BOOMER by Tim Engel (smallest ebook reader txt) 📕

in the Revolutionary war. 55,000 would eventually die there. And this was just on our watch. Before us, the French were there and they had given up and left.
The Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC is a very emotional place. Soldiers go there and leave mementos of their buddies who were lost in the war. Memorials at the Memorial.
Some went to war and fought and died. Some returned. And some who returned still serve! And some went to Canada to escape the draft. The problem with Vietnam is there wasn’t a clear, evil enemy to destroy like in WWII. It was nebulous. Unclear. And without clear backing at home, there couldn’t be a clear victory in the field. What’s left now is a time for healing. The Vietnam Memorial was a beginning. And today people are reaching out to Veterans. Of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well as Vietnam. Because when soldiers came home from Vietnam the peaceniks spat on them. Not good! For soldiers who thought they were fighting for our freedom, to be treated in such a way was unconscionable.
By the time I got out of High School I had to register for the Draft, but it was cancelled in favor of a volunteer force and the Vietnam war’s winding down in the mid-70’s.
FAITH
I wasn’t too far out of High School and I had been wondering about life and why we’re here. And what’s to become of us. Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living.” And Antoine de Saint-Exupery said “What is essential, is invisible to the eye.” From “The Little Prince” a novella. And so, I did. And I wondered and I sought direction. I took Philosophy and comparative religion classes. I spoke with my good friend and confidante Shuke Pradip. He showed me the Hindu path. With the Bagavad Gita. And Hare Krishnas. And Buddhists, and various other faiths. I read the book Be Here Now. I discussed things with my mentor Leo Beuchel. He appeared to be a student of Theosophy. He was a Horticulturist and botanist from pre-WWII Germany. I befriended him when I was delivering for Medical Arts Pharmacy.
And so, my parents had taken us to Church. Primarily the Methodist Church in Lynwood. And we were baptized as children. And we went to Church – not every Sunday, but on Christmas and Easter and with others who happened to invite us. And I would go to Church with Lurae. But I still wondered.
I had always been taught the Big Bang and evolution. So, this amazing universe with all that’s here, with all that ever was and ever will be just happened by chance? Our earth hangs in a balance between fire and ice. Hangs in space, spiraling around the sun, turning in circles providing night and day. And this is all chance?
More amazingly, human beings and all that is on the earth. All by chance. Because it wanted to be there. Because of mutations. A one cell organism that started in the ooze and transformed due to mutation due to the sun. And then came a multi-celled organism. Then an amoeba, then a pollywog, then a frog, then a fish, then a lizard, and well, you get the idea. Amazing.
And even if all this could happen, where did the building blocks come from in the beginning? The bare materials? Dirt, elements, minerals, carbon, fire, ice. Stardust? Where did it all come from? Was it always there?
And so – in the final analysis, I choose Jesus. Jesus provides hope, life, love, a future – for eternity. He went to the cross to save me from my sins. He left an empty tomb. He sent the comforter – the Holy Spirit to be with us until he comes for us again. Praise God!
LOVE
I was certainly interested in girls. They were beautiful, smelled good, and viva la difference! Growing up with Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, and Racquel Welch could fire a boy’s imagination! As I grew older and taller, I lost a lot of my baby fat. By the time I finished my second year of football in High School I had finally leaned out. Thank goodness!
Being a pudgy kid, I didn’t have much of a ‘love’ life in my early teen years. Some kids start having girlfriends when they’re 12 or 13. Not me. I was kind of shy. But certainly interested in girls.
To be honest my first girlfriend was really Donna Olsenz. She lived right down the street from us in Lakewood. We probably weren’t so much the romantic type as we were just good buddies. Donna and I hung out a lot together. She would hang out with our family and I hung out with her family. When we went places like the zoo, out to dinner, or even on short vacations, it was fair game to join in. She was a year older than me but since I was a boy and we were young, we didn’t care. We were fast friends. The Olsenz lived just 4 doors down from us on Hayter Ave. I remember vividly when they decided to put a pool in. Wow! A pool! How cool would that be? Now when I was a little lad I loved the pool but until I learned later to swim in my Aunt Marie’s pool, I stayed in the shallow end. The Olsenz pool even had a nylon rope with little floats that kept that side of the pool cordoned off for little fellas like myself. And another thing I needed was my mask. I think it was all the years of watching Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges. If the mask was good enough for him it was good enough for me!
Now I’m going out on a limb here telling you about some stuff that is probably …well, OK, I’ll just say it. On occasion Donnatalked me into playing with dolls. Now the Barbie was a pretty nice looking Doll as dolls go. She was pretty shapely and was a handsome facsimile of a girl I must say. Now later, I’d prefer to play with ‘guy’ dolls like GI Joe with the Kung Fu grip! But that would come later. And then there was Ken. Ken was cool. And Donna would play with my army stuff too – but I think she preferred the dolls. Whenever we played out on the street. Tag, hide and go seek and stuff she would join in . We were a ‘diverse’ group of kids!
One of the trips we went on was to a fancy restaurant in Los Angeles. Mom wore her beautiful red Oriental dress, Desiree wore a dress, too – and I word pants and a shirt. Nothing fancy, mind you! He he he! We were family. That’s the way we looked at each other. I think it was later when we got a bit older that the hormones started to kick in. When swimming we’d give each other a couple extra glances.
On one occasion we went to the zoo. We were all there together – at least most of us. I think Desiree’s Dad had to work. And he was a hard worker. Actually Mom and the Olsenz parents all worked in the grocery business. Mom and Shelly were meat wrappers. Shelly had taught Mom the business and Mom took off from there. John was a truck driver. He was a good one, too – he drove for Safeway. Once while making a delivery, he stumbled upon a hold-up at the store. In the midst of the action, he was shot and eventually lost a lung to this crime. But John would go on to live a good, long life in spite of the injury.
I’m not sure who gave me the idea, but somewhere along the line I figured out this whole “you show me yours and I’ll show you mine” thing. Donna was probably 10 and I was 9. Maybe it was my Uncle’s Playboy magazine…I’m not sure. But sure enough I tried that on Donna and she was sweet enough to show me. I think we were in the pool that day. Well, I chickened out – maybe it was the shrinkage due to cold pool water!? I HAVE TO LAUGH. But I truly chickened out. What a whimp – and what a good sport Donna was for showing me a peak of her breast.
When we moved to Lynwood I didn’t really start talking much with girls until around 10th grade. I had gone out for football and with my growth spurt, it helped to lean me out a bit. So at least I had a bit more self-confidence. I had followed in my brother Tom’s footprints as far as football. I was certainly big enough. But I didn’t have the right attitude and wound up quitting in 10th grade. Football had helped to get me in shape and shown me what discipline can produce. At this point I had gotten to be about 6’3” and 170 lbs. So I got some interest from a few girls. One of the very first that I dated (so to speak) was Colby Archer. She was a year younger than me. I’m not sure how we met or how things progressed. It could have been that we were both French language students. But she was a cutie. Long brown hair, tall, slender, cute as a button. Somewhere along the line I ended up walking her home. She lived in a very nice, newer development in Lynwood near the High School and closer to Atlantic. Her home was 2 story which was unusual for our city. Most of the homes had been built around the 40s or 50s. I think her home was a much more recent development.
But I was shy as they come. I hadn’t spent a lot of time around girls. I remember we went on a ‘triple’ date? We went miniature golfing with Rick Douglas and maybe my buddy Bruce. I was with Colby. We had fun. But back to being shy – I was afraid to kiss her. How do I do this? What if she doesn’t want me to kiss her? I still remember a good friend of Colby’s saying “give her a Good one, Tim!” Well, I think we kissed maybe 2 or 3 times, but that was about it.
Colby had a friend named Jill Mackelprong. Well, Jill and Colby were friends, they both were on the Drill team or flag, I believe. And somehow after hanging out with Colby, I met Jill and we became pretty good friends. Jill was also tall, lean, and had long dark brown hair