I’m not about to start making excuses for being late. I honestly don’t know how I got so far behind. Let’s just move on with the narrative.
While we were in Camp 2, I had my first ‘girlfriend,’ Ann Jorgenson. We met at the playground and liked each other immediately. I don’t know how much time we spent together. The only things I remember are pushing her on the swings and demonstrating my prowess at jumping at the highest point of the arc. Then came the big question. She asked, “Do you want to kiss me?” I answered that I did but I had to ask my parents first. … Talk about a short romance, but I had been introduced to the attraction of girls.
I don’t remember how it came about, but someone invited me out several times on a fishing boat named the DUVA, the Navy’s four letter designator for Guam. We would go out in the morning and cruise the swells until about noon. I loved the motion of the boat as we plowed through wave after wave. The best place to feel the waves was at the front of the cabin, right at the bow. The second best place was on deck at the bow. I think that was my primary reason for going, although I did enjoy being out on the ocean in any case.
I mentioned Stanley earlier. I managed to wrangle a trip for him once. It turned out to be a mistake. He got sea sick while I had a great time. The ocean wasn’t rough, but the swells were large. I took him into the forward cabin to get the feel of the waves. He didn’t last.
As essentially a naval base Guam had almost no commercial facilities at the time we were there. Everything we had convenient access to was run by the military. We sometimes went out for breakfast at an officers’ club at the naval headquarters. That was where I fell in love with Spanish omelet. I still make it every once in a while. At the north end of the island, just outside Anderson Air Force Base there was another club, Agafogumas, where we’d go occasionally for dinner. They had music and a dance floor, and I think they sometimes had live music. A great place for Mom and Dad and, if I remember correctly, the food was good.
For some reason we had borrowed a jeep to get around the island, and this one time we drove it to Agafogumas. As usual we had a good time and stayed until well after dark. When we got in the jeep to go home, the engine started, but the generator didn’t. Dad decided the battery was good enough to get us home — as long as we didn’t use the headlights. We drove some fifteen or so miles without meeting another vehicle and without lights (we might have turned them on when we went by Agana. As I said before my memory of back then isn’t that sharp). In those days the north end of Marine Drive was surrounded by trees so we could keep track of the road by the open sky. For Richard and me it was an adventure. I suspect that for Mom it was a nail biter.
Another time in the same jeep we were headed toward Agana and came on this rain curtain. From a distance it looked as if the road literally stopped at a vertical sheet of rain. When we hit the rain we could barely see. What I remember most though was the abrupt drop in temperature. I felt cold for one of the few times while we lived there.
One Christmas, our last at Camp 2 I think, I got a bike for Christmas. I took it out for a ride on Christmas morning. I rode it up to the perimeter road and started down the hill toward the south end of the camp. When I put on the brakes, to my horror instead of slowing me down they made me go faster (the Japanese were new to coaster brakes at the time). I kept accelerating all the way to the first turn and still managed to make the turn. The next turn was slightly up hill and I made it. The third turn was where the camp ran out. Going straight ahead would have run me into the boondocks, but I was still slowing down – a little. Somewhere in there I figured out that the only way I was going to get out alive was to drop the bike in the turn. Fortunately, I walked the bike the remainder of the way home unscathed.
Next up: learning to drive.