{"id":900,"date":"2011-04-26T15:12:59","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T15:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/?p=900"},"modified":"2011-04-26T15:12:59","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T15:12:59","slug":"garnacha-blanca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/garnacha-blanca\/","title":{"rendered":"Garnacha Blanca"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\n(Admiral Mac is out and about again in the Spring weather. Photo Socotra.)<\/p>\n

They say there is truth in wine, and I am a fervent believer in the principle. I managed to extricate myself from the office and walk under the delicate blue skies and head down to the Willow around the cocktail hour.<\/p>\n

From down the block I could see the Admiral\u2019s gold Jag parked at the curb in front of the restaurant, and I picked up the pace so I would not keep him waiting. I strode into bar and saw a hole where Old Jim normally anchors the bar. That was unusual, but he has been threatening to find a new place to drink, since newcomers are crowding out the regulars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like what Yogi Berra said,\u201d he grumbled, last time I saw him. \u201cNo one goes there anymore. It\u2019s too crowded.\u201d<\/p>\n

John with an H was down the bar and he waved, and the Admiral extended his hand as I pulled the stool out next to his.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a question for you,\u201d he said, \u201cAnd a couple obits for the Quarterly.\u201d
\nI smiled. \u201cThat is unusual, but shoot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA woman named Phyllis is driving us crazy at The Madison. She seems to want to know everything about the United States Military, and has settled in on retirees from the various Departments to pepper us with questions. Last week it was the ranking of Navy medals and awards. I told her I had no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

I mentally started down the line, Navy Cross first, of course, but the Admiral waved dismissively.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe got around to the portentous matter of aircraft carriers the other day, and since I knew we would be at Willow this evening for the first outing of this newly minted Spring, I am just going to ask you her latest question. What about the color of the flight deck Jerseys?\u201d he said. \u201cShe is intrigued by why the people who work around the airplanes have different colored shirts and helmets.\u201d<\/p>\n

I nodded and sipped some of the Garnacha Blanca that Elisabeth-with-an-S poured with deft motion. She glided away with graceful elegance, hurrying a bit, since the marvelous weather had caused the patio to fill up and the staff was stretched to keep everyone\u2019s glasses filled.<\/p>\n

\u201cElegant woman,\u201d said Mac as she glided behind us.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo kidding,\u201d I said. \u201cYou have not lost your eye for the ladies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNope,\u201d said Mac. \u201cIt was a long winter but I feel pretty good and have got the new meds under control. Life is good.\u201d He took a long sip of his Virgin Mary and smiled with contentment.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s see,\u201d I said, furrowing my brow. \u201cRed shirt means ordnance, Yellow are plane captains, Green is maintenance, white is for the Landing Signals Officers, Brown is for maintenance. And Purple is aviation fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA sort of Naval Aviation Purple gang?\u201d said Mac, grabbing my pen to write down the colors and definitions on a napkin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe called them Grapes,\u201d I responded, \u201cand that is something you would not have done to the Detroit Purples.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know my daughter is in Kalamazoo,\u201d he said. \u201cShe has liked the stories about the Motor City. It is a sad tale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would have been in Purple Gang Turf, east of US-131,\u201d I said. \u201cBut there are mixed reviews on that score,\u201d I said. \u201cSome people like it and some think I am fixated on something that doesn\u2019t exist and really never did. I am still working out how I feel about it and wanted to have a good baseline before we get there this Sunday. I have been driving around the city in the morning, looking at the places I have been talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mac looked at me curiously, glasses up on his forehead.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoogle Maps,\u201d I said. \u201cType in a street address and then zoom in and you go to the street-view mode. When you are there on the street, you can zoom along with the mouse, advancing to each point the little Google car drove, taking pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mac did not seem overly impressed. Perhaps having been born the very year that the Purple Gang graduated from petty theft to armed robbery had provided enough in the way of technological miracles that one of the latest iterations did not surprise him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to the Hastings Street neighborhood yesterday, to see what they might have seen long ago. Nothing there. Graffiti on the abutments to the railroad bridges, then nothing except a couple abandoned factory buildings. I flew down to the intersection at Piquette and turned right to where the original Ford factory was. That is there, but nothing else. No stores, no houses, no nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what happens when a city hits the skids,\u201d said Mac. \u201cThe streets get dangerous and the families leave. The riff-raff takes over and it gets worse. The businesses can\u2019t survive, and they close, and then there is nothing but drugs and prostitution, and eventually the houses start to collapse and there are only the lost and dangerous and deranged left who can\u2019t escape. Eventually the buildings collapse or are bulldozed if the city can afford to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is certainly safer to have the Google people drive it for you,\u201d I said. \u201cThe neighborhood across from where I lived in Palmer Woods went exactly that way. We had a private renta-cop patrol, and I imagine they still do, if they can afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mac nodded at the obvious. I pressed on, though. The whole Detroit thing has me pretty worked up, as you can tell. \u201cThe Chaldeans east of Woodward were not so lucky. That area was called \u201cState Fair,\u201d since it butted up to the Fair Grounds. There is nothing there now. The trees have all grown together over the roads and the grass is up to your waste. The Hookers used to parade along Woodward Avenue there, and take their tricks back to the empty houses, and with the exception of a couple Arab coffee houses, that is all that remains.\u201d I took a picture out of my notebook that I scooped off the web. \u201cThis is one house that is still there. Parts of the State Fair look like you were standing Up North.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n(State Fair neighborhood hanger-on between 6 and 8 Mile. Photo Detroitblog John.)<\/p>\n

Mac nodded, pushing his glasses up on his forehead again to see. \u201cI don\u2019t use them to read the paper,\u201d he said.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish,\u201d I replied touching my peepers. \u201cI am getting blind as a bat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mac was ready to move on. \u201cWe lost a retired Navy Captain at The Madison the other day. Good guy, I think, but he had dementia the last eight years that I knew him. Harding was the name. He was CO of the NELC in San Diego. Still had license plates on his car that said exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNELC?\u201d I said, enjoying my Garnacha.<\/p>\n

\u201cNaval Electronics Laboratory Command on Point Loma,\u201d he clarified.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure. Now I get it- it was NOSC when I knew it, Naval Ocean Systems Command, then NRaD and goodness knows what now. I sure would have liked to get a government job there and just lived on Point Loma and let the East Coast slide into the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n(NELC at Point Loma around the time CAPT Hastings would have been commanding. US Navy Photo.)<\/p>\n

\u201cNice place,\u201d said Mac, then pointed at the notebook next to my elbow. \u201cSo, did you have questions for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never did the Pueblo, I think. Didn\u2019t you do the damage assessment on what the North Koreans got off of her when they hi-jacked her?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYep. That was the last big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWasn\u2019t Wanda your admin assistant? She has been the Director\u2019s Secretary for years and years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes she was. She was a pert little thing then, dark bobbed hair and flashing eyes and she wore mini-skirts. She was quite the looker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStill is,\u201d I said, and reached for my pen.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow: Pueblo and the Penobscott<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n(People\u2019s Museum #5. Photo courtesy DPRK.)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2011 Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Admiral Mac is out and about again in the Spring weather. Photo Socotra.) They say there is truth in wine, and I am a fervent believer in the principle. I managed to extricate myself from the office and walk under the delicate blue skies and head down to the Willow around the cocktail hour. From […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}