Cranes Corner - The Monterey Maytag Man

Crane's Corner
Thursday, May 23rd

The Monterey Maytag Man

Some humans go to the moon, strive for fame, spend their waking hours chasing the dollar, spending untold dollars reinventing themselves, changing the way they look or the career path they follow. Some people live for excitement or danger. There are those who live for adventure for excitement...they want to see the world. Many folks...unwittingly put themselves in the hospital or an early grave...developing any matter of ailments brought on by stress in this dog eat dog keeping up with the Jones world. There are some who always seem to be on edge, looking for an argument. And there are others who, outwardly blessed with wealth and health and family are never content.

Then there are people....and they are rare...who live a different kind of life. People like Henry Morris. Now Monterey has changed a lot since the Cannery Row days that John Steinbeck wrote about, the once gritty fishing industry has morphed into a tourist hotspot. Through the sea change that’s transformed the sea coast there has been this little diner by the dock, a quintessential mom and pop joint that’s been operating for as long as anyone can remember. And until this week every day of the week, Henry Morris was a fixture at the joint..now known as LouLou's Griddle in the Middle. When Dewey was trying to defeat Truman. Henry Morris read about it as he downed his decaf and munched on burnt toast, his regular order just about every day, from sometime in 1948 until just a few weeks ago. For many years Henry got to the diner early, so he could savor the morning meal and the conversation, before starting his life’s work, fixing washers and dryers, as...yes the local Maytag repairman. Ask anyone who knew Henry Morris and they'll tell you the same thing...Henry always had a kind word and a smile and a joke. And imagine the conversation topics as Henry Morris made his way to the same diner every morning. Did he like Ike...? Or fear Joe McCarthy. The 50's Elvis Castro. Onto the 60's the Kennedy assassination. Hippies. We went to the moon. The 70's Nixon resigned. Carter and those interest rates and those poor people on Challenger. He saw rotary phones morph into smart phones. He saw Monterey change. He saw the world change. About the only thing that didn't was that morning routine. Decaf and toast. Well done.

A few weeks ago Henry Morris failed to show up, but that was ok--the word was he was visiting his daughter in Arizona. Then came word that he wouldn't be coming back---he suffered a stroke and died Sunday. This weekend at LouLou's, in memory of Mr. Morris the coffee is on the house. Courtesy of a guy who paid for his every day for 65 years.

 Cranes Corner 5-22-13

When I was a young journalist, one of the veteran reporters I really admired admonished me about getting to chummy with the people or industries I cover. Our job the sage told me is not to be their friend, our job is to report the facts, good bad or ugly. Then he uttered what was once the code of the journalist, the mission is clear, through your efforts strive to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

I learned growing up how Edwar R Murrow took it to Joe Mc Carthy; how Lyndon Johnson got the third degree over Vietnam; the media dogged Richard Nixon out of office, ridiculed Jimmy Carter and his National Malaise, and uncovered the Reagan administration's controversial plan to sell military hard ware to cladenstinely arm Nicaraguan rebels. When Bill Clinton disgraced the oval office with an intern and lied about it, reporters didn't let up, and President Bush was villified for getting us into war while those weapons of mass destruction that never were. But for the first four years of his term, Barack Obama in the eyes of the so called national media seemed to be made of kevlar and teflon rather than flesh and blood....It almost seemed like the Washington Press Club was less  a place to go after work---than a way of life. Reporters scoffed at conservative gripes that the President was a socialist, taking America down the wrong road. But suddenly, the 4th estate is jumping out of the Presidents back pocket----after learning that the Justice Department strong armed a major news organization, Associated Press--ignoring the rights of a free press in an effort to plug an embarrassing leak....The Feds went after phone records...office and personal of some 20 assorted journalists. Today, we're learning that AP wasn't the only target of Eric Holder's snoop squad, it's reported that Justice came calling Fox News, seeking to track down the source of a leaked story regarding North Korea. The story, apparently given by a source to Fox Correspondent James Rosen, prompted a government review of Fox News phone logs, and the private e mails of reporters. Interesting though, the administration seems to have no qualms in trampling the privacy rights of reporters when it seeks information, but when the tables are turned, where is all that trasnparencey President Obama promised us. As a house panel seeks answers in the IRS scandal, the woman who ran the unit that apparently stiffed conservative groups seeking legal tax exemptions is taking the 5th. The Obama Administration. Do as it says--not as it does.

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