Gil Parcell

I met Gil Parcell when he illustrated The Parable, one of a number of articles that I wrote for Soaring Magazine. He was an Ex-pat Brit who migrated to Toronto, Canada after WW-II and became one heck of an artist. He illustrated a number of articles for me as well as the cover of my RV Cookbook, Armadillo Pie. He was always calling me a big, rich Texan so one day I told him a joke about the Texan who had struck it rich in oil and forty years later had gone back to visit where he had been stationed in England during the war. He was riding the train from London and was seated across from an elderly gentleman who was hard of hearing and a younger man around forty. He was telling them,

"Yeah, I was over here durin' the big war, flew B-24s out of Dunstable, bombed hell out of them Krauts."

"What'd 'E say?" asked the older gentleman.

" 'E knows Dunstable," replied the younger one.

"Yeah, I know Dunstable. There was a pub there called The Duck And The Crow, we'd go there and get drunk after every mission."

"What'd 'E say?"

" 'E knows The Duck And The Crow." answered the younger man.

"Boy, do I know the Duck And The Crow, there was this bar maid there, we called her Willing Wanda. She'd drop her knickers for any guy with a pair of wings on his chest."

"What'd 'E say?"

" 'E knew Mother."

A few weeks later I received an envelope from him containing an illustration of my joke. It's one of the things on my "I love me" wall.

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