Sunday, January 8, 2012

elvis




My first 2 wheel bike* was an old 50s model with fat tires, fenders, a big saddle seat, and a wire basket. I got it in 4th grade, in 1963, just after I turned 9. Tom Roe painted it green, sparkle green, in his Auto Body Shop in Yountville, down Washington St, near the Catholic Church. As a special treat, my dad let me choose the color and I asked him to ask Tom to paint "Elvis" on the front fender.
Yeah, that's right.
I do love Elvis but not in the mindless white trash way. That's my Elvis tapestry, that's my Elvis tshirt Annie gave me (awesome!), and that's my Elvis watch. No really, I love  Elvis, but not like that....
Happy Birthday !
*first full size 2 wheeler,that is.
similar to this:


Elvis Aaron Presley was born January 8, 1935 and is a cultural icon.
Last weekend Mark and I went to dinner with his dad and Sally to celebrate Dick's 70th birthday! As we passed the theater in the mega-mega-huge Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn (which is an acid trip without the drugs)...an Elvis impersonator, Steve Sogura, was singing.



My first Elvis album was Acapulco. I still know all the words by heart to "No Room to Rhumba in Sports car"...



Oh No! Elvis joins the Army ! He entered the United States Army at Memphis, Tennessee, on March 24, 1958, because Selective Service told him to do so....




Army clothes! yes. Love the clothes hate the war. I am a flower child after all.


The AAF, The Army Air Forces began on June 20, 1941, six months before Pearl Harbor.
>U.S. Army personnel have traditionally been assigned to branches and so
air services were in the Army long before that and their names changed over time.
1907 - Aeronautical Section of the Signal Corps.
1914 - Aviation Section (Signal Corps).
1918 - United States Army Air Service
1926 - United States Army Air Corps
1941 - United States Army Air Forces
1947 - United States Air Force ....left the Army and became their own service branch.

and the ladies? yes, Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jacqueline Cochran, one of the most well-known aviators of that time, tried to interest the Army Air Corps in women pilots who would be trained to fly military aircraft within the United States. On Sept. 10, 1942, Nancy Harkness Love, with the support of the U.S. Air Transport Command, organized 25 women pilots into the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS).
The purpose of the WAFS was to deliver planes from the factory to military bases. On Aug. 5, 1943, the WAFS and WFTD (Women’s Flying Training Detachment ) merged into the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP). The history of the WASP




Early 40s Army Air Force shirt, AAF patch on the shoulder soldier.
Dark Olive wool officer uniform shirt is early 40s, World War Two, with a felt embroidered AAF patch.
The AAF patch dates to 1942, and the felt is the first in the series of these patches issued.



40s WWII US Army HBT Trousers


WWII Planes B17 B29 with Nose Art casual print Mens Shirt

What a great tribute to the fighting men and women of World War II  !

Fun print of many Boeing planes..B17 Flying Fortress, B29 Superfortress, B25 Mitchell, B24 Liberator, B26 Marauder.



50s Field Trousers M 1951 Olive Drab US Army HBT

There's certainly many wonderful sad and evocative songs from the Big Band era, and the years of World War 2....but this one by Vera Lynn never fails to make me tear up....just a bit...after all these years...every time I hear it....Lynn's song in the final scene of Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, and was also used in the closing scenes of the 1986 BBC television serial The Singing Detective....and I love that series and Michael Gambon. oh yes. Songs by the Ink Spots were in it too...songs of my little childhood.