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Vignettes - Life's Tales Book Three
Vignettes - Life's Tales Book Three
Vignettes - Life's Tales Book Three
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Vignettes - Life's Tales Book Three

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VIGNETTES, Book Three, is a collection of short stories about the life experiences of its author, William (Bill) Baker. it contains about twenty short stories. The stories are historically accurate and told in a sensitive, humorous way. Parts, are very touching. Every reader will find themselves in one or more of the real life stories which range from:

-Days of childhood mischief, to a Senior Air Force Officer,
-Teen-age hitch-hiking, to serving a Four Star Knighted Officer of the Royal British Air Force,
-Hanging a high school football effigy
-Experiencing the Kamikaze raids at Buckner Bay, Okinawa, to romance on a cattle ranch.
LanguageEnglish
PublishereBookIt.com
Release dateApr 26, 2016
ISBN9781456605971
Vignettes - Life's Tales Book Three
Author

William Baker

WILLIAM F. BAKER, PH.D. (New York, NY) is president emeritus of WNET, New York's PBS station, and a professor at Fordham University. He teaches Understanding the Profession: The Business of the Performing Arts in the 21st Century to students from Juilliard and Fordham.

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    Vignettes - Life's Tales Book Three - William Baker

    Production

    VIGNETTE NO. I

    WAR IN THE STORM DRAIN

    Oakland, California

    The year is 1938, or thereabouts, and I am living in the family home on Mauritania Avenue off of Seminary Avenue, a block away from Mills College in Oakland. Mills, as we always referred to the college, was the playground of our neighborhood. The large lawn areas were great for football and the many trails among the forest of towering eucalyptus trees offered super bike riding challenges. In this forest was Green Lake, so named because of the color of the water, which sat in a bowl surrounded by many levels of trails running like rows of seats in an amphitheatre, and offering launching pads for our dare-devil bicycle jumps. It was our practice to tie a rope to a tree, and the other end to the bicycle, then climb to the highest trail allowed by the length of rope. From that starting position, we would pump hard and jump from one trail to another in a downhill plunge into the lake, bike and all. We’d retrieve the bike, climb the layers of trails and go again.

    In the summer months it was our night time challenge to climb fences and gates to gain entrance to the outdoor swimming pool where we would spend our time swimming under water to avoid making any noise that would arouse the guard. Part of the fun in playing in Mills was hiding and escaping from the security guards.

    It was during these days that the City of Oakland completed a storm drain system beginning in Mills, adjacent to the chimes, which ran underground through connecting systems to the estuary. Once it was completed, it too became a part of our play ground.

    giving a false target. It worked pretty good.

    Soon after the drain system was completed, and before its final inspection, our gang of sewer rats, as we liked to call ourselves, found a hole in the top of the pipe that gave entrance into the storage room of the drug store on the corner of Seminary and Hopkins Blvd (now MacArthur Blvd). We soon figured out a way to climb into the storage room and filled our pockets with candy bars. I’d guess that in today’s world we would have been after cigarettes or drugs. But, no, candy was good enough for us, and the hole was sealed before we could again raid the store room. Shortly thereafter, a wire mesh was constructed over the entrance to the drain system and our rubber-gun wars came to an end. There was always some one putting a stop to our fun!

    END

    VIGNETTE NO. II

    GAS RATIONING

    Oakland , California

    days and evenings as we could swimming n the Kaiser Gravel Pit, which was an absolute No-No. It was a great place to swim and to shoot Dick’s .22 caliber rifle. It did, however, have one great draw back. It was about 25 miles from where I lived to Dick’s house. Our normal method of getting to and from Pleasanton was hitch-hiking since no family would use their gas rationing for a trip that could not be called necessary. However, I had a ration stamp and permission to use the car (1939 Buick, see insert) even though I am certain that if my step-father had known that it was my intention to drive to Pleasanton, I would not have gotten the car for the simple reason that an A sticker is good for 3 gallons of gas and the Buick used about 12 gallons per mile. Work it out: 25 miles each direction = 50 miles, divided by 12 = 4.2 gallons are needed. I had only three.

    I can truthfully say I expected Earl or Bob, my other buddies, to come up with an A stamp, but they didn’t. It was not easy getting illegal stamps, although it was done. Our across the street neighbor was a traveling salesman with a C sticker which gave him all the gas he could justify. On occasion he would offer us a C stamp and we would get an extra 15 gallons of gas, providing, a gas station attendant would take the stamp which had been detached from the ration book. Back to the story.

    I picked up Earl and Bob and we drove to Dick’s, swam, had our fun and headed home with all of us glued to the gas gauge which had to read 1/4 full when I got home. We coasted at every opportunity,

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