On 8/16/2015 9:49 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:



I was going to be a Aviation Electronics Tech when I went in, got to the
school in Millington, TN and found out that aviation electronics where
huge tubes and hard wired,
That's funny. I, too, enlisted as a prospective ET but upon
discovering that rating to require six years' obligation up front
decided not to play. Since RMs didn't handle heavy objects and worked
in air conditioned spaces, that was OK with me. Once one grew
accustomed to a world of total adolescent BS, life aboard the cruiser
wasn't too bad, although a bit hectic when we were on station. Naval
gunfire support in South China Sea: Boomiddy boom boom take that you
dirty hostile trees. Upkeep at Subic Bay, Philippines. Olongapo City,
outside the Subic base, was the first town-sized armpit I'd ever seen.
Flew in and out of the Philippines a few times, liked the people, didn't
like Subic at all, was an armpit back in my day too.
The remainder of my hitch, though, was aboard a (relatively) small ASR
(submarine "rescue" vessel) at Key West, FL. As a FL native, man, I was
home and Key West in the late '60s-early '70s was exactly what you might
imagine... Duty there was rough: We actually had to install a defunct
submarine's "reefer" into our ship's laundry in order to store
additional bait so that we could extend our "training" cruises ;-) Not
a bad life (which is not to say that it was a good life) but the women
were all ashore back in Key West. I've often thought that Navy vessels
should have a couple of divisions of ship's whores.
You needed a Caribbean cruise man, a cat house in every port with
advertisements just outside the dock area. Five bucks went a long way
back then.
One "real" winter spent in MD and another in MA were enough for me:
Never again. I simply won't go to a place where snow falls, even for "a
job".
I hit Pax River in January 1958, snow up to your butt. At age eighteen I
had NEVER seen snow in my life. Just didn't happen in my part of Texas.
I thought it was the greatest stuff I had ever seen until I had to live
in it for a couple of years. Southern Maryland back then was relatively
rural, that's where I met and married my wife and her siblings still
live there. Then I went to to Rhode Island, Holy Moly, we had to chip
ice off the ship. I've never been back there.
I married relatively late in life and am not a "family man". Have
one son from my wild oats days. First met him when he was 36 or
thereabouts and we communicated for a few years but aside from biology
we're not "family". He has some kids but I don't know them. Have
family within 50-or-so miles, used to see them at funerals but no longer
bother. If you've seen one funeral... Siblings elsewhere in the
country but they live in places where it snows so that takes care of
that.

As far as I know the only kids I have are legitimate and now close by.
We taught our two to garden, milk cows and goats, butcher critters for
dinner, fish and hunt, clean up after themselves, do chores, etc. Our
kids found out the neighbors kids got an allowance and they asked for
one. They were quickly told that they were allowed to live with us,
allowed to eat our food, allowed to go to school, allowed to mow, work
in the garden, milk the critters, etc. and that was all the allowance
they would ever get other then being allowed to stay alive. End of
story. Both are in their early fifties now, one's an Assistant School
Principal, the other is the purchasing manager for a major hospital
system. I reckon they grew up properly.

Life is really good.