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Friday The 13th and Full Strawberry Moon

What a way to start the Father’s Day weekend celebrations!

Friday the 13th

And

Full Strawberry Moon (sometimes called a Honey Moon)

Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers! Enjoy your special day … and may you have many, many more!

This Father’s Day weekend is kicking off with a somewhat historical event.

The last time *Friday the 13th* and a *Full Strawberry Moon* occurred was 1919. The next time it will happen in the future is 2098.

The next future Friday the 13th Full Moon (non-strawberry) will happen in 2049.

Aren’t we blessed to witness this event during our lifetime?!

I don’t know about you folks but Friday the 13th’s have always been very good days for me, along with full moon days.

Hmm … does that make me a Werewolf or vampire or something – LOL

Anybody got any Friday the 13th or Full Moon stories to share? Good or bad?

If so leave them in the Comments below.

90px-RockNRollGuitaristRock Onnn …
Bob

6 comments to Friday The 13th and Full Strawberry Moon

  • H. Clark

    In many nations where Spanish influence is prevalent, rather than Friday the 13th being unlucky, it is Tuesday the 13th that holds that honor. I am living proof that this is also false. I was born on Tuesday the 13th. My mother said I arrived into the world at night time, the full moon was beautiful, the brightest she had ever seen. I am enjoying a wonderful life, I feel lucky, and I am counting my blessings!

    On this Friday the 13th, at 1 p.m., while we were celebrating Father’s Day at a restaurant, our daughter received news that she is hired at a company she wishes to work for. This date is another lucky day for us and we are counting our blessings!

    Huong

    • Huong — Congrats to your daughter!

      My dad was born on Friday the 13th. 13 was his lucky number. 🙂

      Bob

      • H. Clark

        Thank you, Bob.

        We are very happy because it’s our daughter’s first job ever. She is freshly graduated from college on May 20.

        The coincidences are interesting on the birth dates! How cool!

        🙂

        Huong

  • Richard Turner

    Bob,

    You do a remarkable job keeping this website going! Besides being an entertaining read, it is becoming a significant resource for anyone wanting to research this time and place.

    I don’t have any strawberry moon stories, but I do have some notes on an (imagined) film project that might interest you.

    Best,

    Richard

    Some Notes on an Untitled Saigon Film Project
    Richard Turner 2014

    The film is structured like Rebel Without a Cause or American Graffiti in that it all takes place over the course of a single day and night, ending with the dawn of the following day. The film is set in Saigon, Vietnam in the period between the final departure of the French colonials and the beginning of the American war in Vietnam. The lives teenagers and their parents are a constant back and forth between maintaining an American lifestyle and adapting to the challenges of living in what was then known as The Orient. For the teenage characters there is the lure of the exotic and the freedom it represents, the opportunity to reinvent themselves, uneasily coupled with the longing for home and desire to maintain their Midwestern lifestyle with minimal resources

    The characters are introduced in the context of their families. They are getting dressed, eating breakfast, getting ready for school. Family dynamics are sketched out; hints of the adult perspective on the world are suggested. There might be adult discussion here of a rumored coup d’etat – parents warn their children to be especially careful (without wanting to upset them) There is a broad range of kids/teenagers. Some are middleclass white Midwestern Americans, some are the children of diplomats, Thai, Indonesian, German, etc; some are upper class Vietnamese or Chinese, some are French, some matisse (French/Vietnamese mixed blood). The family scenes segue into shots of the characters going off to school. Some are picked up at the doorsteps of their villas by diplomatic limousines, some ride motor scooters or cycles through downtown Saigon, some ride in military busses with wire grating on the windows.

    The characters all arrive at the American Community School, an international school. (The school’s proximity to the airport might be established if the film ends with an airport farewell scene. There might be a scene of a new kid coming in or a kid who’s been away at school in the Philippines returning for vacation, his parents meeting him. He goes over to school to reconnect with his friends.) Here the “home away from home” is established. The dominance of American culture is emphasized. The high jinx is typical of what might go on “stateside”. There might be a teacher talking to a class about culture shock. There could be a French class, which could be used to establish the French/American tensions. The adult geo-political perspective might be further explored through the comments of the teachers. Classes end at noon.

    EARLY AFTERNOON

    The characters gather at the Circle Sportif (the French sporting club) after lunch and siesta. This is the location for establishing the relations among the American characters and between the Americans, the French and the Vietnamese characters. You see groups of young people sitting around at café tables drinking coffee and soft drinks, French and matisse girls sunbathing in bikinis, Vietnamese “cowboys” posing nonchalantly. Here the tires of an American’s motorcycle might be slashed, there might be a brief fight between the French and American boys. One character takes his injured friend to the Jesuit hospital to have his wound stitched up. There could be some boys showing off on the diving board to impress the girls. American girls scandalized by/envying French girls. One American character, who is having an affair with a French girl at a lycee shows up late and talks about his hour with her in his air-conditioned bedroom. An American girl talks excitedly about the ball that is going to be held at the Sportif on the weekend. Mr. Saigon, a Vietnamese bodybuilder roars up on his cycle looking for trouble. The Vietnamese girl who is an artist/poet is involved in a discussion with a French boy. The French and Vietnamese greet each other with handshakes and kisses. The Americans are disdainful of this formality.

    LATE AFTERNOON

    The American boys drive around town in a pack, stopping to talk with the French man who is trying to sell his boat because he has to leave Saigon. They may go to see Rebel Without a Cause in the French cinema and then come out to sit around a café on Catinat Street as the afternoon ends and the evening begins. One or more of the French and Vietnamese characters go to the French embassy to watch a screening of Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless. Some Americans and some Vietnamese shoot billiards together. They enjoy a momentary camaraderie that is reinforced by the ambient music. (like the moment in The Deer Hunter that is fueled by Franki Valli and the Four Seasons singing Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You). (I don’t know what the American girls are doing at this time.)

    EVENING

    There is a party at the house of one of the artist character. It is a thematic party. It is held in the servants’ quarters. The theme is Beatniks. Some of the characters dress as Beatniks, someone reads portions of Howl, they drink wine, draw on the walls with charcoal. Later they move into the main rooms of the villa and dance to rock and roll music. Some of the music is live, the musician character playing lead guitar. There might be another party going on in Cholon, the Chinese section of Saigon, at which a magician suspends a woman in midair in front of the startled partygoers. There might also be a French party. Some of the American boys leave the party and ride out to Shantytown, an enclave of prostitutes on the outskirts of Saigon across from a Vietnamese military base. Joe and Larry’s motorcycle accident could take place in this time period. Another American boy goes back to the apartment of his girlfriend to make out. Someone else is at a piano recital by Rudolph Serkin at the American movie theater. (What do the French and Vietnamese characters do?)

    NIGHT

    In the early morning hours, tracer bullets streak across the sky. A coup d’etat has begun. It is unknown who is involved, but it is assumed by the adults and the teenagers that it is communist forces attempting to overthrow the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem. All of the characters are now on their own. They become their own parents/form their own families (as Dean, Mineo and Wood do in Rebel) The coup requires them to think for themselves, to be adults. It also brings out their loyalties/allegiances. The French characters have one perspective on the coup; the Vietnamese have two (some are pro-Diem, others are communist sympathizers) the Americans don’t know what is going on. In any case, the coup is a rehearsal for the Vietnam war. Not only are there dramatic possibilities for the relations among the various characters (heroism, sacrifice, betrayal, understanding, etc,) there is the opportunity to set up all the issues that eventually manifest themselves in the later war.

    DAWN

    The coup d’etat fails, Deim out-maneuvers the rebels. Some characters are killed in the coup; others are sobered by what they’ve seen and done. Some relations disintegrate, others are strengthened. The characters, some of them, walk through the coup aftermath with a new understanding of themselves and the larger context. Perhaps it ends at the airport characters gathering for a farewell to Joe and Larry who are being sent home because of the accident.

    • Richard – Thank you for your kind words!

      Oh, I’m sure you’ve got some *MOON* stories tucked away in the back pages of your mind – LOL – 🙂

      The film (imagined) project sounds GREAT! Let’s DO IT! Let’s make it a REALITY! This could be a BLAST to produce and would result in a *one of a kind* film never before make — and, probably never again made either – LOL – 🙂

      The CLODS ride again!

      I’ll contact you off-site to discuss the project and let our imaginations run WILD …

      Rock Onnn …

      Bob

  • dianna brint

    U better include the kids like me in the suburbs (if U will) we were wild! some of the stories are on the group fb site

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