In the early 70′s, Johnny Nichols, a native horseshoer and brother to the once famous jockey, Jimmy Nichols, was having a beer with red beans and rice at a bar in Bossier City, Louisiana. Unbeknown to him, a professional wrestler was having trouble keeping his younger girl friend faithful during his wrestling travels. He was enjoying his meal and several beers when a large, ugly guy came up behind him and grabbed him by his long hair, kept in the traditional long style that many natives prefer, and pulled him backward from his barstool, knocking off his expensive western hat in the process.
Johnny was a small guy, but not adverse to mixing it up; however, he knew when he was clearly over matched. The professional wrestler had him on the floor and threatened all types of physical damage upon his loin cloth wearing body if he ever came near his girlfriend again. Johnny was physically shaken and once the threats and the assault were over, he came looking for me.
Back in those days, I was 220 pounds of muscle and bone: women made cougar noises when I walked by on the beach, while men looked in another direction and pretended they didn’t notice me. The years have altered the physique, but that was the way it was back then.
Johnny found me asleep in my motel room, I listened to the story of a giant wrestler throwing him to the floor in a crowded bar and threatening Johnny over a woman. I found it humorous that a woman was the cause of the whole incident, because Johnny seemed to be intimidated by women. Reluctantly, I slowly dressed to prepare to avenge Johnny’s honor, such as it was on his more sober days. I had him repeat the story, since it sounded so bizarre, Johnny stealing a professional wrestler’s girlfriend, I almost wanted to find the wrestler just to hear his version of the story.
We heard the wrestler and his girlfriend were at the bar across the road, Gypsies Tramps and Thieves; yes, that was the actual name of the bar. We walked in and I looked at this middled aged man with a lock of long white hair in front, he was sitting with a woman I had met at the clubhouse at the race track who kept asking me about what horses I figured were going to win in the next race. She had a bit of luck and won some money and told all her girlfriends about this dreamy horseshoer at the race track who had all the winners. The girlfriends told their husbands who couldn’t wait to tell her boyfriend when he got back from his latest wrestling tour.
Upon hearing of the supposed infidelity, he figured Johnny was the horseshoer who was entertaining his girlfriend and her friends at the race track with all the winners. He and his girlfriend had talked over the whole deal before we walked in, and when the middle aged, 240 pound, slightly pudgy, wrestler saw me his face dropped and he walked over to apologize and shake our hands. He introduced himself as Sputnik Monroe, I had no idea who Sputnik Monroe was or that I had given his girlfriend a few winners by sheer luck.
It turned out the best for all and it was actually quite amusing, we had several laughs and in the eyes of the world both Johnny and Sputnik felt like they had saved face. Sputnik and I became friends and he took me to a couple of matches and I met several of the guys. I saw how the business worked and even tried to promote wrestling matches in Kentucky later on, it all proved to be a rousing failure, but I have never been one to pass up a chance to lose money.
Sputnik Wins Another One
Last night, President Obama referred to our Sputnik moment, of course he has never heard of Sputnik Monroe: yet, Sputnik Monroe set the segregated world of the old South on its ear when he refused to perform unless the Blacks in the audience were allowed to sit anywhere they wanted. Yes, Sputnik Monroe is a race hero in areas of the South, when racism was very much alive and dangerous. I can attest to this personally, for when I visited Sputnik in his adopted home of Memphis and we called on some of his Black friends and fans, they always had three pictures on the wall, Jesus, Martin Luther King, and Sputnik Monroe. Yes, Sputnik was a hero to Black people when our president was still crapping yellow in diapers. Yet, Sputnik wasn’t playing for political leverage; he stood up for racial injustice out of a pure sense of what was right and what it meant to be an American, for Sputnik was a fiercely patriotic individual.
The term Sputnik as used by our president was supposed to bring up the image of being in a cold war with the Soviets after their leader said he was going to bury us and a year later they launched a space satellite. The Free World was horrified at the though of Soviet Russia coming over here to bury us with an army of bulldozers, for kids and many adults those fears were real, but we, with the help of President Reagan, destroyed the Soviet Union economically. Now, with a rudderless ship of state, we are supposed to destroy China with technology, not the technology we have given them or the technology they have stolen from us, but magical new technology, that the Chinese wont be given. The same China that has been our friendly bank and creditor, controls an ambiguous amount of our governmental policies, while we spend like drunken sailors and devise new stimulus plans to slow our economy even more thus enriching certain business entities and individuals, while most of us are treading water on the edge of a violent whirlpool that is trying to pull us down into economic oblivion.
We must really seem gullible to Obama, he figures to work the crowd like a professional wrestler works the crowd and tell us we must stop spending after he has mortgaged away the farm, all the while making the fans love him: wrestling fans are gullible and the wrestlers are showmen, but at least one of them made a real contribution to society.
“I’m rough, tough, and hard to bluff; 235 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal, the heavenly body that women love but men fear.” Sputnik Monroe
Ahh.
Those were the days.
Pure entertainment.
I hope no permanent harm came to Johnny as a result of this allegation.
Skookum strikes again.
Bring back Bronco Nagurski.
And Gorgeous George! True drama and live studio wrestling. I’ll never forget the sheer awesome power of Rip Hawk and his signature claw hold. Heels and Baby Faces reflecting the absurdity of our politics and providing relief from the stress of everyday life.
Mathman, Johnny only had his pride injured. Horse shoers are fairly durable and Johnny was usually medicated anyway; Sputnik considered his hands lethal weapons and only want to scare Johnny and everyone else in the bar. He accomplished his mission.
They have both crossed over the divide, I hope they get a kick out of this article. At least they’ll know I still remember them, until I get to say, Hi! to both of them, one day in the future.
Obama doesn’t have a clue what the space race did to motivate my generation. When I was in grade school in ’57, NASA came to our science class with a dewar of LN2 and dazzled our young minds by freezing bananas and roses. The NASA guy told us if we studied hard at math and science, we could be part of the space program. It was true.
We listened, we studied, and some of us became part of all that. Forty years later, I was honored to sit up front at KSC and launch a few Space Shuttles.
My generation actually built things and accomplished things. Obama never built a damn thing and his only “accomplishment” is putting America on the road to destruction.
Damn JC, please write about those days. I for one am captivated of those who did the deed at KSC.
My daughter (Ruby Sassafras in the Bird Brain Post) attended space camp at Huntsville and flew the Shuttle simulator and fighter simulators, she was good enough to be known as combat chick, she was a regular. That’s as close as I ever was to you people, besides working down the road from the Space Center at Huntsville.
Give it a shot, (Oops).
Well I helped to launch the Challenger from the C-9 console (instrumentation) on that fateful (and freezing cold) day in January ’86. There were good days and bad days…
Yes, that was a tough one, but still well worth it, to hear your take on the episode. There were millions who felt the devastation on that one.
No man can understand the commitment made to the United States of America like those of us who have sat in contemplation of our own mortality in a situation where our contribution would account the cost of millions of lives. In 1973, Yom Kippur, we sat in the North Sea on Battle Stations Missle . . . not a drill. During those hours of high status the principal topic of conversation was “wheather or not” each of us, as an individual, could ACTUALLY contribute to the launch of a nuclear weapon toward our arch enemy the USSR. We all knew full well that the firing of any missle would in return result in our own demise . . . yet by far most agreed that it was necessary to do what we had all been so efficiently trained to do. We would carryout the job . . . without consideration of even our own lives. Note that on return from that patrol . . . there were individuals that were reclassified as conscientious objector status and removed from submarine duty, I believe they were all democrats!!! LOL
Sad that our political leaders of today fail to recognize that through the efforts of a few inept we are sacrificing the lifestyle that some of us were so willing to die for. We the few feel the on-coming loss at a depth of soul few others can share.
Aye Tallgrass, but for the silly wild eyed dreams of a few, we must forget the sacrifices of millions. How could we have brought this upon ourselves?
Melville, Moby Dick
Such are the feelings of helplessness as we watch this tragic drama unfold.
Skookum, you have a way with the written word my friend. I truly enjoy your writings and this latest one is no exception.
You have a way of writing that makes the reader care about what is happening to the characters in your stories.
Keep it up, my friend.
Update: I did not get my Christmas story on iTunes in time for the holidays due to the fact that I had no cover art. The cover I submitted for the FA posting was one I put together from various pics on the web. But I needed a cover that would not get me in hot water with someone down the road. I will be soon up and running at iTunes, though.
Great piece. I remember those glory days of Mid South Wrestling in north Louisiana. Sputnik played the villian but it’s obvious he was a good guy. Mr. O on the other hand is playing the good guy…
Skook,
Nothing can bring a smile to my face quicker than your old racetrack stories. so many people that I knew.combine that with the transition to this mess of a President and as always, great writing and you have the formula my friend!
James Poulos says this isn’t a Sputnik moment, but rather Our Stalingrad Moment:
I don’t think there’s a much worse crime than stealing your children’s future.
Yes JC, I can see the analogy. I have read several books on the siege of Stalingrad; the suffering was horrendous on both sides.
It is ironic that Obama captured a large percentage of the youth vote, the same ones who are mortgaging their futures for dreams of Obama with their votes as loan papers. If they want to sell out for the sake of their Socialist brain washing from public school, then there is nothing we can do; they will have been seduced by personal text messages from Obama sent to tens of millions of the most gullible and just be tickled to death; at least, until they realize they have no future and no freedom.
Yes, it’s very ironic that the youth of America voted for a man who intended to sacrifice their future and condemn them to a life of crumbling greyness. I noticed the same suicidal behavior at KSC: The NASA people that I worked with were all big Clinton supporters; I could never understand why they loved a man who essentially gave the U.S. manned space program to the Russians and cut their budget by 30%.
I guess Ayn Rand would have called that sort of suicidal behavior The Sanction of the Victim.
I had forgotten that the Challenger was lost 25 years ago today. Rather than “High Flight”, I believe this poem by Heinlein is a better tribute to those who were lost.
Skooks Sputnik Monroe Great story Bar scene reminds me of “Come a Little Bit Closer” by Jay and the Americans circa 1967. Remember it? Chuck Berry 84 and still duck walking did 2 shows N.Y.E. in N.Y.C. Music can truly bring us all closer together.
JC, that poem, on this special day, made the hair stand up on my arms, Thank You.
Rich, “Come A Little Bit Closer”, that was pretty good. You should write a musical, it might be more productive than hanging out at Conservative blogs.
Sputnik was quite a character with a big heart. When he took me to visit his Fans in Memphis, I couldn’t believe it when I saw his picture on the wall between Jesus and MLK. What a guy, a real hero in a time of hatred and danger. I am glad I knew him, there will never be another.
Skookum– Yeah, I thought I was over the Challenger, but posting that poem brought back all the memories of that horrible day.
On another sad note, I just got a phone call from Florida and the man who launched the first Space Shuttle on April 12, 1981 – Chuck Hannon – passed away yesterday. He built a cabin down the road from me here in NC, and hanging in the entryway is the photo of him and NASA Test Director Andy Brown. They’re standing up front in the firing room with big smiles on their faces and in the background, all the engineers at the consoles are standing up cheering. What a day.
I wasn’t there then, but I heard that after the launch about 500 people drove down to the B&H store on N. Merritt Island and had a big street party. This must have been just after noon, and I heard they blocked the entire road (S.R. 3) with their celebration.
God speed, Chuck.
National Sputnik Monroe Day March 24, 2011! Hope you can make it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcWPRswx0fU
Sherman, thanks for the info, it brought back a lot of memories and laughs. I will be working in Canada in March, so it is doubtful that I will be able to be there, but I will be watching the proceedings on my machine.
Since I wrote this article, I have realized just how much Sputnik accomplished and how dangerous his demands that Blacks be allowed to sit where ever they wanted. In my opinion he is truly the White, Rosa Parks; except, what he did took way more courage, believe me I know, I escorted him around as a friend. I wish I could rewrite this article and emphasize that part of his courage and integrity. Although, in the Black neighborhoods, he was treated like a king and they were very nice to me also. Those were the days, there was danger that’s for sure.
Thanks again, if you are involved in the story of Monroe and need more material, I am here almost every day for an hour or two. Take Care. Sputnik would love it!