A Little Marine Corps Background

For those of you that don't know I spent a few years serving in the United States Marine Corps. I spent a few months at Parris Island SC learning the ropes, then they sent me to Camp Pendleton CA. There I was with the 1st Marine Division, 1st Reconnaissance battalion. This is where they let me jump out of planes and helicopters, swim for a mile or so underwater and blow stuff up, plus they taught me a few dozen ways to kill people and do it very quietly in most cases sometimes it gets real loud. 

I was chosen for Embassy duty in Morocco Africa which was a high honor indeed. 6 weeks before I was to ship out to Africa we were out on maneuvers high in the California hills when a helicopter landed  and a Lieutenant stepped out and told my Sargent that the Colonel wanted to see me. The Sargent said okay I'll send him right down but the Lieutenant said no he's to come back with me. I had no idea what was going on but I was pretty sure all the members of my family were dead or almost dead. I ask the Lieutenant what this was all about and he said he had no idea either but it must be important for them to send a helicopter for me. We had been in the field about three days so I was told to clean up and get to HQ - ASAP, that's a little Marine corps talk.

I get all cleaned up and go see the Colonel and he calls me right in and tells me to please sit down. Now I'm sure my family is dead. He started by saying "We have a problem here" and my mind starts rushing back a few days, then weeks, then months and I'm thinking there's no way he could know about that so I was at a loss. He says I understand you'll be leaving us in a few weeks to go to Africa? I said yes sir, he said that's our problem, there are civil wars going on in Morocco right now and we have temporally closed the American Embassy. Inside of me I let out a cheer but he never knew it. If I has gone I would have been there for 2 years with not much chance of making it home until I left there and to tell the truth I was already a little home sick.

The Colonel told me that I was about to have a rare opportunity in the Marine Corps, I could now pick my next duty station. Like I said I was already home sick so I said "Ya got anything in Atlanta"? He said no. I ask what ya got close? And that's how I ended up in Charleston SC at the Charleston Navy Weapons Station. This is where they assembled Poseidon and the Trident missile's. These were nuclear weapons so needless to say this was a very high security area.

I ran a bit longer than I wanted to in this blog but I wanted to set up where I was before I introduce you to a man that will just be known as Wild Bill because he may still be around somewhere and I don't need a lawsuit at this time.

The Cocktail Stirrer.

It would have been about 1962 or maybe 63 because I don't think I had started "real" school yet. This is a time in America that banks, stores and gas stations were all fighting for your business and they were all giving away stuff to lure you in. This is a story about one of those very prizes.

I'm not sure where they got it, but I was sure glad they did. They may have opened a new bank account or they may have got it at a gas station grand opening. It was a wonderful little silver cocktail stirrer. It was about the size and shape of a small flashlight except on the end there was what looked like a small egg beater. The whole think was only about 9 inches long.

Well neither of my parents were cocktail drinkers and it was not good for anything else and if the truth be known I bet it would not have done a very good job on your cocktail either.

Anyway you push the little silver button and the little single egg beater thing would spin like crazy if you had a fresh battery. One morning about 7:00 or so my Dad was getting ready for work. Now this was a long time before he was Ludlow Porch so he had to go to a real job. 

I remember this like it was yesterday, my Dad was standing in front of the mirror in his bathroom with just his boxers on brushing his teeth and for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to slide that cocktail stirrer up the leg of his boxers and turn it on. Let me tell you right here and now that was not a good idea! He blew toothpaste all over the mirror and let out a yell like I have never heard before. I dropped the stirrer and took off running with him right behind me up two flights of stairs and I thought he was going to kill me, by the time he got to me he was laughing so hard all he could was hug me. He held my shoulders and looked me square in the eye and said "Phil.....Don't do that again". I said "yes sir" and I never did.

BLP: Before Ludlow Porch

From a very young age I knew there was something special and a little different about my Dad, different in a good way. Our house was the house that all the kids in the neighborhood came to and played and I'm pretty sure it was not because of my wonderful personality, it was my Dad. 
We would play throw the can in the summer and it would all start in my back yard. My Dad made a springboard out of a log and a 4 foot long 2x6 and kids would come from blocks away to see how far my Dad could shoot them into the air and they would come crashing to the ground. The board was nailed to the log and a kid would stand on one end and my Dad would jump on the other end. I'm not kidding when I say there were kids thrown 10 feet into the air. 
I don't how any of us made it to adulthood.