Quincy Jones

I recently atteded a lecture by Charles Fox.  Mr Fox does backround music for feature films.  He talked of the intracacies of coordinating sound and mood with the action on the screen.

Fox also composes serious music and popular songs such as "Killing Me Softly With You Smile".

In the course of his presentation he mentioned his long association and friendship with Quincy Jones

who did arranging for some of the leading lights of popular music such as Frank Sinatra.

My mind went back to my college days and meeting a Quincy Jones.  I wondered if it was the same one.

Yesterday it was confirmed by my mailman.

It was about 1950.  I was having a late lunch at the fraternity house at the University  of Washington sitting oposite a frat brother who had been a music major at Garfield High School in Seattle.

The mailman entered the front door to drop off mail for the residents.  The brother jumped up to greet him and invited him to join us for a cup of coffee.

The name Quincy Jones stuck in my mind.  He spoke of being a substitute mail deliverer to finance his further music study.

He was asingned to the U. area for that date.  He said he preferred the residential areas especially the suburban tracts.

He said that there if an attractive housewife came out to get the mail he would tell her that if she would put on a pot of coffee he would speed up his deliveries and and be back to share a cup with her.

He said he was having surprising success with this ploy.

I asked my mailman yesterday if he might know if it was The well known Quincy Jones.

Hi reply was that it was, "Part of the postman's lore" that the famous musician had serve in their service.

Yes I had spent my moment with a person of greatness.

Tom Foley and Israel

It was 1984.  My late wife and I were in Washington, D.C. to attend the APAC convention.  What a great experience to be in the nations capitol.

Copngressman Foley's Walla Walla office had supplied us with passes for the White House and other capitol landmarks.

The Majority Whip office supplied us with an intern to guide us through the halls of congress where we viewed debates on the floor and Jeannie was thrilled to sit in the chair reserved for the First Lady when the President addressed  the body.

Congressman Tom Lantos, an old friend, invited us to lunch with him in the congressional dining room.

Also, we attended with him a joint house-senate hearing on a resolution urging the moving of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the capitol, Jerusalem.  The resolution sponsored by Tom and Senator Moynahan of New York.

In a briefing by the APAC staff member we were told that there was legislation in progress for a $100,000.000.00 grant to Israel for civil uses going forward in congress.  This would  be a switch from from the loans previously offered.  This would be a sea change and was a priority.

On our last day we dropped in to Foley's office to thank him for his courtesies.  Actually, we were hustled into a waitng limousine with the Congressman and an aid as we drove to the airport where he was to fly to the midwest for a speech he asked about the Lantos-Moynahan Resolution.

I thought hard for a moment, swallowed and said, "I agree that it is tragic that because of Arab pressure Isreal is one of only two countries in the world where the embassy is not in he capitol but the more pressing need is the passage of the grant to Isreal.

Returning home I began receiving calls from APAC urging me to call Foley's office to urge action on the grant.  I kept assuring them that my rep was on board but the calls became more urgent.  The bill was in trouble aand only the Majority Whip could herd it through.

On the last day of the session, literally at midnight the bill slipped through with a positive vote.

The following week Tom  Foley was back in the  district addressing a Chamber of Commerce meeting.  I went over to him to shake his hand.

"Alan, I got your grant through." he wispered.

As far as I know, almost fifty years after Isreal recaptured Jerusalem from Jordan and declared it the capitol, the US still refuses to move the embassy. 

Tom Foley- Remembering a great man.

Tom Foley was my Fifth District Congressman .  Hearing that he would be visiting Walla Walla, I went to the Democratic Headquarters to hear his report.

It was warm spring day.  A day for mowing lawns, fishing or playing golf.  Very few people had time for politics that day.

As we sat together, I mentioned that my former roommate at the University of Washington, Tom Lantos had just been elected to Congress from his district in California.

I went on to relate the story told about Bernard Baruch, the Warren Buffet of his day, who had an office on the New York stock exchange floor.

A young man entered his office.  Introducing himself he handed Bernie an envelope.  The envelope contained a note from Baruch's mother informing him that  this was a son of her closest friend and that he had his heart set on a careewr on Wall Street.

The wizard of Wall Street said to the young man, "I am on my way to the restroom on the other side of the floor.  Come with me and tell me all about the folks at home as we walk."

Everyone will notice and will think you are making a presentation to me and if you cannot get a job after this you will not make it here.

Some time later at a function Tom Foley, then Majority Whip came over to me at a meeting  and reported that he had singled out Tom Lantos among the many congressmen taking a break in the congressional Clokeroom.  He said that they had sat in a place where everyone coming in or out could see them and he told Lantos tell him about our times at the University of Washington.

Tom Lantos went on to a long and distinguished career in congress and was always grateful to Tom Foley for his early courtesy. 

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