Edgar's Studebaker: And Other Memorable Stories

By Ray Kania

A look at the serious and not so serious events in life, from "The Last Can Opener" to "Smiley", the images are from real people, places, and events.
Also included here are SIAM stories, a look at life in Nakhorn Phanom (NKP), Thailand during the Vietnam War. NKP is next to the Mekong River in Northeast Thailand and the Thai Air Force Base is a few minutes drive west of the town. Just across the river is Laos and in the dry season you could walk over to the other side, illegally. The stories in SIAM include my experiences after forgetting to bring a passport when returning from the United States and meeting the Queen of That Phanom on a bus traveling across the Khorat Plateau. Includes meeting the famous Gecko with video. This is also a chance to become more knowledgeable about SIAM.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ray Kania
• Release date: Aug 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476188935

Ray Kania

Ray Kania is a writer whose work has appeared in a variety of publications, from scholarly journals to the sports pages of newspapers. Ray is also an artist and photographer (Magazine covers of of Florida Living,The Orlando Sentinel Insight, newspapers, articles and books.) Ray uses pen and ink, and color pencil.Kania, a former Vietnamese/Thai-Lao interpreter, was the senior coordinator (USAFSS) for National Security Agency intelligence gathering missions along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. During this period, as a personal project, he collected information that would lead to an ethnography of the So people of Northeast Thailand. Included in the study is a phonetic alphabet, the first for this spoken language. (Documentation)As a licensed private investigator in the early 1980s he worked undercover for a NASA contractor.Kania signed a SAG agreement to work in movies and commercials from 1984-85. He did work on the CBS series SPACE and in the movie D.A.R.Y.L., including precision driving for chase scenes so the stunt drivers could do their thing on the Orlando East-West Expressway.As a Marshallese police officer, he was directly involved with operations against Russian (Soviet) special forces units at Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands from 1986-1988. He was part of an operation against the Russian efforts to gather data from the impact zone on Illeginni Island on Feb.13,1987 on orders from President Reagan (Documentation)Kania also worked on a contract for the Air Force Space Command at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and later as a federal officer at Kennedy Space Center, protecting the space shuttle, astronauts and KSC facilities. Click image.He has written about a number of diverse subjects as a result of his travels and eclectic interests. They include: Southeast Asia (politics, sociology, and language), sports, physical fitness, nature, Pacific Islanders, intelligence gathering, and human interest. His latest effort has been the publication of his 7 epub books.He has participated in several sports (primarily basketball and soccer) at several levels, from college to a prison league. Along the way he has collected BA degrees in philosophy and political science from the University of Central Florida. Among his language skills are a working knowledge or better (speaking, reading and writing) of Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese and Arabic. (little or no active use for over 15 years.)Partial list of credits/clients:Asian Survey, September 1980, Volume XX, Number 9, Explaining Recent Vietnamese Behavior, Lee E. Dutter and Raymond S. Kania.Florida LivingSt. Petersburg Times, high school sports, North Suncoast.The Asia MailThe Orlando Sentinel (Insight) Tropical Isles Play Lab For U.S. Defense Tests. Oct. 30, 1988.South Pacific’s Paradise Lost: Ebeye Has Become Slum In The Marshall Islands. April 23, 1989.Journal of the Siam Society, January 1979, Volume 67 part 1, Patron, His Majesty the King, The So people of Kusuman, northeastern Thailand, Raymond S. Kania and Siriphan Hatuwong.Vietnam MagazineRay Kania's ThelastGringo.com is archived in the University of Texas, San Antonio Immigration/Borderlands Web Collection. It contains well-documented articles on the uncontrolled immigration across the U.S. southern border.Ray has been a member of the Eastern Florida State College Foundation Heritage Society since 2002 and a sponsor of the annual Eastern Florida State College (Melbourne Campus) Student Art Exhibit at the King Center for the Performing Arts. He provides scholarships for best of show in two dimensional, three dimensional, and the Ray Kania Award of Excellence categories.2004 – Ray was the model for the winning image in the SEPPA, Southeastern Professional Photographers of America contest, international competition. It was the First Place winner in male image, illustrative category, and Best of Show. The image was also on the 2005 SEPPA calendar and at the Imaging Asia convention in South Korea.

Book preview

Edgar's Studebaker -- And Other Memorable Stories

© 2011 Ray Kania, All Rights Reserved

ISBN # 9781476188935

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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More ebooks by Ray Kania:

Almost Paradise

GERONIMO LIVE! And Other Florida Stories

Kampuchea, Year Zero

Seniors' Corner: For a Better Life

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A look at the serious and not so serious events in life, from The Last Can Opener to Smiley, the images are from real people, places, and events.

Also included here are SIAM stories, a look at life in Nakhorn Phanom (NKP), Thailand during the Vietnam War. NKP is next to the Mekong River in Northeast Thailand and the Thai Air Force Base is a few minutes drive west of the town. Just across the river is Laos and in the dry season you could walk over to the other side, illegally. The stories in SIAM include my experiences after forgetting to bring a passport when returning from the United States and meeting the Queen of That Phanom on a bus traveling across the Khorat Plateau. Includes meeting the famous Gecko with video. This is also a chance to become more knowledgeable about SIAM.

Some of the names of people and places have been changed for obvious reasons.

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Table of Contents

Edgar's Studebaker

Snow in Miami and I lost 14 pounds in three hours

The Playground War

The Goat Man Cometh

Choices and Consequences

The Last Can Opener

Working on the CBS miniseries SPACE

God and the Tupelo Tent Meeting

Deathbed Confession

Into the Zone of Silence

Hawg Valley

Coming Home to Stay

The view from the top

Rolling Thunder

Paint it Black

Smiley

Camp Tarbox: Anti-War Protest

Buses, Planes, Communist Clocks, Etc.

The Bus to NKP: Ride at your own risk

The Monsoon

Lighting Candles on the River

Listening along the Ho Chi Minh Trail

Final Exam

The Queen

The Last Tet

About Ray Kania

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Edgar's Studebaker

(1962) Edgar just turned 16 and and he told me that his father Frank Dawkins finally promised to buy him a used car. Edgar told his father that he needed a sharp looking car and decent power if he wanted to pick up a nice looking chick. His father said that he would make the choice, that it would be a sensible car but it would have unique styling.

No offense but Edgar and a stylish car don’t go together. So I was sure the chicks wouldn’t be fighting each other to get a ride with him. But when I saw him pull up to the high school parking lot in a dull green 2-door 1950 Studebaker I was absolutely certain. I noticed a group of girls were staring at Edgar’s wheels and laughing, probably at the bullet nose and the low rider look when the driver pulled up. The seats were low and the bottom of the window was high so that you looked like a small senior citizen tooling around Miami in a Cadillac. Or you could sit on something and straighten up, looking goofy.

We gathered around Edgar’s vehicle and someone asked him how much he paid for the Stupidbaker, that’s what the car was once called in an advertisement put out by Studebaker back in its heyday. And they had a good sales record during that period.

It had a 232. 9 cubic inch V-8 with 120 horsepower from a lowly 7. 0:1 compression ratio. Tom McCahill, a writer for the automobile industry said it was a rip-roaring, hell-for-leather performer that can belt the starch out of every other American car on the road.

What made McCahill so giddy was the test model went from 0-60 mph in 12. 5 seconds and reached (after a while had passed) 100 mph. Maybe it was that bullet nose. But this was 1962 and there were plenty of real fast movers that year, for example the Chevy impala SS with a 427, 2-4-barrel carbs and a 4-speed transmission. These super stocks would rumble up to the stop light, revving their engines, a signal challenging you to get ready for the green light. When the other driver looked back, grinned and revved his steed up, it was on.

Any way, it was transportation and Edgar made the best of it. When it rained, though, the doors filled with water and as he drove down the street the water slapped back and forth. When he made a right turn, the Studebaker leaned over to the left side, or in boat terms, it listed to port.

Well, he drained it and made some more holes in the bottom of the doors and it drove on a more level keel. But it didn’t really move that quickly. The first time after he stopped for a traffic light, he floored the pedal when the light turned green and the car’s automatic overdrive started to move, about 2 seconds later. Then it began to move seriously underneath the light and began to approach the 25 mph speed limit. Edgar told me he just slumped down in his seat.

The final humiliation was when he was driving home and noticed one of the girls from school walking home. It started to rain hard, and being a gentleman and seeing a chance to break through, he pulled over and asked if she needed a lift.

She said, No thanks.

But it’s pouring down. You’ll get soaked. He pleaded.

That’s OK. It’s only a mile. And she kept walking.

Edgar didn’t let that discourage him, though. He persisted in making a case for upgrading his ride and a year later his father bought him another car. It was a 56 four-door Nash Rambler with automatic and wide whitewalls and a tri-color factory paint job with the main color being pink. Edgar said that at least it’s more respectable. This report is based somewhat on similar events.

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Snow in Miami and I lost 14 pounds in three hours