Vic turned 70 this year, most of the way to the shrinking life expectancy in COVID times. In attempting to shrink the footprint of the eventual estate, several imposing piles of papers emerged. Most dealt with financial events from decades past. They yearn for treatment in the fire-pit out front of the modest home in the midst of the Refuge Farm compound. That could also be true for the rest of this list.
The current tumult of the Good Ole United States provides an interesting backdrop to it all. Most have a certain ironic tone, intended for amusement and celebration of changing times. For example, returning to the property this week from brief trips to town, the sound of gunfire echoed across the fields. It is apparently a more common phenomenon in many places than in previous times, and a source of unease for some. Out in the country it oddly is more an affirmation of safety and privacy, and a part of conditioning the deer who dine on the property that Their Season is approaching and it is time to move deeper into the thick rich vegetation in self-defense.
There is more information in some of the stories. The old hand-written notebooks have scrawled cartoons of adventures in distant foreign lands, including some on Capitol Hill. There are tales from pals we know (and some we sadly knew) and some modest adventures in the wide world. A couple popped up unexpectedly, ones with some lingering questions that were a bit sensitive when those who lived them were still alive. Others are accounts of personal mistakes and miscalculations common in the lives and times of Boomer lives.
The latter topics include love and wars and command and control of all sorts of nasty things. And fun in dealing with them all. The following list is of the compendium either published or “on hold” pending resolution of several stories longer than my life, and of those who lived them. As they proceed, they are posted on the www.vicsocotra.com website in the “Novellas” tab. And the staff is struggling to get them posted in acceptable format for hard copy publication with Mr. Jeff Bezos on his Amazon enterprise.
– Vic
Nick Danger, Third Eye
(The first published book, a Noir treatment of a Privat Dick working the mean streets of USS Midway (CV-41), 1978-80.
Long Shadows: The Search for Jack Graf
Life and Times of VADM Rex Rectanus. A life in the secret world that shaped our own, from WWII to modern times.
The War in the West
An account of a wild young Irishman who joined the struggle against the Union, his sister and the grandfather of my grandfather who married her. Vicksburg and Raymond and other battles you have never heard of. Imprisonment, escape, combat and love in older times that have an odd resonance to ours.
The Lucky Bunch
A respectful account of an unusual relationship between Government and others in New York City, plus the search for German technology used in the Cold War.
The Snake Ranch Papers
A 14-month one-year tour in the Republic of Korea, 1980. A military coup provided an interesting sidelight to a war with no end.
Grand Tour of Europe, 1903
Great Grandfather Socotra tours a Europe before the age of powered flight and The Great War.
Boondoggles
Originally compiled as a sort of real-life civics lesson on How Things Work. Travels with the Congress in Haiti, Burma and North Korea, among others. The trips featured freeing a Nobel laureate and normalizing relations with Vietnam and talking with the North Korean leadership about the “defensive” use of atomic weapons.
Cocktails With the Admiral
The life and time of RADM Donald “Mac” Showers, last of the Midway codebreakers, another war in Asia and implementing reform in an IC operating “off the reservation.”
The Last Cruise of IJN Nagato (Operation Crossroads)
The Crossroads Atomic Tests exposed thousands of sailors to the effects of Atomic blasts, and the last deployment of an IJN Japanese battleship to serve as a target, crewed by Yanks. Includes the account by the Nagato’s XO, a man who died young, perhaps from the effects of the blasts.
Cruisebook (Fall of the Wall, 1990)
A routine Mediterranean cruise turn electric as USS Forrestal steams while the Berlin Wall collapses and the Cold War ends.
Stones of the District
A tour of the first monument of the United States- the boundary stones of the District of Columbia.
Point Loma (Compiled)
The salty works of an Old Salt, and charter member of the Socotra House Writer’s Section. Adventures afloat and ashore around the World Ocean.
Tales from Big Pink
Life in a vibrant Arlington VA as life, society and Government change dramatically, 2001.
The Seventy Days
So, there was an election in 2020 and a couple changes in the way we live. This account runs from November 3, 2020 to an Inauguration on 20 January 2021.
The Family Book: (Irish, German, English)
The account of the family in North America, dating to before he Revolution, the conflict with the King, a Civil War in the family, and living with modern change.
Living With the Shadow Warriors
Our 83-year old Girlfriend Jinny was looking for an editor to put together the stories of the wives of a Navy Reconnaissance squadron in the Philippines and Japan. When the husbands might not come home from work. By Pauly Varney and Several VQ Squadron Wives (edit)
In Work:
Winds of Change
A candid account a little ahead of gentile publication and a running account of a society embarked on a great transformation we do not recall asking for.
Big Smoke’s Life and Times
The bare-knuckled adventures of Tom Duval, an Old School Spook, 1944-1980. Japan and Italian adventures on the other side of the fence.
Field Marshal’s Daughter
A US Army Colonel, once a British Coldstream Guard captive of the Chinese masquerades as a Master Sergeant while married to a German Field Marshall’s daughter. A life introduction to the fields of Far Eastern lies.
Car People
Some poignant tales of the families that preserve (and drive) the autos that meant something to a couple adventurous generations. Ramblers and Rods.
Cooking Under Cover
With Jinny Martin, an account of what being a hostess in the Cold War diplomatic corps really meant when the spouse calls up and says “I have a group of diplomatic people coming by the house this evening. Have something good to feed them.” Recipes from Jinny and some other grand ladies who knew what the point was, and what would work with the representatives of all sorts of odd places.
The Red and Green Books
Early attempts to copy the enigmatic style of Gonzo Journalist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson pioneered in his seminal work “Hell’s Angels.” The Socotra House attempt to capture that spirit with an experience with a much larger armed gang. Mostly law-abiding, and MUCH longer than a year on the road. Handwritten, of all things.
Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra