Jean Shepherd - "Ludlow Kissel and the Dago Bomb That Struck Back (1969 Reading)"

On July 4th, 1969, Jean Shepherd reads from his short story, "Ludlow Kissel and the Dago Bomb That Struck Back" on his long-running WOR-AM radio show. The story was also a chapter from his 1966 novel, "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash". [Audio is public domain. Photo © by Fred W. McDarrah, used with permission.]

[@appidydafoo]

One of America's greatest storytellers, without a doubt. Thanks, Shep.

[@Modeltnick]

“The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters” is a must to watch this time of year.

[@cmans79tr7]

I use these to help me fall asleep, and today, July 4, 2024 (Edit: actually 1 AM July 5😛) I am still awake after 11 minutes, and I have to say this is the first time in a long time that I had not fallen asleep before now, and I am amazed and thankful that even after hearing this story a half dozen times over the years, this feels like the first time I ever heard it, and I am again astounded at how rich Shep's prose is😂😉👍

[@cmans79tr7]

17:38 "....all in pursuit of that healing balm: 'The Thundering Report'..." I love how Shep used the homonym 'balm' within his story pertaining to 'bombs'😛

[@cmans79tr7]

15:53 - "...settled down comfortably into my soft eiderdown bed of rememberences of things Past."

[@cmans79tr7]

1:00 - i am sure that a certain percentage of people out there have witnessed what is being described at this moment, and I have witnessed this, once in the early 80's in the Barnegat Bay with my father and his brother-in-law. Interesting to me, Shep here, and my father and uncle all took a sexual take on the spectacle, while I in my 20's at the time thought being witness to hundreds or maybe thousands of german helmet/alien monster-looking horseshoe crabs slowly, gracefully and silently moving in unison in shallow, brackish bay water was one of the most awesome, beautiful, yet somewhat terrifying spectacles i have ever seen. Interesting to me that Shep and my family members looked at the spectacle as purely sexual, and I marvel to this day at the ancient, prehistoric, lunar affected, procreation miracle that enabled this ugly but at the same time beautiful creature to survive for millenia, if not millions of years. Edit I just googled and found that horseshoe crabs have been in existence for 445 million years. Horseshoe crabs survived the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, as well as ice ages and continent formations. But now are endangered due to overharvesting for bait and biomedical uses which drain the 💦blood out of the crabs, the blood being worth multi tens of thousands of dollars per gallon. A real shame that horseshoe crabs have survived hundreds of millions of years yet in a short time span, humans will probably cause their extinction. If they go extinct, what will become of their biomedical use?