Chapter Two, my Father in the Pacific.

An insight into my old man is the other chapter to who are we. From my earliest memories I can hear my dads war stories, I still hear them today and for anyone that truely knows me it goes along way to explain why I like the things that I do.
At any rate my father, John Tesoriero Snr, served in the Pacific, in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. He was stationed up there from about 1943 onwards. He had two paricularly good skills, he was an amazing artist and a crack shot with a rifle.
One day whilst on patrol with buddies along the Yalu River he sighted on a large Cockatoo flying and screeching high above the tree tops, he lead him and then took a shot on the wing and then to everyones amazement it fell like a stone at their feet. At the same moment, they heard a splutter and looked up to see a plane coming down from a great height, tumbling like a leaf, no smoke or fire as usually imagined.
At that point a white parachute ejected, carrying the pilot who swung down slowly. It was an American plane, a P-39 Aircobra and then two similar aircraft flew tight circles around the pilot as he came down.
Dad's mates in jubilation at the shot were shouting a lot of nonsense while this went on, such as 'Wow, what a terrific shot! The bird and the plane with one bullet.' It didn't seem to matter that it had been one of ours that fell from the sky. They later learned that the pilot was rescued and was earlier stricken in a dog fight but this didn't stop the rumours from circling the camp as to Dad's marksmanship.

In this photo my father on the left is with mates overseeing the guarding of supplies that had recently been unloaded at Lae.

One of his sketches showing a huge American LST on the beach spilling forth activity and supplies.

Where do we come from?

Recently Ive been inspired by several of the blogs that I view and the wonderful stories that trace our family history. Its a who are we quest and why am I the way that I am. Well the Papa's tale starts back in New York at the beginning of the 20th Century with the arrival of Nonno Vincenzo Tesoriero, my grandfather.

Photographed here at the Crystal Hall Photo studio East 48th and 14th street New York in approximately 1918 we see a very young Vincenzo hamming it up for the Camera.
Vincenzo was an unremarkable man but he belonged to a very remarkable generation who literally took the world as their oyster and pursued their dreams across the oceans to foreign shores. Vincenzo arrived in Ellis Island from the The Aeolian Islands off the coast of Sicily, alone at the age of 14 years old. He was a solid lad who enjoyed hard work and so moving to Brooklyn he took up the employment of a stevedore on the wharves unloading cargo. It was here that he meet my grandmother whose family had arrived in the late 1890's. She was born on Union Street in Brooklyn. It must have been a hard time and a hard place for them both because not long after, they returned to Italy where my father was born. Four years later they were boat bound again, this time for Australia and that is where my story begins many years later.
I often wonder what my life would have been like had my family stayed in America. In some ways I have always felt a little cheated by being down in the antipodes when all the things that interest me and many of my good friends call America home, this would go a long way to explaining why Ive been to the states about 26 times and feel a deep affinity for the home of my forefathers. I am of course a product of my own environment, here in Australia, and it is perhaps because of this that I have the interests that I have, had I been born in the States there is no guarantee that I would have found any of 'IT' remarkable and I could have been oblivious to it all. It is this thinking that allows me to rationalise everything at the end of the day but at times it certainly is cold comfort when I know that every weekend you folks are at the flea market perpetually on the hunt for the good stuff. Realistically however It ain't all the bad, as I get to wake early and paddle out into pristine waters and conjugate with the sea and then once home again, dried and warm I get to sit in front of this screen and read about what a fine day you've had and what great vintage pieces you've been able to unearth.

Toes up front 'cause life's a glide.

Some days you just put your best foot forward and go with the glide.

Monster Papa Rides his Mini Simmons

Alas another rainy weekend sprouts more art work. In this rendition The Monster Papa is taking his new Mini Simmons down to the beach to engage in the preverbal foam glide'n'slide. A gentle reminder to all my cyber pals, The Monster Papa T-shirt is available through the Speedway Online store (http://item.rakuten.co.jp/speedway-shop/lt-002-charcoal/) for a mere 3,900 yen, buy one now so I can retire!!

SPEEDWAY SENDAI rocks Japan with the PAPA t-shirt.

The Papa's dear friends at Speedway Classic American Style Shop Sendai Japan, have put the finishing touches to a series of Monster Papa t-shirts which are now available at their on-line store, John Lofgren of Speedway said today that the reaction was outta control with his website buzzing with hits from all over Japan and around the world. (Got to talk it up Folks!)Vintage clothing fanatics, Surfers and Monster art fans love the Papa and the Papa would like very much to take this time to thank all his friends up in Sakurasville for their enthusiasm.
Follow this link to Speedways fantastic website and see the incredible array of stuff they have to ship internationally.
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/speedway-shop/lt-002-charcoal/

Florida Bound on the Angeline.

Another shot dug up by the Photohound, man that guy is the best hack I know, everything he turns up for the Papa is pure gold. This little treasure from Marathon Florida makes you want to board the Angeline for a day of game fishing. If the Captain and the first mate looked this cool on any contemporary boat Id be on board in a heart beat; a far cry from the Skipper and Gilligan.

Waikiki By Bus

Courtesy of Papa's buddy the Photohound comes this great shot of a Wakiki bound bus being boarded by various military personnel.

Tyler Warren Surfing Sartorialist

So the Papa purchased a pair of Yellowrats surf trunks the other day from the Thalia Street Surf Shop, they were on sale and hey a fraction of the cost of those trashy shorts produced in China by the likes of QUIKRIPABONG, you know the ones, homogenised fashion rubbish, anyway I came across this photo of Tyler Warren on the Yellow Rats blog and thought to myself this is one for Scott Schuman's blog the Sartorialist. The Papa was impressed indeed, this photo captures the irreverence of surfings past while still having a definate contemporary edge.It's vintage, its cool and its very California. There's a lot of Jan Michael Vincent in this shot wouldn't you agree?

Ernest Hemingway Rugged Style Icon

One of the great influences to the Papa's life is Ernest Hemingway. Papa's moniker and the real PAPA incidentally is entirely unrelated but that's another story.
Many years ago I discovered Ernest Hemingway as the ultimate rugged style icon. It was something about the way he wore his personal style that attracted me. It was something that transcended the normal parameters of sartorialism, something that was the man and not just a facade of cloth. Let's face it the Papa was never a dandy but he still wore his personality through a choice of style. The more I read about him the more I managed to penetrate his world. I studied every photo I could find of him and this lead me to develop a great visual understanding of what I would later term the 'vintage woodsman style'. As a vintage collector this fascination sparked an intense interest in purchasing 1930's and 1940's outdoorwear. Woollen garments from Duluth, canvas coats from upstate New York, deerskin jackets from Berlin Wisconsin and boots from Washington state. For years this was something that I adopted as my own personal style way before it became a fashion feature in Japan's Free&Easy magazine, this was how I traversed the urban forests of my hometown city. Today Im still taken by Pendleton blanket patterns and have just recently ordered a new pair of Wesco Smoke Jumpers but have sold off much of my old collection. There's stuff I'll always keep though, especially my 30's Filson hunting vest and various vintage plaid shirts, my leather trimmed shooting cardigan and a variety of outdoor caps. These will always remain the staple of much of what I enjoy to wear and so in honour of the original PAPA I have posted these photos with attached commentary for your enjoyment.


Ernest wearing trade mark virgin wool outdoorshirt and lined sheepskin vest. Papa Hemingway travelled with an extensive selection of vests and would often layer two and three together.

Papa in Africa working on a manuscript in the cool of the afternoon. He would order all his safari clothing from the original Abercrombie and Fitch in NYC. Many manufacturers would claim that honor but it was A&F.

Upland Bird hunting in Idaho wearing a tweed shooting jacket with bi-swing action back and leather trim.

Papa was a war correspondent embedded before there was a term to describe it. His knowledge of pre-war Europe made him an ideal scout and reconnoiter and during the campaign through the Hurtgenwald forest, Hemingway fought off an infiltration of German troops who threatened the command post. This heroic action was rewarded with an investigation for his breech of the Geneva convention for baring arms.

Papa and Gary Cooper were friends till death. Papa wears his custom deerskin vest. This was a favourite that he wore in Africa and also in Europe during the war where he wore it over his fatigue jacket.

Style icon in Idaho.

Launching the Mini-Simmons this Sunday.

Finally its done! The Papa and his pal Mr. Fish Fry have completed the Simmons project. As speculated in a previous posting this little baby pays homage to Bob Simmons's revolutionary interpretation of the US NAVY's WWII manual on Hydrodynamics as well as Jack Kerouacs wartime service in the merchant marines and his previously undiscovered manuscript and soon to be released novel "The Sea is my Brother".
From shaping through to glassing this project has been an adventure and learning curve and the Papa would like to extend his thanks to the critical eye of Ukelele Mike. Hopefully this will be the beginning of many new projects and perhaps the launching of Papa Nui's own brand and his unique take on the elusive
" Beachmaster 9 ". Stay tuned!!