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Brooks Koepka first back-to-back US Open champion in 29 years

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Immigrant children’s protections eroding

<p>Hauling big wooden 24-bottle cases of Ma&#8217;s Old Fashion Root Beer from our storage room to the cooler out in the store was hard enough.</p><p>But I bore an extra burden in that summer of 1958.</p><p>America was fascinated by the UFO phenomenon in those days, 60 years ago. So was I, and I had just found what my teenage brain thought might be the answer to the riddle of strange craft in the skies. But there was a problem.</p><p>I was in charge of a lot of things in our Heights store. Besides keeping the soda cooler full, I made sure all our magazines were properly displayed and replaced by new issues.</p><p>In one of those mags &#8211; one dedicated to the occult and unexplained &#8211; I&#8217;d spotted an ad for what looked like a very interesting book. It was entitled &#8220;A Dweller on Two Planets, by Phylos (a Martian).&#8221; Yes, that&#8217;s how the author was listed.</p><p>Well, I reasoned, if some guy who claimed to be from Mars didn&#8217;t know what was going on in the mysterious skies of that era, then who did?</p><p>The library didn&#8217;t have it, though. And teenagers of the time lacked the money to send away for merchandise. So Phylos and his book remained frustratingly unreachable.</p><p>Solving the UFO mystery wasn&#8217;t the only impossible goal on my mind that summer.</p><p>Reading the New York papers a couple of months earlier, I&#8217;d come across ads for the movie &#8220;Love-Slaves of the Amazons.&#8221;</p><p>Did any Wyoming Valley theaters see fit to carry this intriguing flick? Oh, perish the thought. In that summer of deprivation, even a vicarious stalking through South American jungles, machete in hand while in search of a lost kingdom (for scholarly reasons, of course) would never come about.</p><p>Maybe for some people, a mention of that long-ago year calls up memories of gorgeous big cars and weekend dances at Sans Souci.</p><p>But for me, it was the summer of the most informative book I couldn&#8217;t read and the most intriguing movie I couldn&#8217;t see.</p><p>Oh, I had interesting adventures at the store and met a lot of nice folks who came in to buy anything from a pound of cheese to a pack of Luckies.</p><p>But Phylos and the Amazons? Forget it!</p><p>Let me tell you, stoicism for a 1950s teenager was a poor substitute for insights from other worlds and the blurb &#8220;One man found the lost land of the Amazon women&#8221; plus a picture of their leader wearing French Riviera swimwear while carrying a spear and breaking free of a chain.</p><p>But I survived. Under pressure of realities like college and the U.S. Air Force, Phylos and the jungle women faded into history.</p><p>Then, just a couple of weeks ago, these teen-years obsessions resurfaced as I was looking up classic science fiction for my book club.</p><p>Phylos&#8217; story, or at least one by the writer who says he channeled Phylos, turned up online and free &#8211; absolutely free. Just open it up and there&#8217;s his book, every word. This Martin guy might have traveled the solar system but, apparently, he&#8217;d never heard of earthly copyrights.</p><p>On a hunch, I did another search. Yes, there it was &#8212; the complete &#8220;Love-Slaves of the Amazons,&#8221; also free online.</p><p>Can my aging psyche take a weekend of such bliss?</p><p>Oh, who cares!</p><p>Cut me some of that Ma&#8217;s Old Fashion Root Beer &#8212; my computer and I are off on a long-deferred trip to the eternal mysteries of 1958.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tom Mooney Remember When </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_TOM_MOONEY-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tom Mooney Remember When </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Tom Mooney</p><p>Remember When</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Tom Mooney is a Times Leader history columnist. Reach him at tommooney42@gmail.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Remember When: A second chance to enjoy the eternal mysteries of 1958