Tom Garrett
Recent stories
- Some people are just not cut out to do some jobs
- February 3, 2012
- As much as I hate to say it, there are people in this world who would be a lot better off in almost any job except the one they have. I’ve run into a few of those in my time, and something tells me I’m not the only one. I’ve often wondered about that, haven’t you? Just about everybody is good at something, so why do some people stay in a job that is so-o-o-o wrong for them? Why not go do something you’re good at? Could it be that some people don’t know how bad they are at what they’re doing? Is that possible? Even when it’s as obvious as a dead rat floating in the gravy boat? I mean, if you’re a brain surgeon, your hand shakes, you cut your own finger during your junior high frog dissection, and you tend to forget what it was you started out to do, I would think that sooner or later you’d realize you picked the wrong career. But not some folks I guess. Not one I knew anyway.
- The only word for some people is ‘different,’ Part II
- January 27, 2012
- Last week I mentioned how I was transferred to Sheppard AFB, Texas, as a drill instructor, where I met Chance Davis, a really great friend and one of the oddest ducks on the planet. To this day I cannot remember anything that Chance ever did that he did not do perfectly. He was the finest marksman I have ever known, had a command voice that sounded like the crack of a rifle, and never took on anything without doing it to perfection. I can even remember a time when he shook me up while I was I was drawing a plan for a new building in the squadron area. It wasn’t an official plan, just a rough plan showing what we wanted. I was erasing a stray pencil line and getting ready to turn it in when Chance’s favorite remark sounded over my shoulder. “Gar-r-r-r-ett!” He said that a lot, Johnny.
- The only word for some people is ‘different’
- January 20, 2012
- I had been transferred to Sheppard AFB down in Texas to work in what the Air Force called Phase Two Basic Training, but so far all the barracks in my new squadron were sitting empty, waiting for men from Phase One. I was moving my desk across my office when I heard a voice behind me with a distinct Texas twang. “Airman Garrett?” I said yes and heard a loud, “Airman Davis reporting, sir!” Figuring my first basic trainee had arrived, I turned around, but the two stripes on the sleeve on the smiling man’s facing me told me he wasn’t a basic. “Did I getcha?” he asked. I think I said, “Huh?” “Always wanted to try that out on another DI,” he said.
- Being a foreigner comes easy, but so does not being one, Part II
- January 13, 2012
- Last week we talked about some things that made it easy to get along in a foreign country. What it boiled down to for most of the people I knew was just being yourself — just being an American. Unlike people from some countries, we don’t have lords and ladies, fussy rules of behavior, or the confusing customs I’ve run into. So it’s easy to just be yourself. We may be a little rough around the edges at times, but we’re honest about it, and we’re satisfied to be what we are. Which by and large helps people overseas not only to accept us, but to like us.
- Being a foreigner comes easy, but so does not being one
- January 6, 2012
- I can honestly that one area where I have a lot of experience is being a foreigner. The Air Force arranged that by seeing to it that during my 21 years in uniform, I was overseas for all or part of 14 of them — almost two-thirds of the time. I served from 1952 to 1973, and the book “The Ugly American” came out in 1958, followed by the 1963 film of the same name. If you think about how much time I spent overseas, you can see why I was well aware of the possibility of falling into that category, something that didn’t appeal to me. Fortunately, it didn’t happen. Oh, I suppose I goofed a couple of times. Nobody’s perfect. But by and large I managed to avoid being cast as the poster boy for either the book or the film, and I thought you might find it interesting how I missed out on that honor.
- How I discovered a surprising truth about myself
- December 30, 2011
- How well do you know yourself? “Really well,” you say? Are you sure? I thought the same thing for a long time — for more than 40 years, in fact. And then, one day about 30 years ago I was reading a book and suddenly, right out of the blue, I learned something about myself I had never suspected. It came as quite a shock. So much of a shock that I can remember that moment about as well as I remember anything in my life. I’ll tell you about it. I’m a reader. Been a reader all my life. Caught the reading bug back when I was just 7 or 8 years old. One day Miss Banke, a teacher in Public School 16 on Staten Island, told us we were going on a field trip. You should have heard the cheer. The classroom sounded like the Victory Theater on Saturday afternoon when the cartoons came on. “Yay-y-y-y!”
- Some Christmases are impossible to forget
- December 23, 2011
- I’m sitting here remembering some of the many Christmases I have seen in my 79 years, and I don’t mind telling you it’s a worthwhile thing to do. Is there any holiday to match Christmas? I think not. As troubled as this nation is at times, we always find renewed hope in a holiday filled with good will and love, with giving and receiving, with the coming together of families, with the coming together of America as a single people in a nation founded on the belief that we are all free to practice our beliefs openly, honestly, and with reverence for the beliefs of others. I pray it will always be that way. I can’t say with any certainty why some Christmases past stand out so strongly, or why it is that I could think all day and night and not remember a thing about so many others. But for one Christmas I know the answer. And it’s an important answer, not just for me, but for you, because it stands for all that is right about our nation, our people, and our cherished beliefs.
- Could this be best kept secret of the Revolutionary War?
- December 16, 2011
- American history books are filled with incidents which led up to the American Revolution. Who hasn’t heard of the Boston Tea Party? Who doesn’t know of the infamous Stamp Act? Who hasn’t felt outrage over the story of unarmed American civilians gunned down by British regulars in the Boston Massacre? Those tales are a part of the fabric of this nation, taught everywhere. And yet, there is an event which was far better known at the time than any of the three I just mentioned. It was an actual act of war against England, one which caused great unrest among the colonies. In fact, its influence on the colonial legislatures led to steps that ended in the Declaration of Independence. How can that be? How can an event of such great importance have somehow managed to end up on the pressroom floor instead on the pages of history?
- Some things in life don’t quite work out as planned
- December 9, 2011
- I have an arrangement with life. Every once in a while I do a Three Stooges thing. I say, “OK! When I nod my head, hit it!” And life goes right ahead and does it. I’ve already told you about the time I bit down on a screw that had 110 volts on it. Best 4th of July fireworks ever! But I’ve managed to outdo that a few times. Like the time I T-boned a 1951 Chevy, and didn’t go back to the hospital after they released me even though my neck hurt like mad and my head felt it was going to fall off. Remember me telling you that? Yes? So do I, Johnny. My neck was broken. You would think that anyone who had earned a trick neck that way, one that had a nasty habit of getting stuck looking up or down would take good care of it. And I tried. I avoided looking up and to the right or down and to the left. It helped. Getting your head stuck looking up is very inconvenient, and spending a day or two contemplating your navel is boring.
- He who can turn to family in time of need is truly blessed
- December 2, 2011
- A few weeks back I mentioned that Mom and Mary Hein were best friends. Mary Hein lived just three houses up the street on Brook Street from us on Staten Island in New York City. And I swear that no two women on this planet have ever been closer than Mom and Mary Hein. They watched over each other and cared for each other like two loving sisters.
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Question of the week
Do you think the community should be involved with the selectioin of a new School Board Superintendent?
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