The Bottle which started the relationship

Bottles have been known to start and finish relationships.  This particular bottle started a relationship which I still have today.  When I was 10 my grandfather, Michelangelo Giudice, a retired merchant marine captain/owner fed me stories of his swashbuckling past in the Italian merchant marine trade before, during, and after WW2.  As attentive as a present day kid with a Wii, I sat listening, and avoiding all surrounding noises.  All I did was dream about visiting the far away places my grandfather described.  One day after a well absorbed story, my grandfather hastily looked around for an empty bottle, scraps of wood, fabric, and built a ship in a bottle.  This process took approximately 2-3 hours.  The most fascinating part of this process was when he inserted the sailing vessel inside the bottle with a tweezer. All rigging was folded flat and attached with a fine line.  After positioning the ship on the sea ( putty ), he cut the line, and in an instant, the rigging blossomed into a set of sails.

Here is a close up.  All components were found in my father's woodshop.  

Notice the tugboat with simulated smoke ( cotton ).

My Grandfather, Michelangelo Giudice, is in the center.  This is the only surviving picture of his ship the FORTUNA, which was torpedoed during WW2.

This was my dress blue jumper.  I felt the need to travel the world, and at the age of 18, I enlisted in the US Navy 1981-1985. My job was a Quartermaster, which was essentially the ship's navigator, pre-GPS.  I loved to "shoot the stars" and taking sunlines with the sextant.  My travels brought me to many places, but the most memorable were: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; St Croix, St Thomas, Andros Island, Bahamas; St George, Greneda; Palma de Mallorca, Monte Carlo; Nice, Cannes, Paris, France; Capri, Naples, Gaeta, Italy; Suez Canal ( in thick fog...could not see the foc'sle ); Beirut, Lebanon; Djibouti, Africa; Bahrain.
I had the good fortune of working under a highly skilled navigator, QM1 then QMC Snodgrass.  QMC taught me how to navigate using the sextant.  It was quite an experience visiting countries around the world and taking organized tours, and most times, touring on my own with the help of a good map.  We learned that with teamwork, anything is possible, which is so true.  

I have the coffee, she has the Tea!

You know how much I like menswear and food, well there is someone who sells great Tea.


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