half a century

  Among the numerous groups on Facebook I stumbled upon one regarding Navy veterans. I most likely left a comment on one their postings and as a result numerous postings keep appearing. I haven't joined that group by whatever name it goes, I stopped doing that some years ago. The reason is obvious enough, not all groups are what they first appear to be. At my age and position in life I really don't need to be overly concerned with such things but being associated with certain groups can be detrimental to your career. I hope that is something they are teaching our children in school these days. Your social account(s) are under scrutiny whether you are aware of that or not. Whatever is written down can be retrieved apparently. 

  One of their posts appeared this morning and jogged my memory. This post was about a man saying he had graduated boot camp 32 years ago. That would have been 1993. I smiled as I graduated from boot camp 54 years ago! I graduated from Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Company 266. I remember that graduation ceremony and the pride of accomplishment. It was a big deal! It was made a bigger deal because my parents came to that ceremony. They had driven from East Hampton Long Island New York all the way to Chicago Illinois. At that point in my life I had never known them to drive any further than up the island. My parents didn't go on any vacations, they didn't travel anywhere to go to family gatherings, nothing like that. For them to drive to Illinois and stay in a hotel was unbelievable. My graduating from boot camp must have been really important to them to do that. 

  It's important to understand that I came from a modest family. I wouldn't say we were poor people but we sure weren't well to do. I'd say we were getting by with an occasional luxury or two thrown in. A great portion of that was due to Sears Roebuck and Company and their revolving credit plan. Yes, it was a rather new concept back then, this payment plan stuff. My parents had never purchased a brand new car, always a good used one. My father added on to our house. By that I mean he literally added on himself, no contractors doing any of that work. He did the building, the wring , the heating and everything else. Growing up we never went out to eat, we didn't go to the movies as a family, we certainly never took a family vacay! We either fixed what we had, made our own, or went without. Well, except for those items we got from Sears. 

  So Dad and mom drove all the way to Illinois to see me graduate. My fathers brother lived in Chicago at that time and came to met him at the hotel where they were staying. That was a bonus. That uncle had visited us some years back in East Hampton with his wife and two daughters. He was rather well to do in our eyes. He was an engineer for Motorola designing television sets. By all accounts he was making good money! Hey, he came to visit us for Thanksgiving and sure looked like he had money to us. He even rented a car because he flew to New York! Only people with money fly! And there were five of them. 

  There was an incident on that journey. It involved a lobster. Now Dad had talked to his brother informing him he was coming to Chicago. My Uncle Elwood asked Dad to bring him a lobster. My father, knowing most of the fishermen, got a good deal on a large lobster. He had packed it in ice and put it in a cooler in the trunk. As he crossed the line entering the state of Illinois he was stopped by a state trooper. They were looking for someone or something. They stopped him and asked if they could look in the trunk. Dad says sure, not thinking anything about it. Sitting in the car he pops open that trunk lid. Watching in the mirror he sees the policeman bend over and then start backing up quickly and reaching for his gun! He then comes up to the window and says to my father, what is that you have in that cooler. It's a lobster. The cop sputters and says , no it isn't, lobsters are red. Dad just smiled and said, only after they are cooked. Well, that was a good laugh, for mom and dad anyway.

  Following the graduation ceremony I did get to meet with my parents. You didn't get to see them ahead of time, they had to check in with their invitations. As I recall because they were there I got to leave the base with them for a few hours. Those that didn't have anyone in attendance did not. It was 54 years ago so that part is a bit hazy. But I do remember going to the hotel with my mom and dad. There dad got that cooler out of the trunk. The lobster was gone but in its' place was a six pack of Schaefer beer! Dad had brought that from home and for the first time we shared a beer! Yes, I was officially a man now! I drank that beer with him. That is all we did though, had a few beers, I think he may have ordered a pizza but wouldn't swear to that, and then returned me to the base before the curfew. 

 That whole story came back to me as I read that posting this morning. Funny how that can be. It was a big deal, a very big deal. A special moment in time. It was special because it was rare, an out of the ordinary thing, a singular moment. I wasn't aware of that then but I would never go "home" again. When I did go "home" I discovered home wasn't where I had left it. The house was there, the places I roamed as a child was there, and even some of the people were there. But it was all different now. I could come and go as I pleased, drink a beer and didn't have to answer to anyone. Most of my friends were gone, off in the service just like me. I was home for two weeks and soon discovered everyone else was either working or not there. It was kind of lonely. Turns out I left my childhood in a hotel room in Chicago in 1971. That was over half a century ago.