August 2003                                                        The Megaphone                                                            Page 2

More Mean Gene in Italy in 1945
This is excerpted from my memoirs ANN (& MEAN GENE)

AFS (American Field Service) 485 Company had a private villa outside of Florence in the olive groves above the Arno . . . I spent a lot of time there while my ambulance, The Shorty Ann, was in Florence British workshops getting its chicken-liver diagnosed . . . 

One evening at the villa at a fairly late hour I got awakened by a friend of mine, Haskell, a good looking dude from a good Eastern family who could easily have passed as a double for Tyrone Power.

Haskell whispered through the window, "Shorty, you got any liquor?"

There was a bottle of Haig & Haig scotch and 2 bottles of Gordon's gin in the ambulance.

"Why?" I yawned.

"We've got Annabella in the villa and no one's got any liquor left."

They did have then. Sweet Annabella had been appearing at the Florence U. S. Army Theater in performances of Noel Coward's "Blythe Spirit."

We all gathered at the long table in the dining hall, drinking scotch and gin and engaging in the usual talk you engage in when a celebrity is present. I think the American army forgot that even famous actresses prefer and need food over applause now and then, because poor Annabella was hungry. So was Haskell. He hovered over Annabella's chair as he tried to impress her with the fact he looked so much like her husband, Tyrone Power.

Annabella gave a beautiful performance that night in how to ignore a cockroach trying to crawl up a human leg.

For me the memorable part of the night came when they got ready to leave. We were outside standing around their army vehicle. Annabella had brought her little dog with her (in addition to the 2 American lieutenants) and the dog needed walking. I can be very forceful and forward at times in volunteering, especially if the mission promises to be unusually rewarding.

Annabella thanked me for walking her dog by giving me a long passionate kiss.

Eat your heart out, Haskell (and Tyrone, too). Some of us got it! some of us ain't! (It has to be the magnetic sexual aura that surrounds me, because I sure as hell don't look like Tyrone Power).

Elmer (Mean Gene) Eisaman 1942
Bullhead City, AZ

Reflections

7/22/03 Tues 6:50am Arizona

Sitting in the car this afternoon before going to the markets, I suddenly had some reflections on my life and present attitudes. I said the following to myself.

You're 79 going on 80. You have a monthly net income of $666.00 from your Social Security. You have smoked your pipe most of your life; yet the last X-rays of your chest gave the doctors no concern. You finally got your 1945 honorable discharge from the U.S. Army, even though you were never in the U.S. Army. You have no major disabilities or
illnesses. Your myopic astigmatic eyes (corrected by glasses since 1927) now see better than they did 2 years ago. Your mind is alert; your memory is good (except when you want to forget). You have a pleasant place to live with a nice old landlady for $275.00/month. You have your computer and your internet and  a good telephone. You can shower and
shave each day (most of the time). You already have 80,000 words done on your Memoirs ANN (& MEAN GENE). So far as practicality is concerned, you have no living relatives. And you have cable TV to while away any idle hours you may have.

And you still believe in your God and thank him each night for whatever the day has brought, good or bad, and you tell him that you appreciate it all before you say Amen and go to sleep (without any pills to help you do this.)

And then I said to myself, "Hey, Gene boy, start the car and get on your way to the market. You're low on Arizona Tea, and you know how you love to drink that stuff."

Elmer (Mean Gene) Eisaman 1942
Bullhead City, AZ