Slue Foot Sue and the Golden Horseshoe Revue

Slue Foot Sue and the Golden Horseshoe Revue was probably mom's favorite attraction in all of Disneyland over the many years we went there.  I don't know if she ever missed a chance to attend.  The last time we took her to Disneyland in December of 2001, after 9/11, the review had long been gone.  We wheeled mom around the park in a wheelchair, but she enjoyed herself nonetheless.

 

From 1955 until 1986, I read that the Revue was maintained.  Wally Boag was the main attraction along with Judy Marsh the first year and, after that, Betty Taylor.  Wally was replaced along the way in the 1980's, but it was never quite the same.  I also read that Betty Taylor played the part from 1956, and remained for 30 years.  Hard to imagine how many shows she and Wally put on over all of that time, with several shows a day, six days a week.

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Ann & Mom aboard the monorail

When the monorail was built, I was thrilled.  It was a great way to see the park from above.  I was finally able to ride in the front with the engineer or in the back end when a friend and I went to Disney World in the later 1990's.  All of us seemed to believe that monorails would appear everywhere around the country, just like the flying cars I saw in magazines in the 1950's or the cars that you did not have to drive because you could just program where you wanted to go and the car would simply take you there utilizing cables buried under the highway.  So much for that future.

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Mom & Ann beside the Matterhorn

The bobsleds have always been, and will probably always continue to be, my favorite Disney ride, regardless of the park or era.  (I have been told they have been modified once more, and that I might not enjoy the ride as much as I used to.)  Soaring Above California in the California Adventure park has moved up to be almost as entertaining.  But if I am forced to name one ride, it's the Matterhorn bobsleds.

 

The Disneyland Paris Space Mountain ride was definitely entertaining if I had to name a ride not in the original Disneyland. 

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Mom & Ann just inside of Tomorrow Land

One of my two favorite rides in Disneyland is now gone.  The circular theater that showed America as if you were traveling through it, in the air or on the ground, not far from where mom and Ann are standing.  It was one of those attractions that I could enjoy repeatedly over the years because it was often being updated with new footage or resonating a different theme from time to time.

 

Also, not far from where they are standing, was the Monsanto House of Tomorrow, another attraction that was torn down years ago but which, when it was still standing, was a favorite of mine.

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Mom & Greg on the People Mover at Disneyland

The Carousel of Progress is in the background of this picture.  (At least that is what I remember it was called back then.)

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Ann on the People Move in Tomorrow Land

The Matterhorn is in the background.  You can see an orange "bucket" from the sky ride just behind Ann on the left in the picture, though they were removed in the last decade or so.

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Mom's favorite picture of me

Mom told me that this was her favorite photograph of me.  She even had it enlarged and framed when she lived in the senior high rise, Harbor Towers, in San Pedro, CA.

Here I am on the people mover in Tomorrow Land.

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Ann & Greg, Disneyland, mid-1970's

We went to Disneyland a couple of times in the mid-1970's while I was stationed in Minot.  Once when the weather was overcast and rainy and our Uncle Robert was with Ann, mom and me; and one other time from which the above picture, and more, were taken with my new Canon camera.

 

Having gone in the past decade, it's difficult to imagine that Frontier land was so relatively uncrowded, even on a sunny day.

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After a thunderstorm, near sunset, Minot AFB

After that same thunderstorm, I took these beside the sidewalk in front of our BOQ dorm.

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Random shots in and around Minot AFB

The shot on the left is a small barn that sat beside a dirt road en route to Kilo Launch Control Center.  After I got my Canon camera, I took what I hoped would be artistic shots and drove out to this barn that we passed going out on alert.

 

The photograph on the right is the sidewalk from my BOQ building, going past the two-man-room BOQ after a heavy rain at sunset.

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Augusta the cat & Christie Durr at Minot AFB

This picture of Augusta and Christie came out just fine.

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Christie Durr and "Uncle" Greg out of doors and in doors at Minot AFB

In the top picture, I have my cheesy moustache and never looked very good.  I eventually shaved it off.  In the bottom picture, Christie looks to be a bit older.

 

I still find it surprising that my hair looked so long in those days of being in the Air Force.

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Christie Durr's first birthday party, Minot AFB, 1976

In 1976, we all gathered at the Durr's house for Christie's first birthday party.  The other couple is the neighbors from next door.

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Christie Durr in a rabbit costume, Minot AFB

Perhaps it was for Easter of 1978, just before I left Minot in June; or it could have been for Halloween of 1977.  But Debbie had made a rabbit costume for Christie, and she wore it over to my BOQ room.

 

This was the room at the end of the first floor hallway, with its own separate living room, kitchen (which Christie is peeking out from in the lower right), bedroom, and bathroom.  I may not have even lived in those quarters for a year before I left for Colorado Springs.

 

The two pictures on the left side depict my stereo system with the Dahlquist DQ-10A speakers.  The lower right picture shows my Sony Trinatron color TV, and my Sony portable B&W TV that I bought to watch a Rams Monday Night Football game on the way out to alert one fall (unfortunately, the small antenna did not work to pick up anything).

 

Also note the gold drapes and the burnt red carpet.  They were new a year or so before and replaced the previous damaged drapes and soiled and worn carpet.  Unfortunately, the redish-orange carpets in our rooms did not come bound, so they frayed almost immediately.  The drapes also showed up unhemmed, which we had to get hemmed in the weeks that followed their hasty arrival.

Christmas at the Durr's house, Minot AFB

The top picture is of Debbie Durr and Christie, attacking another present. 

 

The middle picture is of Augusta, the cat.  She had turned up a few years before as an abandoned kitten when Mike worked at a filling station in Seattle, Washington, where Mike worked when he and Debbie were just married and before he'd finished college and entered the Air Force.  Augusta was quickly adopted and lived with them until after the family moved to Colorado Springs.  She even briefly stayed at my house in Colorado Springs until the Durr's were settled into their own new house.  Augusta was getting old and heavy at that stage and preferred not to play with my cat, Schnozz.  Augusta would open a cabinet door in the guest bathroom, letting it close behind her, and hide out there until Schnozz left her alone.  Augusta died a couple of years later of old age, to the sadness of all of us.

 

The bottom picture is obviously of Christie Durr unwrapping another present.

 

In the picture of Augusta, you can see an LA Rams mug that was my present from Mike Durr that year.

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Two more pictures of the BOQ parking lot, Minot AFB

As you can tell, not a whole lot to take pictures of when stationed at Minot during winter.  The Camaro is visible in both pictures, with snow all around.  The housing area lies beyond.

 

I did take two spectacularly beautiful pictures of a snow drift that formed within the fences on the sidewalk just before the rear entrance to the Officer's Club and the BOQ offices.

 

The snow and the wind formed what looked like a perfect shark fin.  I now cannot find those two pictures.  I thought that perhaps they were among the color slides, but I did not find them there.  Apparently they are lost for good, which is a shame.

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That stand of trees near the BOQ, Minot AFB

The top picture of those trees, with the front gate in the distance well behind, was taken the same snowy night as that of the telephone pole.  The bottom picture is during one of the more typical days, with clear blue skies and intense sunshine, even though the temperatures could easily be routinely below zero.

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Two winter pictures of Minot AFB, mid 1970's

The picture on the left is outside of the BOQ, looking toward the housing area during a snow storm.  The picture on the right is of me, standing in the first floor hallway of the BOQ, wearing my parka with the hood over my head.  Our parkas became constant winter companions from late September through early May.  When warmer weather finally took over, we took off the parkas and hung them in our closets.  It was like lifting a dead weight from your shoulders, for a few months at least, until winter came on again in the fall.

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More flag football pics from Minot AFB

The top picture is of a few players warming up before that game.  The middle picture is a play being run.  The bottom picture is of a huddle.

 

In one of my games against Grand Forks AFB on the defensive line, we were defending at the goal line.  The snap came and I was able to leap between the two offensive linemen in front of me before they could block me, stand before the running back, and pull his flag before he could score.  In his frustration at being stopped, he raised up his arms which were holding the ball together at his chest and slammed them upwards against my chin, driving my head backwards.  He was called for an unsportsmanlike penalty and they were moved back from the goal line.

 

Unfortunately, we lost that game, another close one, in Grand Forks.  In my final game against Grand Forks in Minot, I was playing tight end.  I caught one short pass for a touchdown over the middle when I and the wide receiver crossed in the end zone.  We had been one yard from the goal.  I also caught another short pass over the middle for a four-yard gain on our end of the field.

 

For most of the game, I was being ignored since I stayed in and blocked.  Our wide receivers were being blanketed, however.  I said in the huddle that I would be open deep if the quarterback, who had played in college, would toss me the ball.  He agreed to give it a try.  We snapped the ball and I took off.  Sure enough, I was wide open down field; but the QB never released the ball.  When I looked back, fifteen yards away from the line with only open field and the end zone ahead of me, the quarterback was getting surrounded and his flag pulled.  Had he let the ball fly, I am certain I would have run under it and taken it into the end zone unopposed.

 

We had the lead, but Grand Forks methodically moved the ball down the field in the final series.  Their QB completed one short pass after another, befuddling our pass defense.  Our coverage was leaving a hole open on one side or the other, repeatedly; and our defense could not seem to counter what their offense was doing, down after down.

 

They scored at the end and we lost another football game against Grand Forks.  Had our QB let the ball fly before being surrounded, I am certain I would have scored the touchdown that would have made their final score meaningless.  Should I have looked back at the QB earlier than I had?  Or should I have kept my head turned toward him the entire time, just so he knew that I was looking for his pass the whole way down the field?  The Grand Forks defense was watching his eyes, so that while my looking back might have given the confidence our QB needed to throw me the ball, but it would have also alerted the defense that I was the primary target.

 

It was one of those might-have-beens of my brief football career.  I have had to be satisfied with two catches for five yards and one touchdown instead of also catching a bomb that would have given us an insurmountable lead and our lone victory over Grand Forks in my three tries from 1974 through 1977.

We always seemed to beat Grand Forks in the minor sports like tennis and golf and badminton, but almost never with the major sports. 

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Flag football at Minot, 1975-1977

I played flag football in the fall of 1975, '76, and '77.  The first two years I was on the defensive and offensive lines.  The final year, I played tight-end.

 

The pictures above were from one game in particular when there was a muddy puddle in the middle of the playing field.  I intercepted a pass on the defensive line in that game, but as I tried to gain traction in the middle of the mud, I found I could not move.  One guy was coming at me to pull my flag, and since I could not get moving, I stood there to let him pull my flag.  Unfortunately, running at full speed, he hit the same puddle, could not stop sliding and, as he attempted to pull my flag, slammed his knee into mine, giving me a swollen and stiff knee for the rest of the day.  I had a badminton match but could not move around the court and lost one of the few tournament matches ever at Minot.

 

In the top picture, our quarterback had been running with the ball and slid to the ground on his back in the mud.  Tim McConnell was giving him the touchdown signal in jest. In the middle picture, Tim and the QB are walking off together, laughing.  The final picture is the group of players huddling around after the game was over.

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