Blog entry 100

Today is December 1 and this is my 100th entry in the ever-popular Time Killer blog. I was thinking of highlighting some of my favorite time killing accomplishments, however, they are all listed in earlier posts and who the hell wants to hear them all again? Some were more interesting than others. I have my favorites so perhaps I will list them in the near future..Today's time killing was spent with a memory.

I always remember this date of Dec 1 when 39 years ago in 1970 I left my parent's house as a 19 year old to enter the US Navy. It was easily the biggest deal in my life up to that point. I didn't have much of a choice since I had already had an Army physical as the draft was in full swing and I was a few steps from having to live in a tent or worse go to Viet Nam. It was a surreal time and I didn't have a college deferment which left me vulnerable. My mother was on the verge of cracking up and offered to send me to Canada. She sent me to a few doctors to see if I had any kind of disability - fat chance at 19. I was prime to go - so the Navy it was. Clearly for me a better choice than the Army..

I remember that cold December morning when my sister and friend drove me to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn to report in and get ready for my first airplane ride.. 19 and never flew.. My son at 19 must have taken 20 flights. Things were different. We headed off to Newark airport and flew to Chicago. I don't know what was scarier - the idea of boot camp or that damn bumpy ass flight. It turned out that boot camp was worse. Three months at Great Lakes Naval Training Center. They shaved my head, gave me a bunch of navy-blue clothes, sent my regular clothes home and prepared me to survive in the worst climate I'd ever been in. Sub zero and snow was on the menu all the time. Those Lake Michigan breezes at 3 am while shoveling snow were charming. I can remember being sick and coughing up blood. I never told my mother..

The whole military thing worked out OK so generally there was a happy ending after those four years. Today's memory prompted me to contact a friend I shared that boot camp experience with. Coincidentally, he lives only a few miles from me. He and I also got the same orders from boot camp to Pensacola, Florida for communications school so we were together for almost that whole first year..What is more of a coincidence is that he works at the same company that let me go.. He's been there more than 30 years..We've stayed in touch and seen each other a few times and I contacted him today to refresh his memory of this date..It is fun trading stories. We each recall things the other forgot..(push ups in the snow, the world's dumbest company commander, flip flops sticking to the frozen ground, learning to tie knots - for NO reason)....

We left that frozen tundra in Illinois many pounds lighter and ready for our next challenge - teletype school in the panhandle of Florida...It was 98 degrees warmer and there was no such thing as sunscreen...boy, we were tough!!!