Margo

            On Thursday morning I continued editing “J’suis snob” on my Christian’s Translations.

            I tried to figure out the chords for “Oh mon amour baiser” by Serge Gainsbourg but about halfway through I started hearing them differently and so I wasn’t sure if I had them right. I’ll probably nail them with a fresh rain on Friday.

            I removed the drawers from my desk and washed the insides and the front. Then I cleaned all of the drawers inside and out. I’d thought it was only going to take a few minutes but I laboured for an hour. I’ve officially cleaned the front part of my living room. 

            Most of the rest of the project will involve pulling my couch out to wash the floor behind.

            I made a salad of white radish, cucumber and grape tomatoes with flaxseed oil, balsamic vinegar and garlic. I had that and the last of my sausages for lunch.

            I did some exercises and then took a very slow bike ride to Bloor and Bathurst. I took it easy because I want my knee to get better but I still want to be able to ride. I think I only passed one person the whole ride. I stopped at Freshco on the way home. I was approaching the watermelons when a middle-aged woman with an eastern European accent asked me if I knew how to tell which is a good watermelon. I told her that I’ve never learned how to test them and so I just take one. She said the Chinese seem to be very good at picking them.

            Here’s what they say online. A watermelon should feel heavy for its size. If it has a small creamy yellow area on its underside it’s ripe. Tape the underbelly and listen for a deep, hollow sound. That will be a good one. I’ll try it next time.

            The grapes were all too soft and so were the cherries but I got one bag of cherries anyway. I bought three bags of milk, a can of coffee, a box of early Grey tea and a carton of spoon size shredded wheat.

            I got caught up on my journal, but while I was at the computer I was smelling rotting dead things and I was wondering if it was me. I realized that it was garbage night and the Coffeetime had put out their bins for pickup.

            I weighed myself for the first time in several weeks and I’m at 91.4 kilos. Exactly three months ago I was 91 kilos.

            I grilled eight chicken drumsticks and had two for dinner with three little potatoes and some gravy while watching Wagon Train. This story was quite predictable. It begins with a man on the wagon train entertaining the other members at night with “The Ballad of Yellow John Thurmand”, a story about a man that gave in to fear and did not fight when a wagon train was massacred. Also listening is the Darro family, Aline, John and Tommy. Tommy tells his parents that the song makes him hate John Thurmand. It’s easy to guess from their reactions that John Darro is really John Thurmand, having changed his name and trying to forget the past, while keeping it a secret from his son and everyone else. Along the way the wagon train picks up an old drunk named Briscoe who is a survivor of the massacre. When Briscoe recognizes John as Thurmand he blackmails him for whisky but one night while too drunk he reveals to the whole train that John Darro is really John Thurmand. Tommy says he hates his father. Most of the travellers want to kick Darro and his family off the train but the Major says that would be like murdering them. There is a hostile tribe out there that could attack at any minute. Briscoe gets drunk and wanders off. The Major, figuring Briscoe has been captured by tribesmen head north to try to retrieve him. But after they leave John finds a trail of Briscoe leading south and rides out alone to find him. He tracks Briscoe to a wooded area where he has twisted his ankle. Not wanting help from Darro and not believing h came looking for him alone, Briscoe calls out for the Major and attracts a Native raiding party. They are captured. The Major and the men learn what’s happened and go after Darro and Briscoe. We find the two captives tied up with Darro being calm and Briscoe panicking. The Major cuts through the tent and cuts them free but they are jumped as they try to. John saves them by killing the warrior guard. Now he’s a hero and the lyrics to the song are changed.

            Briscoe was played by Edgar Buchanon, who played Uncle Joe on Petticoat Junction.

            Darro was played by Eddie Albert, who was the star of the Petticoat Junction spin-off, “Green Acres”.

            Aline Darro was played by Eddie Albert’s real life wife, whose full name was Maria Margarita Guadalupe Teresa Estella Castilla Bolado y O’Donnell, but her professional name was simply Margo. She was born in Mexico City, the daughter of a Spanish surgeon. She was the niece of bandleader Xavier Cugat and performed as a dancer in his orchestra from the age of nine. She lived with her aunt in New York City and was cast at the age of fifteen as the lead in the film, "Crime Without Passion". She worked throughout the 1950s in television and film until her career was sidelined by the blacklist. Although she was not a communist, she was known for her progressive views and she was labelled a communist because of her support of The Hollywood Ten, her pacifism and her support for refugees. After appearing at an anti-Franco rally she needed a bodyguard because people were spitting at her in the streets. Her husband Eddie Albert was also blacklisted but because he served in WWII and was somewhat of a hero he was removed from the blacklist after the war. In 1970 she co-founded Plaza de la Raza (Place of the People), a cultural centre for arts and education, which is still in operation today. She became the Commissioner of Social Services for the city of Los Angeles. She was married to Eddie Albert for 39 years, until she died in 1985.