The hilarious, picture-driven, true memoir of the youngest boy of the 60's "most dysfunctional family." Markie d's quest for survival and identity helps us discover and deal with the dysfunction in all of us. Funny, politically incorrect and thought provoking.
In the words of an ancient sage, "Laughter is good medicine."
Today in American we honor a Great Man - Martin Luther King Jr.
In honor of that, I'll take a break from the fire story at the Fraternity house and pay tribute to a relatively unknown Hero of the Civil Rights Movement and celebrate the rich heritage of which I am so proud.
...And the connection this hero has to Venice and Santa Monica
(I'll come back to the fire story from the last post) and tell you about the dead body that Chewbacca found in my next post).
I have talked to you about my Aunt Mary who was a Catholic nun. In my blog I have mentioned her dedication and work in the inner city. I reported about the time my brother, Puke-Breath, had red fire ants pored down his pants and about how she and the other over-zealous nuns in the Detroit Convent were almost too enthusiastic in picking the ants off his skinny, naked - hinny (Blog post Naked Teenager 10/26/2013).
Today on a more serious note, I would like to talk about my Aunt Mary and how her courage changed the course of History.
This following part was Edited by Kurt Dahlin.
"The year was 1965; the place, Selma, Alabama. For decades, local laws had all but prevented Blacks from voting.And those who did venture to protest often faced harassment--even death.Black Selmians, supported by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., decided to march to the state capital of Montgomery to draw attention to their plight. On a Sunday in early spring, dozens of peaceful protesters on their way out of the city were brutally beaten back by state troopers.
The violence of "Bloody Sunday" stunned Americans, focusing nationwide attention on civil rights. A group of American nuns from St. Louis were among the first to protest the violence. When Dr. King receives permission to march to the state capital in order to petition Governor George C. Wallace for the voting rights of the state's Negro citizens, Sister Mary Leoline (Mary Ann Sommer), a teacher at Christ the King school in Kansas City, joins two priests in a 3-member Kansas City Catholic Interracial Council delegation to Selma.
MY AUNT WAS THE ONLY SISTER WHO WAS PRESENT throughout the entire 50-mile march to Montgomery. I circled her in red below.
Six Catholic nuns from across the country answered Martin Luther King's call to join the voting rights marches in Selma, Alabama.
Six Catholic nuns from across the country answered Martin Luther King's call to join the voting rights marches in Selma, Alabama.
These courageous women risked their personal safety to become powerful agents of change. On the Wednesday following “Bloody Sunday,” the sisters led a procession defying a ban by church, city, and county authorities. Though the police cut the demonstration short, the images of these women in the national and international media had tremendous impact. People were shocked. A Gallup poll showed that the majority of Americans felt sisters should remain cloistered in their convents. For Dr. Martin Luther King the presence of the visiting nuns in the Selma demonstrations “had a special significance because the public knows a nun to be a woman of great sacrifice and dedication.”
My Aunt Mary - Sister Mary Leoline.
She continued to be involved with the movement and was among those arrested in Washington, during the Poor People's March of 1968.
Sister Mary Leoline (in orange jacket) helps with crowd control.
On
March 28, Congressman Dickenson of Alabama brings charges of “drunkenness and
immorality” against the protesters before the House of Representatives in
Washington. Sister Mary Leoline and nine clergy and seminarians who completed
the 50-mile march; travel to Washington to refute the charges before Congress
of disorderly conduct made against the marchers by Congressman
Dickenson. They present a signed “Statement of Morality during
the Selma Crisis” to Congressmen Ryan and Resnick of New York. At
the request of John McCormick Speaker of the House, Ryan and Resnick introduce
the Statement of Morality for debate by the members of the House and for
inclusion in the Congressional Records of the House and Senate. Sister Mary
Leoline's key testimony at the press conference in Washington DC led to
advancements in the civil rights movement.
At the end of the four-day march, Dr. King’s famous words rang out to the crowd of 25,000: “I know you are asking today, ‘How long will it take?’...Not long, because the arm of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” As it turned out, it took only a few months from that famous speech for the National Voting Rights Act of 1965 to become law.
Mary Ann Sommer (Sister Mary Leoline) chose to redirect her commitment to the
cause of freedom and equality as a diocesan nun in Detroit. As an involved
teacher in Michigan and California, she participated in Dr. King’s Poor People’s
Campaign in Washington, DC, attended the Mexican American Culture Center in San
Antonio, helped Caesar Chavez set up the farm workers clinic in Salinas,
California.
This unassuming hero was raised in Santa Monica and was one of us living in the Harding
house in Venice.
Sister Mary continued her advocacy roll as a contemplative
“free-lance nun” during her retirement in Salt Lake City.
Several of the nuns interviewed credit the Second Vatican
Council with inspiring them to become involved in the civil rights movement.Sister Mary Leoline of the Sisters of
the Blessed Virgin Mary remembers how she was responding to Pope John XXIII’s
encouragement to “go where the need is.”
This is a picture of my late Aunt Mary at the time she was interviewed for a documentary titled "The Sisters of Selma" (which is available on NetFlix)
My Aunt is quoted as saying "Canon law is set up so
that if people do something which proves to be the right thing to do and it
proves to be the religious thing to do--then the law changes." Sister Mary Ann
Sommer.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Mary Ann Sommer, extremist who followed the revolutionary teachings of an radical who taught his followers to "Love their enemies" - Jesus!
Jesus was radical extremist for Love, Truth and Justice.
I don't know why we, as humans, choose to be unkind to each other, but like Martin Luther King Jr advocated why we can't choose to love... Markie d
After her retirement, Aunt Mary came to live in the Harding House for 6 years...
The large turn-of-the-century home was a blazing inferno... windows were shattering from the heat and cars in the parking lot were bursting into flame. Tires sent up black smoke as the gas tanks in those cars blew up one after another. It looked like a scene from the battle-lines in Vietnam. The Vietnam War vet, who was renting a room across the street, began having flashbacks and climbed the to top of the three story "Pink-House" with a broom - holding it like a sniper with a M16. Hthe crazy guy sat up there taking shots of the enemy as though he was reliving some hellish nightmare that no one should ever have to experience. He shot me twice; once I fell down pretending to be dead, but thought -that maybe -it wasn't too cool. Though he was perfectly harmless, the poor fella had to be talked down by the police in the midst chaotic mêlée on Harding Avenue that night.
Meanwhile, the clandestine guest - i.e the girls who had been smuggled in, were trapped on the second floor and screeched louder than the sirens of the long awaited firetrucks in blood-curdling cries of shrill terror. The temperature on the second floor was close to reaching flashpoint and old dry timber of the wainscoting was not far from combustion. By this time the stupid Frat-guys on the second floor realized they were trapped and began running around in their underwear screaming louder than the girls, knowing that they had only seconds to escape before being incinerated into a pile of carbon ashes.
Before I finish that story...let me clear some names from my previous list of suspects!
Last time, I have removed the Nuns and Walter Daniels from my list and had discovered that the "Gillemonster" had a perfectly good alibi (that's the "dog-poop story" - which I'll share later). For now, I think it's important to eliminate by bestest friend Tommy from the list. Although he was the youngest person who was considered a possible arsonist, the unique and complex nature of his two-fold condition placed him squarely at the top of the Fire Marshal's suspect list.
Although Tommy was several years younger than me, being right next door, we were best buddies! Tommy liked to light matches... he would find his dad and my dad's Real Estate Business matchbooks and set fire to just about everything he could. Nothing big, but it did bother his mother. She was pretty concerned about him chewing his fingernails, but was even more worried that he might set fire to something someday and spend much of his eternity in purgatory. To make matters more complicated, Tommy had a very rare disease; somnambulism. Yes, he was a somnambulant. I know what some of you are asking:
"What the heck is somnambulism?"
"Idoes it have to do with haviing air bubble in the blood-veins near his brain stem?"
"Somnambulance...hey, does it have something to do with an ambulance?
"What, does the kid do? Does this disease make him run around like a chicken with its head cut off screaming as though he were an ambulance."
"Is it medical? Delusional? What is it?"
In answer to your questions it does as a matter of fact, have to do with the word ambulance! But first, let's clear this up...it's not really a disease- his mother told me, rather it's a very rare condition. The word ambulance comes from the Latin word 'ambulare'
which when translated means to move about. Hence the words ambulance and ambulatory.
"Is he retarded?"
No, he's not a retard... just a little special. When most people are fast asleep he has the propensity to move about... Turns out...Tommy is a certified Sleep Walker!
I was at his house one time and stopped him from going pee in the refrigerator; another time I stopped him from going pee in the kitchen trash and on another sleep over I stopped him from walking down to Kippy's house. Kippy is his cousin, one of the Lennon's who lives on the corner opposite from the fire. The poor kid did all kinds of weird things in the middle of the night and when it was all over - had no recollection at all. TRUE!
With his predilection of lighting things on fire and walking around in the middle of the night -all fingers pointed to him. Even his own mother thought he might have been responsible. So I guess the best news was that on this particular night I was having a sleep over in the two story fort that his dad built in their backyard. They didn't have snakes and a Veloci-Rooster and a chicken-eating-frog and a mosquito breeding pond in their backyard - they were just normal people. Well, mostly - whatever normal means...but around 11:00 O'clock at night.. I did have to get up and play kick ball for a couple minutes while Tommy was in one of his sleep-states, but the fire didn't happened until much later - after he was settled back in and strapped into the loft in his sleeping bag. I WAS HIS ALIBI.
Tommy's name goes off the List.
1) My tribe...the Wolf Pack
2) Mr. Blaser
3) Mr. D (that's my dad)
4) Mr. Lennon
5) Frank Nargie
6) Rita Nargie
7) Sea-Shell
8) Leeland
9) Weenie Tripp
10) Johnny Gillemot
11 Tommy Blaser
12) Four boys dressed as girls
13) The Nuns at
Saint Marks who lived just behind the house.
14) Walter
Daniels
15) Crazy, Anti-War, Peace-loving
members from an opposing Fraternity
16) The Owner of the property.
As for the "Tighty-Whities" (that's what we call tight, white underwear in the United States), Mr. Blaser believing his match wielding - night-walking son may have had something to do with and feeling a sense of responsibility, shot out of bed and ran across the street in his bun-tight skives after hastely slipping into his "Sunday-come-to-meeting" Black polished Real Estate shoes. WHAT A SIGHT!
His underwear provided him with the alibi he needed as someone who was in bed at the time that the explosive devise went through the window of the old house.
Therefore Mr. Blaser goes off the list.
1) My tribe...the Wolf Pack
2) Mr. Blaser
3) Mr. D (that's my dad)
4) Mr. Lennon
5) Frank Nargie
6) Rita Nargie
7) Sea-Shell
8) Leeland
9) Weenie Tripp
10) Johnny Gillemot
11 Tommy Blaser
12) Four boys dressed as girls
13) The Nuns at
Saint Marks who lived just behind the house.
14) Walter
Daniels
15) Crazy, Anti-War, Peace-loving
members from an opposing Fraternity
16) The Owner of the property.
Weenie didn't do it! Her sister Kathy was out on a date...she didn't do it. Their brother Bobby was on top of the Tripp house right next door with a garden hose trying to prevent their house from catching their house on fire. It wouldn't have made any sense for any of the Tripps - so I they go off the list - yep, all them including little Ricky!
1) My tribe...the Wolf Pack
2) Mr. Blaser
3) Mr. D (that's my dad)
4) Mr. Lennon
5) Frank Nargie
6) Rita Nargie
7) Sea-Shell
8) Leeland
9) Weenie Tripp and family: brothers sisters, mom, dad.
10) Johnny Gillemot
11 Tommy Blaser
12) Four boys dressed as girls
13) The Nuns at
Saint Marks who lived just behind the house.
14) Walter
Daniels
15) Crazy, Anti-War, Peace-loving
members from an opposing Fraternity
16) The Owner of the property.
My list was shrinking... meanwhile my dad had joined Mr. Blaser in the rescue of the guys and girls who were trapped on the second floor. My hairy brothers, along with Donny Blaser, climbed up like cockroaches on top of each other to the balcony and formed a human ladder for the half-naked half-intoxicated refugees to use as a human fire escape.
By the time the firemen got there, half-clad people were running around all over the place. To me it seemed like the scene that I pictured in the the bible where it describes the resurrection in Jerusalem when bodies came out of the grave and began walking around. ZOMBIES!
Our neighborhood was now filled with wild Zombies... the pandemonium from a blazing inferno... that included cars exploding and a crazy guy on top of third story turret taking shots at people with a broom handle. Let me tell you - it doesn't get any CRAZIER THAN THIS... A real Helter Skelter it was... Paul McCartney can thank us for the lyrics to the Beatles new song.
The night was still young and Chewbacca has spotted something below the ancient palm in the front yard of the blazing inferno...
Martin Luther King Jr. and Mary Ann Sommer, extremist who followed the revolutionary teachings of an radical who taught his followers to "Love their enemies" - Jesus! 
