“When I Left My Home and My Family
I Was No More Than a Boy.
In the Company of Strangers
In the Quiet of a
Railway Station.
Running Scared.”
-The Boxer
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| "You better not claim you made that up!" |
This is one of my
favorite Simon and Gar, the Funkel Brothers, songs. Not because of boxing, you understand. But, they do mention whores on Seventh
Avenue. So there is that.
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| "Which is nice." |
No, I like it because it neatly sums up when I left my home so many years ago.
You see, today is
the 49th anniversary of the day I left Connecticut for Navy boot
camp. And, with the exception of August
to December, 1985, I’ve never looked back.
For those of you who
say that I should wait until next year because the FIFTIETH anniversary would
be so much more significant, I will agree with you. It would be.
 |
| But, after all, I am 67. |
Meaning, there’s no guarantee I’ll see Labor Day. So, forty-nine it shall be.
As the song says,
I did leave my home and my family. In
fact, I’ll never forget the sight of my brothers and sister saluting me as my
parents backed out of the driveway.
Before they went back in to watch cartoons. After all, they had almost a week before school
started. It was still summer, dammit!
I was originally
supposed to leave on the 31st, but the recruiter called me and said
I would be bumped up a day earlier. I
was distraught. You see, I was having
the time of my life in the summer after I left high school. More importantly, I didn’t want to leave the
girl I had just started dating in June.
NOTE: That girl would break my heart two years
later. But, another story for another
day.
 |
| If you're curious, or a glutton for punishment, this goes into the whole process. In excruciating detail. |
However, in the time since, one day is frankly meaningless. What didn’t occur to me at the time...enlisting one day earlier meant I would be able to leave the Navy one day earlier.
NOTE: That day wouldn’t happen for more than thirty
years, not in 1980. Once again, another
story. For another time.
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| It truly was. |
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| But wait! There's more! |
“In the quiet of a railway station.” Despite the invention of air travel, we did take a train to Illinois. I wondered why. Until I realized that the end of August is also close to the end of the fiscal year. So, taking the train was cheaper, I suppose.
“Running scared.” I wasn’t scared, really. Depressed, sure, especially since I would be
leaving home. Perhaps I was nervous
about a future which held a great many unknowns. I guess we can call that “scared.”
In any event,
after all this time, I’ve never regretted that I did what I did. I traveled the world, saw a lot of wonderful
things, and never did the same thing twice (some people would call that “not making
up my mind.”).
Was there a LOT of
nonsense? Sure, there was. To be honest, today’s Sailors probably have
to endure more. So, yeah, I don’t miss
that. But, do I miss the adventures with
a group of friends who will remain so until the day I die?
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| Absolutely |
I would so do it all over again. And not just because I'd have my brown hair back
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| And everything still worked. Everything. |
So, happy anniversary to me. I wouldn't have done anything differently.
Except fall asleep in my pillowcase the night I discovered ouzo.
I heard a great expression a little while back which totally sums up my time in the Navy:
I don’t miss the circus, but I sure miss the clowns.
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| And that's better than any song. |
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