Month: January 2014

Guam has mountains, at least that’s what they’re called. Camp 2 was on the slope of Mt. Tenjo. I really believed that it was 7500 feet tall, but looking on the Internet, I discovered that it is 1001 feet instead. On top of that I thought that Camp 2 was north of the Apra Harbor breakwater. Unless they built another breakwater since we left, that can’t be. Of course that explains one of the reasons I couldn’t find Camp 2 when I looked on Google Earth. The other is that the roads that we had have been almost completely obliterated. Based on the swimming hole, the tank farm, and the small stream that appears to be the one that ran through part of the camp, the old roads have all but disappeared.

Perhaps I should write more about boondocks. The trees consisted of short trees with thin trunks (to me at the time it seemed that the tallest were no more than twenty feet). There were deciduous trees with small leaves and a pine-like tree that we called Australian Pines (They had needles, but the needles were segmented). There were also banana trees, papaya plants, and an amazing grass that we called sword grass. The leaves were long, around three feet. When they were green, they were quite literally razor sharp. When they were dead they lost their edge.

A fairly extensive marshy boondocks ran west of the camp from the perimeter road. One of its distinctive features was a nasty little green bee or wasp. Smaller than honey bees, they tended to swarm. Their nests blended into the background, and they attacked anyone who so much as brushed the plant a nest was in. We learned from experience to watch carefully in certain parts of the boondocks and be ready to run ­– really run.

On the east side of the camp we had a picnic area. Right now I don’t remember much about it other than it had a splendid view of the sunset. Just south of it a small boondocks occupied a space less than one hundred feet in diameter. Less underbrush and better drainage made it a lot friendlier (no bees) than the large one on the west. It was surrounded by a loose formation of sword grass plants. We found from them that if you could get past the green blades, the inside of the tussock was a great hiding place.

The rest of the housing area abutted open grassland. At that time Guam had quail. I have no idea how they got there. The only difference I could see between these birds and bobwhite quail was these were much smaller. On one of my first explorations outside of camp I nearly stepped on a female and her babies. I suspect the brown snakes have totally eradicated them.

You would think that being a volcanic island, Guam would be covered by basalt. Instead, the rocks I remember from the open fields were green and were either degenerating into clay or clay solidifying into rock. Some of the green rocks were solid and some were crumbling. The latter could be mixed with water and became a clay like mass. As a matter of fact, when Joe and I built our little dam, we used that clay as a form that we poured the concrete in. I would bet that dam is still there because it filled up with mud after just a few rains and probably was covered by the time the camp was dismantled.

We had wild papaya plants in our boondocks. One day I decided to bring one home so we could pick ripe papayas right beside our house. I carefully unearthed the roots to save as many delicate root hairs as possible. I dug a hole, cautiously put the plant into it, and filled the hole with dirt. I watered that plant conscientiously every day. It had just begun to look like it would survive, when Richard came running around the house, not looking where he was going, and ran into it, ripping the roots from the ground. There went my first and last attempt at agronomy.

Dad’s supervisor and his wife lived in Camp 2. One of the things I remember about them was they had two cats named Bud and Weiser. The other thing I remember is that once a week they hosted a cook out for all the kids in the camp: hot dogs, hamburgers, and Kool-Aid (or coke). They were well attended and were held at the camp picnic area.

I could go on, but I keep coming up with new things related to camp life. I have to cut it off somewhere, and this is as good a place as any. Next up, the swimming beaches and my introduction to science fiction.

Before I started writing this, I had to look at Guam again. I used Google Earth, and I think I found Camp 2, but boy has it changed. I have a pretty solid memory of the layout on our side of the main road. It may be totally erroneous, but I’m pretty sure it’s close. I remember two landmarks that I think are still there.

The south end of the camp almost abutted on a navy tank farm (oil storage tanks), and I found tanks between the navy housing area (Apra Heights) and what I believe was Camp 2. Joe 5 Lee(, Jr.) and I poured a miniature concrete dam on a run-off creek between his house and the nearest tank. And, yes, his name really included the number 5.

What appears to be the other landmark, a swimming hole east of the camp, stands out even from satellite altitude. I remember the spot for a two main reasons. The high school boys challenged each other by jumping into the stream from the cliff that overlooked it, and I was awed by the cliff. Of course, I was ten at the time. Also the mushrooms that grew there glowed in the dark, and I was fascinated by them.

I don’t recall much about arriving in Apra Harbor. Dad picked us up at the ship and drove us to our new home, a Butler building. Butler buildings had sheet metal sides and roofs. I believe we shared ours with another family, we on the south end and they on the north. I don’t recall a thing about them. I just don’t recollect having a back door. How’s that for deduction?

In fact, I only remember two of our neighboring families, or parts of them. To our east lived Dennis and his dog Tippy. We became friends, but I don’t remember anything about them except that Dennis and Tippy were the same age. Across the street to our west were the Cooks. Russ and Laura became close friends with mom and dad. Their daughter, Patty, was closer to Richard’s age.

One of the neighborhood artifacts was a typhoon shelter, basically a white painted building made of steel plates. It had ventilator pipes instead of windows and a solid steel door. I don’t think we ever went in it. As a matter of fact, about a year after we arrived, Typhoon Allyn hit the island with devastating force. Dad’s company, Brown-Pacific-Maxon, evacuated the entire camp. We spent at least one night and one day at the company offices. But Typhoon Allyn comes later in my tale.

Let me see if I can describe the camp. I’m not sure why it was called a camp. Perhaps it had been a camp for the navy. We got there by driving up a road paved with crushed coral and used motor oil. It climbed up a hill that was part of Mt. Tenjo to get to the camp. It wandered through what we Statesiders called boondocks. These days boondocks equates to backwoods, but for us it meant a woods or forest of small trees and bamboo groves.

When the road reached the top of the hill, the boondocks gave way to the camp. I don’t remember what was on the left side of the road when it reached the camp. I think there might have been a motor pool. Farther up the road on the left someone – perhaps the navy or perhaps the company – had scraped out an amphitheater and installed wooden benches and a movie screen. We saw movies for free, and we could bring our own popcorn. One feature I remember was that next to the theater was a shaved ice machine. We could fill our glasses or whatever with shaved ice before we took our seats.

The housing area consisted of Butler buildings and Quonset huts south of the main road. Three roads lead away from the main road in pretty much straight lines. Boondocks abutted the first road on its west side. The Rec Hall and playground occupied the top of the hill between the first road and the second. The Rec Hall also housed the washing machines, and clothes lines filled the large open space that was the recreation area. About the only thing you could do in it was roller skate and jump rope. The chapel stood near the Rec Hall, I think between it and the first road. Once you got past the playground/Rec Hall the houses started.

The third road served as a perimeter. It ran to the south end of the camp, made a sharp right and crossed the other two roads. Then it crossed a dry wash, made a sweeping turn to the right, crossed the wash again plus the other roads, and teed into itself about halfway down the hill from where it started. Understand, this housing area wasn’t huge. I believe I’ve completely described the roads. I can only guess how many families lived there, and it wouldn’t be accurate.

Getting back to the main road: after you passed the third road, you came to the grocery store on the south side. We’d call it a convenience store nowadays. Next to it was the barbershop. A little farther on a dirt road turned off and led back to the swimming hole. After that the main road came to the houses designated for Pacific Island Engineers. There were only a few of them.

I became friends with a boy who lived there. We frequently played in the boondocks by his house. One of our favorite places was a flat faced waterfall that we climbed up and down. It was covered by a thin sheet of water, but I don’t recall ever being concerned that I might slip and hurt myself.

I could babble on about the camp, and I will later, but for now it’s time to wrap up. According to psychologists your experiences when you are ten have major impact on your development. I was ten when we moved to Guam so you can see why it important to me. You’ll be reading more about it in the next issues.