[ExI] answer to little puzzle

[spike at rainier66.com]

…> On Behalf Of William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] answer to little puzzle

 

>…I have not had carbonated water in a long time…

 

Good, that’s all the more for me.  {8^D

 

>…Even diet soda is not good for you…

 

So I am told.  My doctor suggests going light on it, but I guzzle the stuff like it is the staff of life.  Sigh.

>>…It was at that Fat Boy’s that the What club came to have a slogan.  Fun story available on request.

 

>…Always tell the stories - don't wait for my requests.   …Seems like the Big Boy restaurant had another name but I cannot think of it.  bill w

 

I too always thought it was the Fat Boy’s but I don’t know if it had another name.

 

I went on Google maps to see if the building is still there.  It isn’t.  Note a pawn shop with a painted-on sign just to the left of the green S. Washington street sign.  OK then.  If one is a bad guy, go to a different state.  Florida isn’t a sanctuary for that.

 



 

My father was an officer in a local men’s club, Sertoma Titusville chapter (back in those days, there were only two genders, and clubs usually only had one (such primitive savages they were.))  The town was getting ready for its upcoming centennial celebration, so the men’s clubs got together and decided to have the men dress in 1867-ish.  Men wore beards in 1867 when Titusville was founded, but in 1966, we heard of these undesirables known as “hippies” who did likewise.  Titusville had never seen an actual “hippy” in 1967 but we had heard of them.  The locals didn’t want to look like these “hippies” so it was decided to dress like Abraham Lincoln.  Yanks, take out your five dollar bills.  Like that.  Short neat beards, short-ish kinda neat hair, vest, ribbon tie, hat was optional.  

 

OK then, it was decided: the men’s clubs would dress like Lincoln, encourage all the men to grow a short neat beard.  

 

It caught on, and within a few weeks most of the local men, including the other men’s clubs, had the short neat beards.  Early January 1967, Sertoma was meeting at the Fat Boy’s to decide on a club slogan or motto.  They had their ideas and shared them freely in this raucous sports bar/restaurant.  A man walked in alone, clean shaven, military crew cut.  He sat down at the bar and ordered a beer.  As the bartender brought his mug, the clatter died down to where it was quieter than a library with the only sounds being whispers.  The man turned around and said “Whaaaaaat?”

 

Everybody laughed, and someone called out “Good luck Colonel Grissom!”  He grinned and said “Thanks!” He turned around and went back to drinking his beer.  Nobody bothered him.

 

My father’s club, Sertoma Titusville chapter, decided that day on their club motto: What.  

 

You know what happened a few weeks later: Grissom didn’t have good luck.  He and two others perished in the horrifying Apollo 1 fire.  His famous What quote went on the Sertoma ribbons and hatbands.  Not his more famous quote in which the non-public speaking Grissom made an entire speech to an aerospace company consisting of three words: Do good work.  Seems like ‘Do good work’ would have been a great Sertoma slogan considering the name of the organization is derived from SERvice TO MAnkind, but because of that incident in early January 1967, their chapter slogan was: What?  

 

Sertoma Titusville chapter made ribbons for the upcoming centennial celebration, which is why I have a photo of the club with most of the members having a What ribbon in their hatbands.  They had a secret club handshake: traditional shake followed by spreading the hands palms up as Grissom had done at the Fat Boy’s, with a hearty “Whaaaat?”

 

That was life in the 1960s in that part of the world.  It was a marvelous place and time to cheerfully squander one’s tragically misspent youth.

 

spike

 

 

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