Why Did You Come Back?

Sandy & I came back from our winter in Mexico 10 days early. Some asked "Why?" We were afraid that we would be stranded there for months possibly. It probably is true that we would be safer in the Yucatan area of Mexico than here.

For a while we thought we would have to drive back.  How long would that have taken? It all started when a rumor spread that the Isla Holbox ferry was shutting down. It was only a rumor. When we are on vacation, we do not turn on the TV or read the news. My phone stays in my truck in Massachusetts. The last of the ten hotels we were staying at was on Isla Mujeres. Sandy said, “If they shut down the Puerto Juarez ferry, how will we get to the aeropuerto in Cancun?” 

One of the books I devoured while on vacation was Paul Theroux's “On the Plain of Snakes” (October 2019). He drove from Cape Cod to Mexico. He toured only the western part of Mexico, and it was scary. Maybe even scary enough for us not to visit Mexico City or Cuernavaca next year, or ever. 30,000 cartel people were killed in one year.

One of the girls on Marnie's Belize Yoga Retreat told of her recent escapade. She and her sister were traveling in Barcelona and Lisbon. Her sister had a serious fall in Portugal. After the hospital stay, she could not fly. They managed to get on a cruise ship to Great Britain, even though they were told that it was impossible to do so. Then they managed to get on a second cruise ship that was heading for St. Marten, full of drunken Englishmen. They got off in Florida. It took 40 days and it cost $30,000 for them to get home.

I broke a tooth in Mexico. I went to the dentist on Isla Mujeres. She said, “You need a crown.” I think that is what she said. 

My dentist from the Navy told me the same thing for years. I never got one. He retired after being my dentist for 40 years. My new Duxbury dentist has been trying to get me to do one for only $1600. I am old. I am in no pain. But now, in Mexico, I have to get it done. 

I ask, "How much?" ("Cuanto cuesta?")

She says 6,800 pesos. 

It is still early in the vacation. Tom and Sandy are figuring out all the meal bills. A margarita -- rockes y sal with Don Julio -- is $4.00. I get that. But when it comes to big things like motor scooters or refrigerators or a house, I don’t know where to put the decimal point. You have to divide everything by 20. Twenty pesos to the dollar. Right now it is 24.2 pesos per dollar. In 1988 it was only 10 pesos to the U.S.dollar. 

Anyway, after three separate trips to Dra. Victoria Arteaga, up in the Colonias, I have a brand new Mexican crown. Alfredo, our private taxi driver, drove me. His grandson is attending West Point.  ycmthissup

I paid her in cash. It cost $211 US. 

Stop by our casa some time if you want to admire it.

All-inclusives are not this much fun.        

Keep traveling!   

Tocino

Don't Look Down

The Bacon compound on 90 and 92 Howland Avenue Adams Massachusetts, October 2019.

My father’s mother and father lived in the big house, and we lived in the small house to the left. The first time I experienced fear of heights was when my father decided that he would put a slate roof on Frank & Hattie’s house. The big house. I went up into the attic, and then up through the partially torn-out roof, and knew right away that I did not like heights, and departed.

The comedian George Carlin said that he is not afraid of heights. He said he is afraid of falling from heights.

Not having any idea what I would do after high school, like my father I signed on with the Navy Seabees. They were called Seabees because they were the construction battalion for the Navy during World War II and Vietnam. Get it? C.B.’s

I wanted to operate bulldozers like John Wayne in the movie “The Fighting Seabees.” We build, we fight. We wore Marines uniforms overseas. To this day, the Marines love the Seabees. On a walking tour through Sicily, I found myself one night at dinner sitting across from a female retired Army Colonel. She didn’t have a lot to say. She was stoic. She sat up very straight. I didn’t know how get her to open up. She had been stationed everywhere. I finally asked her if she'd had any contact with the Navy Seabees. She blossomed, smiled, and said, “I love the @$#&* Seabees.”

Eventually an Electrical Construction school opened up in California for three months during the winter. California for the winter sounded good. The last phase of electrical school turned out to be pole climbing. In pole climbing school, when rookie Seabee climbers first strap on their gaffs, at least half put them on inside out. Try not to gaff into a knot hole. Your next step will be interesting to say the least. 

It was the first time that I heard of the country called Vietnam. I did not have a choice. To pass school, I needed to become a pole climber or flunk. A telephone pole, really a power pole, is 32 feet. Some are as tall as 90 feet. When I completed school, Dad was really proud that I had conquered my fear of heights. With gaffs nonetheless strapped to the insides of my legs. Spurs and tree climbing spikes. Specifically Buckingham steel climbers. 

That is me gaffed in on the forward pole with Elmer Berkee sitting on the crossbars. That was 1964. How do I remember that and so clearly? The second pole down is a red-haired real sailor from the fleet, who shipped over to the Seabees. He called every one Mate. He probably was from Ohio. I don’t know who his partner on the power pole is. But I can picture his face. Just like runners, pole climbers have different styles.

Up to that point I had not done much that pleased him. That was my fault.

Eventually orders come and I am stationed at the Naval Air Station in South Weymouth Massachusetts. I work out of the Public Works electrical shop. We change fluorescent light bulbs, install duplex receptacles, and maintain the emergency generator and all the taxiway and runway lights. One runway was called 826. The second one was 17/35. I forget the other one. Occasionally we have work to do at the two ammunition dumps in Hingham, Wompatuck and Bare Cove.

One day at 0800 muster, Chief Harley Taylor tells my section leader, Urbati, to take three sailors and go to Bare Cove and change the light on top of the rusty 80-year-old water tower. It is like the joke: How many Polacks does it take to change a light bulb? Two to turn the ladder, and one to install the lightbulb.” Urbati takes me aside and says, “I don’t need to take three men to the Hingham Ammunition Dump to change a lightbulb. It’s Friday. Why don’t you take an early liberty and go visit your girlfriend in Adams.”

Oh I forgot to tell you, we also took care of the lights on the blimp hanger, which was 148 feet high. 

I got really good at giving tours to new Seabees, or anyone if they dared. Taylor gave me half a day off every time I climbed the inside stairs to reach the top and the magnificent view. Even sailors that didn’t like me had to admire my new-found courage at age twenty.

Look how little the orange and white water tower looks, compared to being on top of Hangar One!

Monday 0800 muster. The first thing out of the chief’s mouth is, “Did Bacon climb, or did he chicken out?” Urbati said, “He climbed.”

Time goes by. Muster 0800. Urbati gets orders to Ethiopia of all places. He is gone. I have advanced in rank. The light on the rusty tower goes out again. Taylor says we need to fix it before a small plane crashes into it. "Bacon, take three men and go over to Bare Cove.”

I do not know how tall that water tower was, but it was high.  

It looked like this.

There were no safety belts. You are free climbing on your own. 

The last twenty feet leans out before the roof peaks. A rusty ladder is welded to the floor of the roof. There are no hand rails. I remember the climbers rule: Never look down, and don’t stay on top ogling the view. You might freeze up, and then you are basically screwed. Oh, and then there is the red shouldered hawk who might dive bomb you, a clear objection to you being in his air space.

Mission accomplished. We drank beer on the way back to the base. There were no medals issued. But I should have received one.

I’m almost 75 now, and Sandy will not let me go on our 30-foot roof to clean the gutters. It is a good thing.

- Bacon R. F. 10-93-63 United States Navy Seabee CEW 2

Planet Zylonite

“I know he had a mustache.”

This is from Eugene Michalenko who is responsible for the Adams Massachusetts Historical Newsletter. He sings in the Saint Stanislaw Choir on Hoosac Street also. Sandy Zabek and I married there. Well, she is Polish.  We attended on Sunday with Cioci Flo. 

Sandy and I spent this whole last weekend in the Adams area celebrating our 52 second anniversary. Jack’s Hot Dogs, SWAT teams with drawn pistols on Howland Avenue, Mt. Greylock, Porches Hotel, Grazie Italian Restaurant, apples and cider, Hairpin Turn, my grandmother Hatties’ kitchen, fall foliage, St. Stan’s, train ride from Adams to North Adams, Mass MOCA, Angelina’s, George Haddad at the Red Carpet Restaurant on Park Street (opened in 1927 -- WOW!) Midgie Bechard, blah blah blah. It was so much fun that I just might write a blog about it. Or maybe I just did.

No wonder I like Eat-alian food. I spent my first eighteen years here. You probably did also. Aldo and Santino and Alvin and Etalo were common names. Taut, Hipe, Shorty. And I thought we had good nicknames. Remember Reno and Rose and Red and the beautiful Rosetta at Carnazola’s Store? Saturday night dances at the French Church, dandelion wine, anyone? Or how about a game of Kick the Can? Raise your hand if you went to Howland Avenue School. WRGB. Meet you for a pick-up game of baseball? See you at Eileen’s Dairy Bar. Did we have fun or what?

Kipper Avenue is now, and was for us, Apremont Street with a terrific story of why the name changed. 

The Quaker House, built in 1782, is on Friend Street. Some of the Friends fought at Bennington against the British.

 Comedian Steven Wright says he likes to reminisce with people he doesn’t know. But I remember you.  

 Bob Bacon

North River Pontoon Boat Cruise

Kezia leads a North River Pontoon Boat Tour. Photo by Greg Derr.

June 9 - Kezia arranged for a historical cruise for this Sunday afternoon by way of the North & South Rivers Watershed Association. There were nine of us on board. Mainly the tour was about the 24 shipyards that built wooden ships from the 1645 -1871. We took off from Mary's that is now called Roht Marine. Their restaurant was buzzing. The river was loaded with boats from The Spit and as far west as you could see or sea.

My wife abandoned me for Colorado, so Kezia invited me along to fill my time.

There were over 1,000 ships launched. One was the Columbia that gave its name to a river in Oregon. Another was the Beaver. In 1773 Sam Adams and a bunch of his friends threw its load of tea from England into Boston Harbor. Some were built for the whalers in Nantucket and New Bedford. There was even mention of Tom Egan's favorite war, the King Philip's War, that affected Scituate, Norwell, Rehoboth, Deerfield and Medfield. It ended in Rhode Island. King Philip was the son of Massasoit and had a regal bearing, so the Pilgrims made fun of him and called him King Philp. His Wampanoag name was Metacomet. But you knew that.

It took 57 acres of trees and 2,000 oak trees to build one ship. This factoid is from Nathaniel Philbrick's book The Hurricane's Eye.

Today was the most beautiful day we have had yet this year. Kezia told me to bring warm clothes but they were not needed. I brought a drink to hydrate me in a special container. And NO, wise ass person, it was not Coca Cola laced with Pussers Rum from Tortola.

Captain Bill has a long history with boat tours that handle five hundred people in Boston Harbour so the North River was not a big challenge for him. We were cruising right along. We stopped once to pick up a floating plastic bottle with a swimming pool skimmer. Nice touch.

Our tour director mentioned that in the 1600s to 1800s rivers were the way people got around. No one thought about 128 or Route 3 until 1957.

The above paragraph jogged my memory of building an indoor pool on the river in 1976 and being held up by archaeologists who were sifting through the sand and gravel. I asked what they were doing and one of them explained that 5,000 years ago the Wampanoag camped on the north side, built their fires, and kept the southern sun on their faces. I said, "Wow, 500 years!" He said, "No, dummy. 5,000 years." He shoveled one shovel full of sand into a screen and there were seven arrowheads in the screen. I have a spearhead that is 8,300 years old. Whoa!  Good spelling word arcilojist whatever.

The house they discovered while extending the airport in Marshfield ten years ago turned up 11,000 artifacts. Some of them are 8,000 years old. Four jets are housed in Marshfield. You can fly by yourself to Chicago for only $20,000. And that is the truth.

Along for the ride was photographer Greg Derr from The Quincy Patriot Ledger. He is also a birder. He has actually banded owls and osprey. He says osprey stink. One of the screech owls he banded at Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary ended up in Montana. The osprey stand just west of the Route 3A bridge is named after its residents. Ozzie & Harriet Osprey. Old people, please explain this connection to the younger folk who don’t remember the 1950-60 TV show. First episode on TV: 1952. It pushed family values, whatever that means.

Kezia did a perfect job with props and notes. She was not stumped, not even once, by the many questions asked her. Her favorite place on the river is Couch Beach next to Blueberry Island. It is kind of obvious. Yes we talked about the book The Red House, of course. That is the oldest continually lived in house in New England. One of the daughters who grew up there in Two Mile wrote it.

Wish you were there.  I am sure that there will be an article with photos in the Ledger, so save it for us por favor.

To register for a Pontoon Boat tour (Kezia only leads a few per year, but NSRWA runs the trips every weekend), visit https://www.nsrwa.org/events/?customize_changeset_uuid=

Article from the Ledger:
https://www.patriotledger.com/entertainmentlife/20190629/back-in-time-with-north-river-pontoon-perspective?fbclid=IwAR0Yx7TUMyqWeo1Zz5Xepzap8Oqigel-3TxToQqnfBr6CoHf3u9gLGKM9nQ

Just The Facts

52 Sleeps in sunny warm Mexico this winter. Febrero y Marza 2019. Sandy packed me 19 short-sleeve dress shirts.

Sandy y Bob. 52 years married. A coincidence? Engaged for five years also. Never mind.

On the TV show "Dragnet," 1967-1970, Jack Webb playing Detective Joe Friday, while getting the information on whatever recent crime was committed, would always cut to the chase. When questioning the witnesses, he'd demand: “ just the facts.” One of his TV detective partners ended up on MASH as the first Colonel Henry. A free carnita to you if you know his real name.

We started out in Punta Maroma on the south coast of the Yucatan. Isla Mujeres was next, followed by Puerto Juarez, then to Isla Holbox on the Gulfo Mexico. Then it was back to Isla Mujeres. This is my confession. Whoops! I just slid back to my former religion. Lo siento.

Sandy and I stayed at eight different hotels. I know, I know, but we like to do that.

The startling facts are that we ate at 54 restaurants. We tried 19 different new ones. Well, we have been traveling Quintana Roo for 34 years. Of the 19 new ones, we would do only four again. We ate out 187 times. Sorry we can’t join you for dinner this first week back.


Olivias, Mogagua, Lolas, Javis’s, La Esquina (the corner), North Garden, Rubens, El Veradero, and Chlitos topped the list for more than once.

"How was the weather?" you ask. Hot! It rained only two days. Twice it rained at night, but it did not affect us. Many Mexican people walk with sombrillas to keep out the sun. As always, the ocean water was warm and blue. Holbox was the warmest ocean water we have EVER experienced. I always bring my swimming pool thermometer, but because it always registers 82, I left it home this time.

I cannot read on the playa. There is too much to see. But someway, somehow I read eleven and one half books.

The Captain's Wife
Three years at sea, 1830, from New York to Manila and back, by way of Cape Horn and Elba, where Napoleon is buried. Madera wine originally came from Madera because they let it sit in the sun for longer than usual and it changed the flavor. Only Don Salmond knows this.

Casey Stengel     
Manager of the NYY from 1950-1960. He was hit by a taxi in Kenmore Square and hospitalized. That is why he walked like he did. One year for Christmas, his wife bought him an ashtray. He was born in Kansas City and that is why they called him ...

Dear Bob and Sue     
A couple do ALL 59 National Parks. They did Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon and stayed at Phantom Ranch.

Indian Givers
How South and North America affected Europe, especially the potato impact. Who knew? Tomatoes  tobacco, tequila, topkapi. Thanks Barb!

Sea of Glory    
Yup. Nathaniel Philbrick again. Mayflower, In the Heart of the Sea, blah blah blah, Last Stand, Bunker Hill, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, yada yada yada. He lives on Nantucket. Thanks Tomas!

Stranger in the Woods   
A twenty year old leaves his car in the Maine woods and disappears for the next twenty seven years. YCMTS up      Thanks Eileen!

Hey Buddy!      
Buddy Holly from a great perspective. Where were you on February 3, 1959? The day the music died. With his first big check, he bought new pews for his church.

Louis L'Amour 
His life. Prize fighter, shipped out on a freighter, writer.

Black Flags, Blue Waters       
Pirates of the Caribbean. Good stuff. Gracias Tomaso!

History of Wolves    
OK OK it was a novel and she didn’t marry the guy.

Arthur Garfunkel       
Way too much poetry but an interesting life. Like a bridge over ...

True Heroes of Texas Music
Texas musician legends like Willie, like Janis, Barbara Mandrell, Lyle. Like Waylon, Buddy, Freddy, George Jones. Like Flaco …… Sorry I overheard many "like" millennials talking on the beach. What is with the tattoos and nose rings and cigarettes? Did you get your TRAMP stamp before or after you found out what they were called? Wow, that thong bathing suit must hurt.

A friend asks, “Why would you get a tattoo on a part of your body that you can’t see?" But can I please look closer at the one between your breasts?

Oh and by the way, sixty year old guy, your fashion statement ball cap is on backwards. Jack ass.

Speaking of Dopey. Can you name Snow White's seven dwarves? And who came up with her name?

Eleven folks joined us, probably for fear that our marriage would disintegrate with so much time alone together, Tom y Eileen, Annie y Dennis, Dave y Robin, three jogis from past retreats Janis, Illene and Nancy, and of course Marnie y Steve. We just missed Navy Seabee friends Janice and Fat Jack. Disintegrate is a good spelling word. Thanks Google.


We have made some friends in Mexico: Javis y Marla, Ariel y Bonnie from Alberta and Vera Cruz, Anna y Spartacus  from es-Spain, Oswaldo, Ruben, Jon Carlo from Madagascar, David, David and David, Romel y Joanna, Nick y Dianna  from Minnesota, Jessica y Anibal from Chiapas, Ken y Debbie from Indiana, Alberto from Barthalona (he owns Mogagua), Luis y Mary Theresa from France and Mexico City (they own Colores de Verano - the colors of summer - Hotel), Victor, Hortensia y Mauricio, Jorge, Jorge and Jorge, Victor again (he was in the movie from 1960 called "The Magnifico Seven,") Edgar, Martin from Quebec, Spanish Maria at PTO Morelos, Santa from Cleveland and the North Pole, Santiago, Salvatore, Mildred, Anna y Juan Carlos, Luis y Manual from PTO Morelos, Pedro, Carlos, Diego, Mosquito, Paeaso, El Penguino, Robin y Nayomi from Milano, Estavan, Rubin a second time, Nina y Nora Switzerland, Gaston, Ruffino, Enrique y Guadalupe and Jose, Laura Dumm “Lola" Oregon, Maria, Lior y Yuron Israel, Karen, Ricardo, Elvis from Villadolid (Bia doe leed), Gilbert, Margarita, Melania y Chucho Spain y Mexico City, Jesus, Lia y Mia Texas, Clara, Dino Puerto Vallarta, Lupita, Renee, Mario and Mario two, William Francis Giarmo, Ophelia, Alberto, Roberto, Victor (a different one), Joe from Detroit, Lilia Robles who owned hotel Na Balam for 30 years, Jan her friend married Stevie Ray Vaughan, Andrea from Saskatoon, Marvin, Susan, Loy, Polo of Mangos, Claudia, Armando, Fernando y Brenda from Argentina, but it seems EVERYONE is from Argentina, Monci from Merida, Donna y George from Michigan, Bruce y Marjorie from Maine, Axel, Lilia from Cuarnevaca, Aloy, Phillipe, Sonney from India, Maria, Iris, Braulio from Cancun no problemo ... even his Mom can’t pronounce his name, Irving, Nancy, queen of the Carnival 2018, Rafael owner of the Cuban Restaurante El Veradero, Luis (aha! we saw you with your boyfriend dancing at Face Bar Cantina), Lucia, Norma, Robert sells honey, Jesus, Pablo not Cruise or Escobar, Alexander, Milton 15 year old waiter at Javis (HAH v's), Lea May and the Mexican maestro from Isla Holbox who makes mandolas out of driftwood and played with the Russian symphony but chose to live on a Mexican island for forty years that did not have electricity until 1984. I probably missed some.

Fascinating places  … fascinating people.

For all or friends and familia and jogis who have shared this paradise with us, NAMASTE.

--

“What do you do there?" my good friend asks. 

The restaurants are fabulous. The choices are incredible. Peruvian, French, Eatalian from Milano, Sardinian from Sardinia. Mexican? Yes. Cuban. Fish? Well Isla and Holbox are fishing villages. Mediterranean? You bet. People watching is simply astounding. Especially on the main calle on Isla. The United States is behind on some things. The main street on Isla, Hidalgo, has no vehicular traffic. All the electrical wires and telephone wires are buried. Christmas lights abound.

Musica. "Is there musica?" Oh my god! Cantinas, street music, classical Spanish guitars, flamenco, Ventures instrumentals,  Cuban, Cumbia from Colombia. Jimmy Buffet and of course Bob Marley.

“Yah but ... what about cost?" Well dinner generally costs $10-$20 per meal for two including drinks. A stiff margarita is four dollars compared to El Serape's $16. Cervezas are $1.30 to $ 2.50 compared to $5-$6 dollars U.S. One night we went totally against my rules and ate from the street vendors. Dinner set us back $5.25. Our Sicily trip cost us more than fifty two days in Mexico for only nine days. One year Florida at nine days cost us more than five weeks in Mexico. Good bye Florida.

One of our friends is having a knee operation and asked Sandy to buy the pain meds in Mexico. In the United States they were $600. In Mexico they cost $18. NO This is not a typo.

My 10,200 cans and bottles, cleaned off Marshfield streets in 2018, paid for almost all of our meals in Mexico.

"How do you sum up your experience?"  Great food, warmth, blue skies, blue water, no shoes, no coats. Eleven friends joining you at various intervals. It keeps the marriage fresh. Friends. The ones that joined us and the ones we have made.