Rats!!!!!!

As most of you know I was a member of the United States Marine Corps. Throughout my High School days I figured I would end up in the Korean War. Cannon fodder was what Father Cooper told us we would probably be. Shortly before I graduated from High school a cease fire was declared and peace talks began. They went on for years and still may be going on for all I know. After I got out of school they still maintained a draft. You could count on being drafted within three or four years unless you had an exemption for school or got married. I worked as a meatcutter in my home town for two years when a friend of mine said he was joining the marines. I tried to talk him out of it till I lost my drivers license for trying to ditch a state patrolman one night. I figured if I had to walk I might as well walk off my military obligation. My brother Jerry got drafted that summer and had a choice of two years in the navy or the army. He took the Navy. I joined the Marines for two years active duty and four years in the ready reserve. After Boot camp at San Diego and Infantry training at Camp Pendleton in California I was sent to Okinawa for 14 mos.About half of our outfit, including some officers were active reserves like me. We basically practiced combat training, hiking 29 miles to our training areas. Okinawa is a tropical Island. Very hot and frequent rains. One night while playing war games we camped out in a graveyard. They had domed tombs with small, low doors where they placed their deceased. When an okinawan died they were placed in a wooden box in the fetal position. When the next family member died the youngest daughter in the family would wash the bones of the previous deceased and put them in an urn, so they could use the box for the next one. The night we were camped out in that graveyard it had been raining for hours. I caught duty on phone watch for four hours huddled up in my poncho with a walky talky. It was a miserable night while listening for any communication I felt something crawling up my leg. The first thing I thought of was a snake they had over there called a Habu. It was poisenous so I just froze, hopeing it would go away. Pretty soon I felt it on my back and thenI felt fur grazing my neck. Snakes dont have fur so I gave my shoulder a lurch and this big old rat went flying off my shoulder. I told my sargent about it and one of the R.O.T.C. lieutenants. got panicky. The sargent told him not to worry because the habus would eat the rats. That really shook him up thinking there might be habus in the area. Then the sargent told him not to worry about the habus because the mongooses would kill the habus. That Lieutenant wanted me to stand over him with a flashlight while I had the duty and to instruct my relief to do the same. The rats were there because they ate the rotting corpses so could have carried all kinds of diseases. After this experiance I was glad that we werent in a real war with officers like that one. During the same war games while on patrol we were crossing a rice paddy. These rice paddies were fertilized with human feces carried to them in what they called honey buckets. We had to jump over gaps in the path and on one gap I didn't jump far enough. My feet started to slip and I ended up waist deep in the rice paddy. Someone pulled me out but my shoes were full of water. As we proceeded on patrol every step was squish squish. Some of the guys started snickering and before long we were all laughing. If this had been war time we would have all been killed. This is just a few of my somewhat amusing and somewhat disgusting experiences in the U.S.M.C. Old Irish.

Truth, with just a smidgen O' Blarney.

Just sitting here waiting till Colleen gets home safely. Talked to her from Charlotte N.C. She will get home early in the morning. She's tanned, rested, and ready to go! Friday she is heading to Lincoln for the spring game. We will be sitting on the 50 yard line ten rows up. I wish!!! We have general admission seats and hope we all can sit together. I'm real excited since Bo took over as head coach. The last four years have been more of a penance than excitement for us. I was afraid I would be on the other side of the grass before I could be proud of the Huskers again. I like the way Bo and his asst. coaches are doing things.
I watched Spencer play today. They were behind 12 to 7 with a minute and a half to play when they went down the field in two plays and a penalty and won 13 to 12. I about froze to death but I'm glad I was there. They have improved a lot since last fall. Next will be baseball. He keeps the Grandparents busy if we try to see all the games. I was his age (9) when I started to play baseball. They called us Pee Wee midgets. when I started. I played till I was twenty. I really enjoyed baseball back then but dont watch Major League baseball till the playoffs. College Football is my favorite now. Got to go now. Go Big Red!! Old Irish

Blogs on demand

Colleen said she wanted to see one more post from me before she went galavanting down to the Caribian. I cant do the tank trap story until I figure out which one to do. Jerry's and my version , or Gene's version which he tried to get published in the Legion magazine. Tonight I'm just bloging so dont expect too much. I've never been to Jamica but I have been to tropical beaches. On Okinawa we occasionally had a cookout on the beach. I remember one of them especially. A bunch of us went swimming when a bunch of jellyfish decided to join us. We thought it would be fun to throw them at eachother. We didn't realize that the slime would leave burning rashes on our skin. That was my first lesson about jellyfish. After we got out we drank warm beer while waiting for the steak fry. It was especially hot and sunny and the combination of beer, bright sun, and tropical heat gave me one of the worst headaches I've ever had. By the time I got my steak I was too sick to eat it. It probably would have been a good time to swear off booze, but I was young and foolish then. The cheapest beer over there was Lucky Lager. I remember their logo. It was "Its the age dated beer". I would look at the bottle and the date hadn't come up on the calender yet. But it was cheap. Ten cents a bottle. Cigarettes were a dime a pack. Quite a difference from todays prices. Well I hope Colleen and Ken have a wonderful time. I'll be back on soon with something more interesting, I hope. Old Irish.

Dinner conversations

When I was a youngster I seldom had anything to say at the dinner table. We were expected to be seen and not heard back then. The older siblings would talk with the parents, but not us kids. When ever one of the older kids said something funny, my mom would quite often choke on her food. Some times I was afraid she wouldn't ever be able to catch her breath again. Dad didn't seem to have that trouble. One day I had spent the morning watching a house under construction a block north of our house. They had it framed and were putting celotex on the outside walls. Thats what they used under the siding in those days. While eating dinner dad asked me how the guys were doing building the house. I proudly informed him that they were doing pretty good. I said they were putting the Kotex on the walls already. Thats when dad choked on his food! I had no clue what was so funny and no one explained to me why they all laughed. Maybe if we would have had school buses back then I would have been a little wiser.

Nagged into posting again!

My daughter seems to think I can just sit at the computer and all sorts of things will come into my mind to write about. There were times when I could. But something like old age seems to be interfering with my usually sharp, creative, spontaneous mind.I used to write ad's for my bar that were usually humorous. One day the bankers wife who had been appointed State Senator by the Governor and usually stopped in to buy a six pack of beer once a week told me to put into my ad;" Purveyor to the Senator". The next time she came in I told her I had sent in the ad. Then, I asked her, " How do you spell pervert?" She came unglued and gasped, "You didn't !" I had her going for a while before I told her the truth. I was known as crazy Bob around there. She called me Demented Robert. Well maybe now that I've started I can keep it going.