AFN guys on excursions.....(60th Anniversary of my entering the Army in 1954)
The jazz club:
In downtown Frankfurt. Hard to find...no signs...a walk-down into place. Free admission for any AFN dudes and very exclusive and expensive. Great jazz artists always there and a lot of the smug sons former Nazi bigwigs, I’m sure.
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The “hooker”:
5 or 6 AFN guys in a car driving to Wiesbaden...big US Air Force base (still is)...picked up a girl standing on a corner looked to be turning tricks.
She surprised us...admitting she was Air Force and working on the side for bucks. We each gave her some script (dollars forbidden for our use) and dropped her off at the base. Nobody got laid. It wouldn’t seem right.
On board for this little excursion probably were Ray (he was AF and from that base) Nick maybe( but not sure.) some others I can’t remember.
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Beef Fondue:
Best restaurant ever in a small Frankfurt suburb just ten table...reservations weeks ahead. We only went there when one of us was shipping back to the states. These were like “farewell” dinners and they were they great! The tender cuts of the best filet cooked with long forks into boiling oil and then dipped into various fantastic sauces devised by the chef who owned the place.
But what I loved best were his french fries....and the dessert.
The fries were long shoestring potatoes cooked in his secret blend of oils and they are still my favorite all these years.
And I had my first flambé desert! Huge fresh peaches...in a selected liquor sauce (four or five blends) set to blaze and then rich vanilla ice cream dumped on top. WOW. I can see it and taste it after all these years. What a meal!
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The Movies:
Only movie house available to us was on the Frankfurt airport turf...and we always had to stand in line for some reason. I took that opportunity to let everyone around know that “Nick Clooney of AFN” was with me...which pissed him off to no end. Because everyone
listened to AFN who had a radio we were like movie stars! One time I think we saw Helen Of Troy and Nick fell for Rossana Podesta! (Rub it in George!)
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And as long as we’re on the subject of excursions...and because those followers of George Clooney would probably be interested... in the mind-think of his father back in the mid-fifties...this little tidbit.
We had a week of R & R (rest & relaxation) so Nick and I checked out military flights that we might catch free of charge of course. The best seemed to be to Spain so we booked that one.
When we got to the Mats terminal they told us the flight had been canceled. Bummer.
Where to go now? Bags packed and money changed into dollars and a whole week of free time away from the Army.
I opted for catching a train to Paris and then on to the Riviera.
Nick thought about that and said “how about Berlin?”. I told him he was nuts...a big bombed out city and nothing to do for a week...forget it.
Well..he was adamant and so we went our separate ways and I gotta tell ya I slid right thru Paris ( saw the Eiffel tower from the train) and got to Nice and Cannes in a hurry on a very fast overnight train with standing room only. And I had a blast. Even made it to Monte Carlo.
Nick had surprised me with his choice...and once back didn’t seem interested in discussing it much. I believe Berlin was a shock ...the real devastation of war etc. Those sights must have had a lasting impression on him as they would on anyone. Berlin instead of fun on the Riviera. The choice is interesting....tells you a lot about the guy.
Right George?
my email:
stanmajor@aol.com
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