Posted on 04/04/2014 4:33:57 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Meanwhile, the French will take a minimalist approach to Bikini that will last even longer. No one is sure why the designer named it Bikini, but it must have had something to do with the big explosion he meant to set off.
The original bikini, unveiled at a Paris pool in 1946. It would fit into the box the girl was holding. It was so scandalous that no model would wear it so they had to hire a nude dancer.
I think the name was meant to conjure up images of scantily clad natives in a tropical island paradise. “Bikini” just sounded better than “Kwajalein,” “Guadalcanal,” “Palau” or “Tarawa.” Especially since those names did not conjure up images of a tropical paradise for most American men.
And make no mistake, the Bikini was marketed for American men. Something I instinctively knew on Spring Break in 1979 and 1981.
I guess the first time I found out about the F4U was as a silhouette (from side, from above/below, head on or from tail) in a deck of cards like playing cards that my grandfather’s naval aviation students had to memorize in training to be able to ID our own planes and those of the enemy.
My dad, who turned 18 70 years ago this week, met my mom in Athens GA where he was a naval aviation cadet and my 16 year-old mom’s dad was the base disciplinary officer!
That sounds more dangerous than a night carrier landing during a squall.
I believe that he missed at least one date after being forced to “guard the flagpole” as a disciplinary measure!
There is a back-story to how my parents met in Georgia.
By amazing coincidence (or we like to think divine intervention) my mom’s mother’s family came from a teeny town on the coast of Maine with roots back to the 1600’s, which was the same town where my dad’s Boston family had summered since the 1870’s! My grandmother had been invited to go sailing on my great grandfather’s yacht in her teens before WWI. It was my grandmother who recognized my father’s unique name and encouraged my mom to overcome her initial distain for my father’s invitation to date, bless her heart!
My grandfather “served on active duty in three wars” (WWI, WWII and Korea) training cadets in the latter two wars. He would have been 54 years old by the time the Korean War began.
WWII ending with the A-bomb spared my father from participating in taking down Japan by conventional means.
Note, it’s “Lwów”, not “Lviv”.
It’s hard to say what the French were thinking. They think Jerry Lewis is the funniest comedian ever.
Free unsinkable aircraft carriers.
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