Dec

23

Confessions

Dear Internet,
Some things you don’t know about me.
1. I once scored 147 on the MENSA test which I took live on my TV show . It was scored by two MENSA officials in 1992 on Jann Scott Tonight on Channel 36.
2. I grew up country with a little bit rock n roll. Love country western, country, western, bluegrass and hill billy music.
3. I raced stock cars all over the south west on dirt for 7 years so I am a car guy. I can build em from the ground up. I reviewed new cars on TV and print since 1968.
4. I can read 6000 words per minute and at one time read 20 books a week and interviewed the authors on live radio.
5. I drove over the road trucks for four years to all the lower 48 states. Am a CB talker, recorded hours of stories and jokes.
6. I have appeared on CNN, MTV, CBS evening news, NBC nightly news as a guest. I worked for MTV and NBC.
7. I was a wild child and ran around with country boys and girls in my teens. “You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy”.
8. I owned motor cycles as a teen ager. They included a new 1963 Ducati Diana RT, a new twin carb 1964 750 Norton and a classic 1937 Harley Davidson 1200 police bike re pleat with siren and lights.
9. I worked for the state department and CIA illegally in England as an American Journalist spy for a foreign paper International times. I was directly involved with interdicting letter bombs being sent to US senators in the early 1970′s. I also had immunity from arrest and prosecution.
10. I have been robbed at gunpoint, kidnapped, and shot at by terrorists.
11. I am a Christian and go to church on Sunday and yep Jesus is who he says he is. I’m a believer.

Merry Christmas everyone
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado

The Webster brothers lived across the field in a non electric wood heated house

Dear internet,
I grew up in a small New England country town where there were more dairy cows than people. Population 3,000 in 1955. 5,700 cows. A New England town is small, tidy, old and most of our dairy pastures were outlined with stone walls. My town was established in 1659 exactly 200 years before Boulder. It had a main street lined with colonial homes. Near the Mayflower Inn was a large field where Washington’s Amry had a winter encampment. George Washington himself spent the winter at the May Flower.
I grew up about a mile outside of town on West Main street or rural route 47 also known as Washington road. General Washington’s army marched down our road and had maneuvers across the street from my house.
Sitting way back in the field was a big green house. It was accessible by Linden Lane and sat by itself though now it was surrounded by some post war homes. The Webster brothers all confirmed bachelors lived there. Fred was 82 born 1873 Jim 78 born 1877 and George 63 born 1892 had lived in the house since birth. They were Yankees all. Their ancestors had fought with the blue coats against the crown. George was the only one who could read or write. He had been in WWI and fought in France. The other two brothers had not traveled further than 50 miles from our town. They had never been to Boston nor New York. They didn’t have running water, electricity or insulation on their walls. Their wooden floors were unvarnished and rough. In the kitchen was a wooden cook stove. The living room had a big pot belly stove.
Outside the back door was a hand well pump for water. Further from the house was an outhouse. They had oil lamps for light, and no motor vehicle. It wouldn’t have done them any good because none of them could drive. They had an old horse but it died several years before. So they walked or peddled a bike as did many of my 19th century neighbors.
The Webster brothers were the local grave diggers. They actually dug graves by hand with a pick and shovel.
Not far from my house was the local cemetery which had graves 100′s of years old. The Websters were the care takers. I used to see them every day on my way to school. They smelled bad too since they didn’t bath much. They all wore blue denim work shirts and dungarees and those funny old flat caps that you see in turn of the century photos. They also smoked corn cob pipes.
They kept to themselves mostly but whenever I or my friends talked to them they were always friendly. They spoke in thick country accents so it was hard to understand them. But on some summer evenings we would go over to visit them , sit outside and they would spin yarns of life in the country back in the old days. (the late 1800s and early 1900s)
One such tale was a story of “green rabbits” which lived in the near by fields and only came out at night. At nine years old I believed every word of it , but I never did get a glimpse of “them green rabbits”. But according to the story they ate from the Websters garden at night and had very big paws.
The Websters were the last of a New England long gone to me. They were simple 19 century men living their days in the mid 20th century and they didn’t see any reason to join.

Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado

Tags: blue coats, civil war, Connecticut, Continental army, history, Inn, linden road, Mayflower hotel, mitchel school, revolutionary war, webster brothers, Woodbury, woodbury cemetary, Woodbury connecticut

from America's most famous small city Jann Scott Boulder Colorado

December 7 1941 A Boulder Marine was at Pearl Harbor

December 7 1941 A Boulder Marine was at Pearl Harbor

December 7 1941 A Boulder Marine was at Pearl Harbor

Dear internet,
John showed up at the club every day at noon. He was an affable good natured ole guy just happy to be alive. I got to know him in the 1990s. He was on a mission to get people to quit smoking by pulling an oxygen bottle around with him . He’d often say “I survived Pearl Harbor one first wave landing and 2 second wave landings in the war in the pacific, but cigarettes are what killed me.

But John was a real life Boulder war hero. He often wore his hat “Peal Harbor survivor” He was a US Marine stationed at Hickham field on December 7 1941.
“I was just a kid. 135 1bs. 18 years old when the Japanese started bombing. I literally got blown out of my bunk. When I went outside I could see the meatballs on the zeros as the flew over. We knew instantly what was happening. There wasn’t much I could do except keep my head down. The Zeros were all over the place bombing and strafing everything. Everything was burning and destroyed. We Marines were taught to keep down during shelling and bombings which is exactly what I did. But I survived it. There was no fighting back. They surprised us and the first things they hit were our gun emplacements. Even so, running out on to an airfield during a Zero bombing strafing raid is suicide. I lived to fight another day.”

John was at Guadalcanal for one month. He didn’t like to talk about it except to say It was everything you ever read about and more.
“I survived a first wave landing there and was not wounded. It is a miracle that I never got hit. You know we lost 35% of our guys on the first landing. Mostly everyone else was wounded. I don’t know how I escaped. I guess the good Lord was with me.”

He survived Second Wave landings on New Britain Island and Tarawa.
“No I never got wounded and I never got sick. A lot of guys did. Between malaria and dysentery and the Japs trying to kill us we had over 65% casualty rate on those islands. I guess it was my age. I had just turned 18 so my immune system must have been pretty strong, maybe that and growing up on a farm here in Boulder”
Those landing were pretty bad. You just had to keep your head down, make your way up the beach and try to find some cover. Then we could get a position in the jungle so we could fight. Once we established a beach head, the Japanese didn’t stand the chance, but you couldn’t tell them that. But we knew. They had the entire United states Marine Corp landing on their islands and we weren’t going to leave until we occupied them. That’s what they didn’t understand. They were good fighters and dedicated, but we were better. We had an armada of ships and the wherewithal to out bomb and out last them….. and we out fought them man to man……so much for being a Samari. A lot of them were you know. They’d come at us with their swords….they were no match. We were Marines…we out Samaried them. They didn’t expect it. They thought we were weak and couldn’t fight. But they didn’t know what a Marine was. They soon found out.
I think history will find that US Marines in the pacific will go down as the greatest warrior class in history.”
John died of emphysema in 1994. Todays post is for him and all Marines who fought in the pacific and who are fighting today in bitter battles in Afghanistan.
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado

This entry was posted by JannScott on Monday, December 6th, 2010 at 7:16 am and is filed under America, Boulder Jann Scott My life in Boulder, My Life in Boulder . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

from Americas most famous small cityJann Scott Boulder Colorado