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Date with fate - post 31 - Almost worked for "Heff"
This entry was posted on 1/25/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies.
It was 1974; I had just graduated from high school; the economy was abysmal; the Nixon Administration was collapsing under "Watergate"; Dad was greatly considering winding down our dairy farm; I already had a part-time job at the then Super America gas station in Whitewater. The environment was ripe for me to cut off on my own. I saw a blurb advertising for a job to work at the Playboy Club golf course over in Lake Geneva. As I think back on the person I was in those days, the connection with that young man 37 years ago is fading. I have to work a bit harder now to conjure up the memory of what made me tick back then. I am not in the least ashamed of that 18 year old kid that made that humble attempt to work for Huge Hefner. Of course at the time, I made the connection between farm work and golf course work. Poetically, only eight years later, the City of Dallas, Texas Parks Department would see the perfect logic in my summation that the two occupations are bound at the hip in the world of Agriculture / Horticulture. But in that early summer of 1974, I cut out the job ad, and on the advice of my mom I called to have an application sent to the house. They set up an interview as well - it seemed easier in those days to get past "The Gatekeepers" for job interviews. A few days later, filled-out application in tow, I loaded myself up in my '66 Fairlane, made sure I had on a clean shirt and pants, put an ink pen and pencil in my pocket and headed for the land of the "Bunnies." I don't remember feeling nervous at all. I was comfortable with who I was. I had just graduated from high school, our football team had won two conference championships in row. I had made all-conference defensive end. I had my health, I was young. In regards to golf course landscape maintenance, I had just worked six years on a vibrant dairy farm. There was not much about equipment, crops, and green plants I had not seen or heard...at least in my mind. I had that swagger of immortality that comes with young adulthood. At the golf course, I remember how amiable and friendly everyone was. The thing that struck me immediately was being interviewed by a woman of about 29 years old. The farm world, although replete with female contributions, usually was a patriarchal society - men had the ultimate last say. I never assumed my interviewer would be anyone but...a guy. She was a nice woman; and, she seemed to anguish over hiring me. In other words, she did not write me off and just go through the motions. Ultimately, she did not make the connection that farm work was basically a segue into horticulture maintenance. She apologized, and declined to hire me. Had I a couple of months of doing landscape maintenance work somewhere, I am sure I would have found myself working for the Hefner empire. That Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin was sold off in 1982-ish to another resort consortium - the place is still there, and alive and well in its current presentation. I think Playboy built the place around the mid-1960s. There were several Playboy resort clubs at one time. There are still a few left out there as we speak. Maybe nothing would have come out of working for Playboy. But, it was one of those moments in life when the time-line could have perhaps slide a different direction. Poetically, decades later I would find myself with a substantial landscape maintenance resume. And as fate would have it, even more decades later I would have academic credentials in journalism - journalism being a capstone of the Playboy empire's beginnings with their magazine. Finally, just six years after the interview, I ended up working in Lake Geneva at a bar-tavern-discotheque-bowling complex. Connections; yet, near misses. Remnants of the Bunny culture permeate Lake Geneva culture to this day. The Sugar Shack (gentlemen's / strip club) is run by the famous former Playboy Bunny Dana Montana. Many people of the region still have memories of the many shows the club put on. Heide has often mentioned she saw comedian David Brenner perform a comedy show there. The ski hill that the original club constructed is still a destination. Back in the day, I used to watch Heide's brother run the difficult slope (Hotdog Mountain) while I sat in the lounge looking out the big picture windows to the slopes and was served hot chocolate by a scantily clad...Bunny. And finally, Heide had a second cousin who was a Bunny Mother - one who mentor's to the Bunnies. "What-could-have-been" refections are often painful, but in this case, my foray's with Lake Geneva and the memories of them have always been pleasant. Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Sergeant Joshua Charles Brennan, 22, Ontario, Oregon, and McFarland, Wisconsin died on Friday, October 26, 2007 in Asadabad, Afghanistan. He was wounded the day before in Korengal Valley, Kunar province while in combat with Taliban fighters. Brennan was assigned to Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team out of Vicenza, Italy. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted the military mission was called Operation Rock Avalanche. The paper went on to say Joshua was the oldest child of Mike Brennan, a Madison, Wisconsin police officer who was in an Army military police unit in the first war with Iraq. Josh's mother lived in the state of Oregon at the time of his death. Josh Brennan grew up in Oregon with his mother; he would spend summers with his father in Wisconsin; and, he attended school in McFarland, Wisconsin between the ages of 8 and 10. While in Wisconsin he was said to have enjoyed water skiing, tubing, and wake-boarding on Lake Monona. While at Ontario High School in Oregon he ran hurdles in track and played football. Sergeant Brennan was in his second tour in Afghanistan when he was killed. He earned three Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts.
The Web site afghansitan.pigstye.net a data base for military casualties mentioned Brennan was due to end his military service in September 2007 but he was extended another year under the military's stop-loss policy to retain troops. Joshua had hoped to go to college in Madison after his military obligation was up and perhaps join the Madison Police Department, like his father.
The Web site militarytimes.com noted via information from the Associated Press that Army Specialist Hugo V. Mendoza was also killed in the same battle. The site also mentioned Sergeant Brennan was shot in the leg in August of 2007 and returned to duty after his recovery. Josh was remembered as a dedicated, dependable man. He was a 2003 graduate of Ontario High School in Oregon. He was known to hunt elk with his grandfather. The Web site corroborated Brennan intended to attend college and pursue a career in forensic science or criminology after his service. Brennan worked a part-time job at a print shop as a young man in Oregon. In Wisconsin forty Madison police officers served as honor guards for Sergeant Brennan's funeral services and he received full military honors.
The Web site legacy.com posted an obituary from the Idaho Statesmen which notes Joshua Brennan was born May 30, 1985 in El Paso, Texas. Joshua is survived by his mother, Janice (Jason) Gates; father Michael (Michelle) Brennan; brother Robert; sisters Jessica, Brooke, and Courtney of Oregon; sisters Christina and Brittany of Wisconsin; and, grandparents Chuck and MaraLee Stoffers, Victor Baker, Mary Ellen Brennan, Diane Richel, and Jim (Ann) Richel.
It is important to note the significant event connected to Sergeant Brennan's death: On the day of the battle, then Army Specialist Salvatore Giunta while pushing forward to repel the enemy assault, saw two Taliban fighters dragging the wounded Brennan away. Giunta killed one fighter and wounded the other. Giunta immediately moved Brennan to cover and began first aid. Brennan was evacuated to Asadabad, Afghanistan, where he died of his wounds the next day. For his actions, Giunta became the first living United States military service person serving in an ongoing conflict to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. Now a Staff Sergeant, Giunta was presented the Medal of Honor by President Obama at the White House on November 16, 2010 for his actions on the battlefield.
Sergeant Joshua Brennan was the 10th Wisconsin military service person to die in Afghanistan since October 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
99,383 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,828 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,436 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1462 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
841 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
32,127 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10,140 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
103 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
27 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
145 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
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