"Feshbach, you've done such a great job as a radio operator that I'm going to put you in for PFC.", said Lt. Hamlin in 1944 at Camp Hayden,Washington.
"Give the fucking $4 a month to someone who needs it. Being the ranking Private in the barracks makes me special so I'll pass." That exchange greased the way for me being transferred, very quickly, at my request to an outfit scheduled to go overseas, aka combat.
AA reinforced my dislike of 'people pleasers'. A fate not for me. Gotta have, for balance, people in my life, who like me and people who dislike me.Without a filter between my head and my mouth it was a certainty that a lot of people that I would meet would dislike me.
Being overdrawn, after going sober, at the bank, almost $900,000, in 1980 dollars, made living and sleeping with the fear of impending doom a big part of my life. I was driven, insanely, to supporting my divorced (thank God) ex-wife, my kids, a few friends and my own fucking big time spending which included just giving money away. Never could handle having someone else pick up the lunch or dinner check. Masochism at its finest.
But I always believed in my earning power and my Pop's mantra that, "In America the money is up to your knees. You just have to know how to bend down and pick it up." A life time of going up like a rocket and down like a stick was my schtick.
Israel was my creme de la creme of immoderate living until it wasn't. Deciding to raise money to drill for oil in Israel really sealed my fate with the Princess.We had a great swap going. The Princess thought that I was bizarre, I thought she had a real boring streak in her.
The problems that the Princess had with my Israeli efforts started with my virtually giving up all of my income to concentrate on connecting with the Israeli bureaucracy and super Jews who thought that I was stupid.
Finally, I waved the flag of surrender. $500,000 give or take poorer and with the undying resentment of the Princess except when I took her along on one of my many trips to Israel.
Then there were Donn and Daisy Tognazziny. Having written a tome about Walt Disney the thought came to me to promote the stock in Europe. Donn was based in Zurich, worked for the same bucket shop as I did and we struck a deal for him to help me peddle the Disney stock in Europe. This kind of coincided with my Israeli efforts so I invited Donn and Daisy to join me in Jerusalem all at my expense. Very dumb.
The Princess was right in labeling me as 'bizarre', but now at 91, busted on my ass, I have no regrets and am without Italian Alzheimer's where you forget everything except the grudge.
And again, as the Italians say, 'If you can't stand ingratitude, never do anything for anybody.'
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