Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Polly and Ron were on pretty good terms. She was an independent sort of gal, wouldn't take a lot of
crap from anybody. They had their arguments, yes, but by and large it wasn't that bad. She
particularly liked gardening, and went up to Victoria [with Nancy Ford] one time out to Mouchard's
garden - she came back and they had bras filled with cuttings they'd got there. She had a nice
garden at the house. I doubt if she was an alcoholic. I never thought of her being alcoholic. She'd
take a drink but never much. We didn't drink too much in those days. Most time we were playing
chess we were drinking oriental tea.
Their in-laws lived on beach at Yukon harbour and Ron's boat was anchored half a mile out. I don't
think he had a water view from his house. It was on a hill overlooking a meadow, they drove down
the hill through a couple of pastures.
His mother was a little dried up, wrinkled woman - maybe too much sunshine? She was called
Mum. When Harry [Ross Hubbard] retired he ended up in Kitsap County and was manager of
Kitsap County Fair. They lived in Bremerton, just a couple of blocks from the navy yard.
My impression that he went out after Pearl Harbour as an executive officer. He got a commission in
the Navy. He was already in when I enlisted. It was an old passenger ship. He had a recurrence of
malaria and that's when we saw him in LA.
One night we met after the war at a theatre in Bremerton. He was taking kids to a show and we
were talking in the lobby while the show was on.
Letter of introduction??? I suspect that what happened was that he wanted a letter and I gave him a
letter head and said, "If you want a letter write it." There are couple of words in there that are not my
style. The signature is not at all like my signature today but I can't remember what my signature
was like 45 years ago. "Most brilliant" - that was really laying it on. I'm not above laying it on but not
that much. I don't recall writing it. I don't know why he wanted it. I can't imagine my saying that ["most
brilliant" etc.]. He'd not written anything about political economy as far as I know. I'm not above Bsing
a bit, but it doesn't sound like my style. "You want a letter? Hell, you're the writer, you write it."
My signature later copied my father's - big R, little M - can hardly read them - Ford. But when I
started that I'm not sure. It might be my signature - I wouldn't guarantee it and wouldn't disown it
completely.
He liked to give himself the benefit of the doubt. He'd say something and you'd think, "what kind of a
line is he feeding me?" and then you'd find out it actually happened. Like his gliding experience - I
know he had his fingers smoothed off by a guide wire and I assumed that had actually happened.
The ends of his fingers were very tender and sensitive. I don't know if he had an electric typewriter
here but I know he had one in NY because he talked about the problem of using it in a hotel
because it worked on direct current.
Ron was probably my closest friend at that time.
He did tell me one time he had a manuscript in his trunk that was going to revolutionise the world. It
was called Excalibur, but that's all I know about it. I never saw it. We were both born in 1911.
The grocer would let him charge, but when the bill got so high the grocer's going to start pushing a
little. Charging grocers was standard. He did go and buy to Bon Marche in Seattle and bought a
record player and had it delivered. It was a hard place to find and then he couldn't make payments
on it, and they had a hell of time finding him and took about six months before they could find him
and take it back. I don't think he ever made any payments on it.