It Happened Like This...

By Charles A. Hamilton

Comments/Instances/Happenings

Described in this book

• “You made me laugh and cry,” stated by the transcriptionist

• Had prayer with a stripper

• Filmed seagulls flying backward

• Performed a wedding in Sesame Street’s studio in NYC

• TV station Engineer was accidentally televised sitting on the toilet

• Two pallbearers fell into an open grave

• Negotiated an end to a crisis

• Convinced a man to hand over a loaded .45 gun

• Filmed and televised the first experimental atomic detonation in the

Nevada desert

• Had lunch with Big Bird and Cookie Monster

• My motel room was searched for bank robbers

• Challenged a ghost who had thrown my coat on the floor

• Unexpectedly added a new canine tenor to the church choir

Trustee for a multimillion-dollar Children’s Education Trust Fund

Volunteer Jail Chaplain

Volunteer Police and Fireman’s Chaplin

Volunteer Hospital Chaplain

Dr. Charles A. Hamilton has written two other books,

one on early television and one on part-time employment opportunities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647017866

Book preview

GROWING UP

As many of you know, our growing up years formulated much of our lives. Mine did as well. The following incidences were unforgettable in mine.

My parents both worked at Western Union in Fort Worth, Texas. Early phones could not connect someone directly with a person they were calling. A system called a PBX, Private Branch Exchange switchboard was utilized to complete the call. A lady sat in front of each switchboard to operate it. The ladies, of whom one was my mother, would plug various cords into the switchboard to connect one caller with another for purposes of sending or receiving phone calls. My father was the assistant city foreman for maintenance. My mother took a liking to him. Apparently, it was rather hard to start a conversation because my father was a rather bashful man. Finally, my mother came upon the idea of how she could meet him officially.

One morning my mother reached underneath her switchboard and pulled several of the wires loose. Immediately the switchboard went down. The supervisor called the maintenance office. My mother had already checked, and my father was the only person on duty as everyone else was out on an assignment. My father hurried to the switchboard room with his tools to make the necessary repair. My mother was standing as close as she could to the switchboard, trying to make conversation with my dad as he made the repairs. Evidently, she was successful because after the repairs were completed, my father stood up and said, You know, you’re such a nice lady, how would you like to go to the movies with me tonight? My mother quickly accepted and thus began a courtship that resulted in the wedding of my two lovely parents, the best in the world to me!

I attended Polytechnic High School and graduated in June 1949. In ROTC, I was the Lieutenant Colonel, Commander of the Corps and Captain of the rifle team. The rifle team won a number of tournaments and achieved national recognition. During this time, I also became a member of the Fort Worth Rifle and Pistol Club. We had team competitions around the Southwest Region Circuit, including New Mexico, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. I started out with a Marksman classification and completed my achievements to earn the Expert and Distinguished classifications. During that same time, I worked at Bigham Brothers Grocery and Wholesale Meat Market in Fort Worth.

While working one busy Saturday morning at the grocery store, my manager yelled at me, You’ve got an emergency call! I picked up the phone and on the other end was an elderly nun. She said, Your dad is in our emergency room. He has fallen into a buzz saw. Dad had a workshop in the backyard in which he made various carpentry items in his retirement. My manager said, Go now! I really set a speed record driving my old jalopy to the hospital.

I parked and ran inside yelling, Where is the ER? Seconds later, I burst into the ER. My father sat with his hand in a small metal dish filled with an antiseptic solution. The solution was clouded with red blood coming from one of my dad’s fingertips. Seeing the state of high anxiety on my face, one of the nurses gently guided me to a chair and proceeded to tell me my dad had clipped about one inch off the end of his middle finger on one of his hands. The ER nurse quickly apologized for the horrific message I had received on the phone. She explained that the elderly nun, not medically trained, was just trying to help. The poor little nun profusely apologized for the misunderstanding. I assured the nun I understood how the message got confused. She insisted that I must go with her immediately to the hospital chapel to pray for God’s forgiveness for what she had done. I’m sure you can picture in your mind a sixteen-year old boy and a nun sitting together in a dimly lit chapel. The nun pleading for God’s forgiveness and a young boy trying to remember the quickest way to the hospital parking lot.

I saved the money that I made at my grocery store job and bought one of the first TVs that was available. The TV had a giant seven-inch screen and was in a huge cabinet. My mom and dad were so excited over the TV because they were the only ones in our neighborhood who had one. My parents watched the TV constantly. They invited the neighbors to watch particular programs. In those days, you had to turn out the lights in the room; otherwise, the room light would wash out the picture on the TV screen. The TV had a large liquid filled magnifier that fit over the screen to make the screen appear larger. The controls for adjusting the volume, brightness, focus and contrast for the TV were located on the back of the TV. The darkened room enabled me to sneak around through the dining room of our house and enter the living room where the TV set was located. I would go behind the TV and slowly adjust the focus knob. I watched them as I slowly turned the focus knob. Everyone watching the TV would lean forward just a little at a time, concentrating, trying to see the picture clearly. It was a challenge to keep from laughing at them.

One summer I had a second job with a local electronics store. You must remember this was back in the late 1940s when television was in its infancy. My job was to install TV antennas on homes throughout the area. The job required me to climb on the roof to attach the antenna to the chimney or whatever stable object was available. The next step was to go into the house to hook up the TV. One day I found to my amazement there was no TV in the house. My supervisor explained to me that owning a TV was still a very new option, many people did not have a TV yet. Televisions were very expensive at the time and many people couldn’t afford to purchase one. They didn’t want their neighbors to know they couldn’t afford a TV, so they had an antenna installed on their roof in an effort to convince people that they did have a TV. Some people would drive up and down the street looking at all the houses that had TV antennas at that time. I’ll never forget who had a TV and who didn’t.

I was active in Boy Scouts. I had just qualified for the lifesaving merit badge. To celebrate this event, my dad took me on a camping and fishing trip to the Brazos River. As we were quietly fishing, three couples arrived and started fishing about one hundred yards downstream from where we were. They were consuming large amounts of beer at a rather rapid rate. After a little while, one of the women decided to go swimming. She dove in the river. When she did not surface after a few minutes her husband started yelling that she didn’t come back up. I ran down the bank and plunged in. After some difficulty, I located her. She was lodged under water in a fallen tree branch. I was able to get her to shore and began resuscitation techniques. I was successful with my resuscitation. She regained consciousness and wanted some coffee to drink. Her husband didn’t have anything but beer. My dad and I had a thermos of coffee at our campsite, so I ran to get it. When I returned with the coffee, I saw all six people piling into their car each with a can of beer in their hand and driving off. I didn’t get a chance to say, I hope you don’t have any ill effects from this incident.

My hometown was the location for a very large yearly rodeo and stock show. You could buy tickets in advance for the rodeo, which usually meant that you would have better seats. I was standing in line to buy tickets for my family. I was right behind a boy and his dad. When the pair got up close enough to the ticket window where they could see the prices of the tickets, the dad turned to the boy and said, The tickets cost too much money. It’s more than we have so we’ll come back next year. It was a heartbreaking statement if I ever heard one. The little boy had tears in his eyes. I quickly reached in my pocket, where I had a twenty-dollar bill. I wadded it up and dropped the bill on the floor. Fortunately, we were inside so there was no wind. I told the man, Excuse me, I believe you dropped something. He turned around and picked up the money. He looked at it, and he looked at me. With eyes that could only be described as being filled with thanks, he said, Are you sure? I said, I’m more than sure.

He used the twenty dollars to buy two tickets for him and his son. This was probably the best expenditure I think I could have made under the circumstances. I never forgot it and I’m sure the man didn’t either.

My father enjoyed gardening. We had a large backyard, and he had a small plot for a garden where he raised strawberries and vegetables. Our next-door neighbor, a German gentleman, also had a little garden in his backyard. A friendly competition developed between the two of them to see who could cultivate and raise the largest strawberries. Each afternoon, they would gather in the backyard and inspect the strawberry plants in each other’s plot to see how the growth was coming along and who had the largest strawberry. This competition was more than I could stand without becoming an anonymous participant. One day, I came home early from my job at a grocery where I worked in the produce department. The produce department stocked very large California strawberries that were about three times the size of Texas strawberries. The flavor was not as good as Texas strawberries, but the size was quite impressive. I took a couple of California strawberries home with me and some green thread. I crept up the alley, into the backyard, to the rear of our house, and entered the backyard unnoticed where my father’s garden plot was located. I tied the two strawberries onto the strawberry plants with the green thread so the thread would not be noticeable. I came in the front of the house and greeted my mom and dad.

My dad said, Mr. Koenig and I are just going to check our strawberries. I tried not to let on and said, Can I go with you? He said, Oh yes, sure.

We went out to inspect Mr. Koenig’s strawberries first. The strawberries looked robust and healthy. The inspection team then moved to our yard to see my dad’s crop. Mr. Koenig was kneeling down looking closely at the strawberries when he suddenly came upon the two large California strawberries I had delicately attached to two of the plants.

He said, I’ve never seen strawberries this big in all my life.

My dad rushed over to where he was standing and said, My gosh, I didn’t know my strawberries had grown that much overnight. They were both discussing the miracle that had apparently happened in the strawberry patch. I was doing my very best to keep from laughing.

Suddenly Mr. Koenig knelt back down and said, I’ve got to look at those one more time. He looked more closely, and he saw the green thread holding the strawberries onto the strawberry plants. He jumped up and said to my dad, You cheated, you cheated!

My dad said, What in the world are you talking about?

Mr. Koenig was pointing at the strawberries. My dad got down on his knees looked at the strawberries and saw that the strawberries were tied on to the plants. Dad immediately turned to face me. At that point, I took off running up the driveway, but it was too late. Dad caught up with me and brought me back. I had to confess to both of them that I had brought the strawberries home and tied them on with green thread.

My dad was going to punish me, but Mr. Koenig intervened and said, No, if Charles was that ingenious, he needs to be complemented not punished.

Dad agreed and so I was off the hook, but I was also out of the strawberry business as well.

When I was a senior in high school, one of the teachers organized a bridge club. I found out that several of the prettier girls and the more charming girls were in the club. I immediately joined hoping to make points with the girls. The situation was working out very well until our club was scheduled for a bridge tournament with three other high schools in Fort Worth. To make the tournament more interesting, it was decided, rather than play with partners from our own club, we would have a partner from one of the other school clubs to get better acquainted. This idea sounded good in theory, but in fact, it worked out worse for me.

My assigned partner appeared to be very nice. We sat down at a table with two other bridge players. As we were getting ready for the competition to begin, my partner said, Could I ask one question before we get started? The other three of us said, Sure, what is it?

She said, I just wanted to double check. Clubs are the ones with the three little round things on them, aren’t they?

The other two bridge players howled with laughter. I sank down in my seat. If I could have crawled under the table, I would have done so. I knew we were about to be slaughtered by the other team. It was nice, however, to get acquainted with my new partner. I asked her for a date. We dated for some time before she and her parents moved to another city. No telling what might have happened if she hadn’t asked the question about the clubs.

After high school, I attended North Texas Agricultural College. While I was at North Texas Agricultural College, the school became Arlington State College as part of the Texas A&M System. I was Captain of the ROTC rifle team under the command of Colonel Edger H. Keltner, who was General Jonathan Wainwright’s executive officer on the Bataan Death March during World War II.

I then transferred to the University of Texas and remained active in the ROTC. My wife and I were married in June 1952 while I was still a student at the University of Texas. I graduated from the University of Texas as a Second Lieutenant in the Army.

ARMY

Upon graduation, it was time to go on active duty with the Army Transportation Corps. I petitioned the Pentagon for a change in assignment. With some help, I received a new assignment. I later discovered the help came from Lyndon B.