Mano y Mano
USS Hepburn, 1976.
Two guys boxing on the ship at sea,
photo shopped for effect.
Terry McMaster
Book of Babes
Back to working on The Book of Hepburn.
This is the chapter title pages for the chapter on ‘Beautiful And Breathtakingly Enchanting Sweathearts’
( otherwise known as Babes )
Babes of the World
I was looking at the slides I took of women overseas, and I noticed they all looked somewhat similar. I couldn’t quite place it, I think maybe I was interested in hairstyles or something…
Brooklyn Jack
Karachi, Pakistan January 1976.
Pictured, Brooklyn Jack. He was our “guide” in Karachi. With a horse drawn carriage driven by his son, he took us around the city looking for whatever it was we desired. Always in a constant state of confrontation with Dan Petrous, my buddy from Detroit, he would say “Take it easy greasy, you got a long way to slide”.
Talk to anyone who has ever visited Karachi, and ask them what comes to mind first. Flies. Everywhere we went, thousands of them. Look closely at this picture. Everything is covered in flies. Not just food, everything. Whenever I think of Karachi, I think of flies, and Brooklyn Jack.
Guitar Man in the Mirror
Donny taught me to play guitar in the Navy.
He was left handed and so was I, so I could use his guitar to learn.
Note the pick guard, he bought a right handed guitar, then restrung it upside down.
We couldn’t afford no custom made left handed guitars in those days.
How to Catch a Helicopter
Position yourself directly under the helicopter.
Feet slightly apart, hold your hand out, palms up.
There, your ready to catch your first Helicopter.
African Safari
Kenya, Africa. 1976
My buddy Bob informs me, that tomorrow at 7:00 am,
there is a safari leaving. This is a once in a lifetime chance to
go on an actual African safari. So I could go out the night before, and party with
the guys, drinking and carousing, chasing women, in a shallow display
of man at his worst, or I could stay in, and partake the next morning in
an experience shared by the likes of Livingston and Stanley. It was really
no decision at all.
So here is a picture of the safari, taken by my buddy Bob.
I don’t have any pictures of my night of drinking and carousing.
What can I say?
Is that a snake your holding, or are you just happy to see me?
Karachi Pakistan, January 1976. The guy lets me hold his cobra after the whole playing the flute gig. I was holding it right behind the head. Then I moved my hand further down and held it up for a bud to take a picture. The cobra flared its hood and started swaying back and forth wildly. The guy with the flute freaks out, and grabs the cobra right away. I guess the darn thing is still highly venomous, and he did not expect some hair brain sailor to to let it have it’s way. It happened so fast, my bud with my camera didn’t even snap the picture. See, it was hard to get good help, even then.
Up Close and Personal
Karachi, Pakistan – January 1976
Everywhere we went, there were snake charmers. In this photo, a young kid, probably 17, was playing a hand made flute to charm a cobra. He let me hold the snake to take some pictures, next, I will post the picture with the story of what happened then.
The Bar Across the Way
In the “Doorway Into The Past” post, you can just see the black table-umbrellas of a roof top bar in the background. Here is the view from that bar.
Doorway Into The Past
It was February, 1976, and I was on shore leave with a couple of Navy buds in this small “off the beaten path” bar in Mombasa, Kenya in Africa drinking Tusker Lager beer. I looked over at the side door, and saw these two chairs under an umbrella with a bottle of Tusker Lager on the table. In the background, past the wall, on top of a building across the way, I could see the black table-umbrellas of another establishment. It was one of those settings that had nothing of particular noteworthiness from a tourists perspective, but something about it seemed interesting, as if I was looking into a doorway viewing a scene that had been viewed by many travelers over the years, never changing. I wondered how many sailors from around the world had sat on the same patio drinking and reminiscing about what sailors all talk about, women and home. I snapped the picture almost as an afterthought. As I was drinking my beer, I peeled the label off the bottle for no reason in particular, and then put it in my shirt pocket. When I got back to the ship, I put the label in my locker. For whatever reason, that label somehow survived all my travels and moves for the next 30 years. As I was going through some old tubs of “stuff” I came across the label, and I remembered the bar in Kenya. I went through my old slides, and sure enough, there it was, the picture through the doorway. It will probably never win a Pulitzer prize, and may solicit a few “humph, I wonder what he was taking a picture of..” comments,. But for me, I wonder if someone is sitting in the bar, drinking a Tusker Lager, and looking at the doorway into the past.
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