guess computers changed things. When in Yokohama [ remember that ] working at center pier I thought wouldn't it be nice if I had a walkie-talkie type telephone like Dick Tracy so I could talk to my wife anytime I wanted to. Now I only have cell phones[ no land lines] and wish I wasn't so closely able to be reached 24-7. Last week a program I watched said that time travel is theoretically
possible, wow! [ but only back in time and only one way. Yea I know cars are invented.. fooey this one still seems pretty cool. Now I'm older and stupid and not retired, [I'm not sure I ever want to be "retired"]. I am thinking I want to send a tie to the priesident of Iran, Machmood Ibangajad [sp] he always is shown not wearing a tie even at the United Nations so I'm going to send him one of mine, I have too many anyway. If you like I'll put your name on it too from the both of us OK ? I think the customs and security people will get a laugh, hmmm... or perhaps not, they seem pretty humorless. Sorry you don't have palm trees wherever you are, I am developing a fondness for them. Still want to know.. about Kishine, told you I met an ex marine who was there. Would like to have a little joke or story about the place that would give him a laugh. I wonder what retired people do? On second thought with all thats going on, being retired [ with palm trees] is sounding better. Next year,
Todays Haiku:
Leaves fall
Peter screams..
and dreams..
perhaps I can scare them away.

[ inanimate object should be required to pull their own weight]

Here's a true story from the 106th, which isn't funny, but shows the kind of people we had, who would go the extra mile to try to save a life. On one of the hospital wards there was a patient, a black soldier who had been severely wounded in Vietnam. He was dying, and didn't seem to want to fight for his life. One of the Clinical Tech's, a white sergeant, started belittling this black soldier -- he made fun of him and called him names. I think he even called him the "N-word." The patient got so angry that he started fighting for his life, and he made a full recovery. He told the patient in the next bed that he wanted to live so he could kill the white sergeant, and that patient, who was also black, told him "you fool, you were dying and the sergeant got you mad so that you would fight for your life!" The soldier ended up thanking the sergeant and they became friends.

Wally; That is a wonderful story, and I can just see it happening, I will share it with my new Marine friend. The sargent took a bit of a chance in doing what he did. It easily could have been mistaken and he might have gotten into a world of hurt. I would hope that someone might have written down these stories. I have said it before but there is a movie here. I got along very well with the "soul brothers", one I trusted very much. He was a "lifer" but still kept and eye on the "white kids". One day I was "working" at the Meadow Gold milk plant when I got paged for a phone call. It was was this guy that then I hardly even knew. He told me that The Major in charge had left the office and was on his way to the milk plant to check on me. I thanked him for the heads up and he said thats OK we look out for each other.. and you'll help me out sometime too. Quid pro quo as it were. I got the message. When the Major arrived he found me on my back checking a transfer pump. Would have done it anyway but the timing worked for me! I wish I had known about the MPC exchange or I would have told him, think he lost a bundle.

You are right, the way political correctness is today, the white sergeant would have been prevented from using the language he used on the black soldier, and the black soldier would have died. Sometimes we are our own worse enemy.

Wally; What was your job at Kishine and the 106th? I'm not sure you ever told us. If its OK.

I was the administrative assistant to the Chief Nurse (Lt. Col.) of the 106th. Basically, my job was similar to the job Radar O'Reilly had on the TV show M.A.S.H. I worked in an office in the HQ building, with the Chief Nurse, Assistant Chief Nurse (major), Chief Wardmaster (E-8), and a Japanese secretary. My major duties were to compile work schedules, fill out forms and type letters with confidential information, maintain records on Nursing Service personnel, accompany the Chief Nurse on ward rounds, and schedule the Chief Nurse's meetings/ work calendar. It was a great job, as I never had to buy a beer in the NCO Club, as the Wardmasters kept me supplied with alcohol so they could pump me for information about what was going on in the Chief Nurse's office.

This facility was obviously built long after my folks and I left Japan for the last time in '61.
Where exactly was it located? I remember Area 1, the Dipensary, the big swimming pool on the seaside. The other side of Avenue D was Area 2, YOHI, the PX complex, etc...

The 106th Army General Hospital moved into Kishine Barracks December 1965, and left Japan in 1971. I was told that Kishine Barracks was originally a Japanese training school and BOQ for officers during WWII. During the American occupation it was an R&R Center for soldiers taking a break from the Korean War. It was located in the Northern suburbs of Yokohama not too far from Hakuraku station, which was a main line to Tokyo. The compound had four four-story buildings which comprised the hospital, a helicopter pad, a four-story enlisted barracks, two three-story BOQs, a BEQ, Golden Dragon Officers Club, NCO Club, Movie Theater, gym, small PX, fire station, swimming pool, large messhall, large Chapel, eye-dental clinic, mailroom-laundry, HQ building, emergency-operating room, separate laboratory, baseball diamond, and an amunition bunker which held eighteen M-1's.

I went to Kishine several times as I have stated. I don't remember the facilities because I didn't stay there. I wasn't aware at the time that it was a whole unit that was moved in en mass, it seemed like the place was a hospital that hed been there forever. I recall the area was a little grim and for me out of the way. I used Yamashita park [ and the zebra club] as my point of reference and also the Navy Exchange. I had thought that my wife might get a job there but didn't suggest it as evac hospitals might upset her. I wonder what the reason was for the M1's ? In case of riot? I have also heard that the helecopter approach into Kishine was pretty hairy.

Kishine Barracks had a Provisional Infantry Platoon (PIP) to protect the 106th command. I was a member of the PIP, and there were eighteen of us because we only had eighteen M-1 rifles. I didn't know where the threat was coming from, but I remember hoping they didn't think it was the 100 million Japanese that surrounded us! The helicopter pad was small, but I saw as many as four choppers on it at the same time. Choppers came in at all hours, day and night. I remember one time when some burn patients were being evac'd in on a very dark night and we were all out there wondering how they were going to see to get in. Then the post fire truck and MP cars showed up to bathe the landing area with light from their headlights. We never had a chopper accident.

I remember there was a Golden Dragon restaurant that my folks visited from time to time but I thought it was closer to the PX complex rather than downtown. I may have it mixed up with "Forbidden City," which I think was on Isezakicho.

Did you ever go to Tung Fats in Chinatown? It had a red wooden front with dragons. I went there a few times 1967-68, and you could get a seven course meal for $3. It was delicious! I went back to Tung Fats around 1979-80, and it was remodeled and had a granite front and gold letters, really upscale. My meal cost $35. Time marches on, or at those prices it can afford to ride.

I meant: Time marches on, but at those prices it can afford to fly!

We never made it to Tung Gat's but it sounds interesting.
My dad always called ahead to Forbidden City and the owner would block off a parking place just below our window. From the second floor, we could keep an eye on our car while we chowed down on sweet and sour pork...
Isezakicho was a good place to have your car stolen in those days.