My Cousin Jasper
He was from my mother's side of the family: second son to her older brother, Thomas.Thomas graduated from Notre Dame in the late 30's where he majored in football and foolery.
Thomas never met a joke he didn't remember and he would tell them all day and all night.
The family was at a loss to understand how he would make a living away from academia.
His football skills made him a starter on the defensive line, but were insufficient to get him into the
National Football League before the Second World War. He floundered from job to job,
working oil fields in Oklahoma and Texas, mustanging in Nevada, even tuna fishing out of San Diego.
In 1940 he learned to dust crops in a bi-plane and probably would have died in that profession,
except the Japaneses decided to fly over the North Shore and take out Pearl Harbor.
Thomas enlisted and got a commission because of his Notre Dame background.
The
Navy sent him back to San Diego, North
Island, where he learned to fly Wildcats.
He was stationed on the original Yorktown
and took out three jap planes at the Coral Sea.
At Midway he destroyed three more before being
shot down and rescued by a PT boat.
Six kills. Shot down in flames. Survivor. Rescued. Life was Good.
Tom standing
near river at Ibex Meadows, 1954
Admiral's daughter saw his picture in the USO news and went after him.
She was taller than him, smarter than him,
and knew to laugh at all of his jokes.
Their first son, Andrew, appeared on the
scene in the spring of 1944.
His second son, Jasper, was born to an Australian
nurse stationed in Cairns,
where Thomas was doing some stand-up comedy
while on R&R after the
War in the Pacific. Thomas didn't witness
the birth. Didn't know that he
Jasper
with his mom outside of Wollongong, 1948, where they moved after the War
Said his mother had recently died, that she had never married, and that she
told him that his father was an American Naval Air Pilot living in the States
She named the boy Jasper and gave him her maiden name: Jasper McGrath.
Australian Irish, but free stock, so he claimed,
no ancestors having spent
time in the penal colonies--- so
he claimed when asked about his breeding.
Uncle Thomas was ex-Navy, living back in Wisconsin in 1968 when Jasper
appeared in La Jolla.
Denied the paternity when my mother originally
got him on the telephone to break the news.
Cried "Bullshit," said "every man that ever
had some money, some looks, some power or
some fame always had some damn fool women
trying to claim he was the father of
their babies and suck up child support for
their little rugrats." Said it was now happening
to him but it was just a pack of lies. Then
he started to laugh and tell a joke about
one of his bastard friends in the Korean War
who had the same thing happen to him
by some MammaSan living in Chejudo, when
my mother cut him off.
"This boy, Jasper, I've seen him for fifteen minutes, but he looks exactly
like my son, Clark. "
"I know who Clark's father is. And I know
my husband was never Down Under
during the forties cuz he was running radar
stations up and down California, protecting
us from the Japanese invasion. So you best
shut up your 'Bullshit,' and get over here
and acknowledge your tomfoolery, and do the right thing." He
never did the Right Thing.
Myself, I was going through bootcamp down at Marine Corps Recruit Depot
in San Diego
when Jasper appeared on the scene, so I didn't
find out about this until he came with the
family to visit with me two hours over Sunday
visitation. There was a resemblance.
Uncle Thomas never returned to California. Jasper
lived in my room while I was in the Corps.
He had grown up in Thirroul, New South Wales, about forty miles south
of Sydney.
Pure Waterman. Sailing, surfing, diving. Headlands,
Sandam Point, back-beach.
He fit into La Jolla like a hand in a glove.
I had a difficult time understanding his accent.
The women in La Jolla seemed to understand it
quite easily.
He dated women in the town who never looked
at me:
"but he looks exactly like my son, Clark. "---go
figure!
Jasper
in 1968. Took to California like a flea to a dog.
I didn't get any free time 'til six months into the Corps. By that
time Jasper had already
slept with the only girl I had
ever known, carnally, and her two sisters.
"but he looks exactly like my son, Clark. "---go
figure!
me in 1968 at MCRD San Diego---- "Everyday is a holiday, every
meal a feast."
I learned later in life that Australians are feral, wild, untamed. Never
mind the prison stock,
this is just the type of person that emigrated Down
Under from England, Italy, France, Russia
and even the Americas. The AbOriginals are more
laid back, but many of them have probems
with the liquid, and this may have tamed them down.
I know some of them get quite wild with
the fluids flowing through their systems. Ever
see the movie, Once we were Kings? Made in
New Zealand, but the Maori are also in Australia. Good
film.. Strong, tough, hard people.
Jasper always had his eyes open. Derogators said his fly was
also always open.
When he first came up to the States, I understand that
he had more ass than a toilet seat.
That has its drawbacks, because there are a lot of
crazy women out there, and there are
a lot of women who lose their beauty when the two a.m.
alcohol haze fades away.
Of course, the same can be said of men, but I'm not
telling the story from a women's
Point of View. I leave that up to you.
I wasn't a percipient witness to most of these tales,
and only a few women got drunk and told me of their relationship
with Jasper. I'll recount those later.
I was in the Corps 68 through 72. I got my usual month each year
of liberty and spent the
time in Thailand or the Phillipines or travelling Europe
or sometimes in La Jolla.
During that time Jasper was a bartender at the El Sombrero
in La Jolla and also some
dive called Gordos just outside of Rosarito Beach
in Baja California. My mother let
him stay at our house in the Muirlands section of La
Jolla when he was north of the border.
daytime view from Japser's bedroom at my parents' house
[note WindanSea Beach breaking in the center of photograph]
night view from the bedroom
He surfed or free-dived in the Pacific for recreation
and chased skirts for sport.
He apparently had no ambition in life but to enjoy
it. A worthy goal.
I learned later that Australia is generally considered to be west of California,
and by
that I mean the natives are more laid back, more ocean
oriented, and less stressful
than the natives of California. Notice I say,
NATIVE, because a lot of people move
to California and lead the same stressed-out, money-grubbing
lives that they led
before they moved here. They move to California
to relax and yet they still pursue
the dollar like there is no tomorrow. Then they die
and leave their hard won wealth
to their heirs to enjoy and squander. I digress.
I lost my focus. I apologize for that,
but it's easy to lose one's focus in California. Too many distractions.
It was toward the Summer of 1972, I was finishing up my Tour of Duty.
This is hearsay.
Jasper had a mexican girl south of the border and a La
Jolla girl north of the border.
They didn't know the existence of the other until a
big southwest swell hit.
Jasper was surfing Tijuana Sloughs, a break between
Imperial Beach and the Border.
La Lina, the Border. This is before they
had the fence to keep out the fat people.
wide
view of the mexican-american border fence of the early '90s
note the Coronado Islands in the background
this
is a medium shot of the fence where thin people can slip through
nowadays
this fence is corroded through so the large latino can enter the
u.s.a.
His white girl friend was sitting on the beach with her binoculars,
watching him surf
the sixteen-foot faces that were rolling-in. His
latino girl friend was riding a horse that
belonged to a friend of hers living in Playas. Playas
being the beach suburb of Tijuana.
She was riding over to watch him surf where Holder and
Simmons often rode the large sets.
the
Sloughs breaking on a southwest swell in 1984
note Coronado Islands in the background
Chi chi, that was her name and her quality, knew he liked to surf the
Sloughs.
He praised it. Said it didn't have the
crowds you found in San Diego and even 38.
His surfing mates were three Navy Seals that were instructors
in Coronado.
They claimed to have honed their surfing skills in Viet
Nam, actually smoking some
of the Herb with Charlie while surfing his beach. Turns
out Charlie did surf, that
Coppola or Milius or whoever wrote that line in Apocalypse
Now was also
smoking the Herb and didn't know shit from shinola. Hey,
that's the military.
But these were screen writers, you say. Hey, that's
Hollywood.
What's true, what's false, what's in between? I only recount what
I was told,
because I was not a percipient witness to these events.
Take it as you like it.
I only know that when the two ladies met on the beach
in the summer of '72,
that the Mexican-American War was refought and that the
Navy SEALS claimed
it was tougher then most fire fights they had engaged
in along the Gulf of Tonkin.
this
photo of Chi Chi was taken by one of the SEALS at the scene
I don't think there was an outright victor. Migra took the latino
away, and the I.B. Lifeguards
escorted the american lady to a local doctor for some touch-up
work
As told to me by Jasper, shortly after this he went to Australia for about
four years.
When he returned, I had been back living in La Jolla at
the Neptune house,
and DogBoy had entrenched at the Klein house with the sonoran
siren.
Jasper stayed with my parents in the Muirlands when he tripped
back into the States.
His mutual attraction with the latinas then brought down the house
of DogBoy.
To be Continued