Chapter 16

The next week on base was much the same as the first; a lot of theory and going through the manuals; a little bit of working on the test benches. We had been given our temporary Oceana mailing address while checking in, and I had bought a bunch of Virginia Beach postcards and mailed them to my girls with the temporary address; at the end of the week, I got a couple letters; one from Becky and one from Trish. Becky was doing well in Pensacola and was planning on visiting home and Nashville over the Fourth of July; could I arrange the same? Trish’s letter was full of the results of our New Year’s Eve date; she reiterated how much fun she had and sent me a clipping from the college newspaper, a picture of she and I dancing at the ball. My pen-pal list was getting pretty long; I vowed to write at least one letter to someone, every week.

The weather was good, very warm for the time of year; JB and I went to the beach a couple nights and checked out how busy the restaurant was, and a couple other places. We found a couple more bars with ‘open mike’ opportunities; no one was playing at the time, but JB decided just to keep them in mind. We ran into Amy and Cindy at the restaurant again; Amy was still eager to find out more about us, and told us both to plan on talking with them over the upcoming weekend. JB and I practiced a bit Thursday night in the barracks rec-room; we ended up with a bunch of sailors listening and making suggestions, a couple of them valid. Friday, we had a practical test on testing and repairing the test bench; JB and I easily passed, the sailors took a little more time. We were released early so we cleaned up, changed into civvies, and headed to the restaurant to try out a couple of our new songs.

Even this early in the spring, Friday night was busy. We got there just after 5 and most of the tables were filled, mainly with families; we checked in with Jack and set up in the corner again. By 5:30 we were playing; initially just as background music, but after an hour we picked it up some. We spent some time just talking to the people, telling short stories and quick jokes; all went over pretty well. At 7 we took a 30-minute break and had a quick bite to eat; then played for another couple hours before giving up for the night. We had managed to put together a nice tip jar and made a little over $20 that way; Jack gave us another $50 so we had a pretty good night. Jack liked what we were doing, especially chatting with the audience; the waitresses also complimented us, their tips had been above average. We planned to come back Saturday and Sunday afternoon and repeat the show; with a few different songs and jokes.

Amy and Cindy were there; we both talked with them while eating and a bit between songs; again, we declined an invitation to their cottage after work. I could see Amy was not going to be put off much longer; I told her we would visit them Saturday after work for a while. JB mildly complained about it on the way back to the base; I told him to suck it up, it was just going to be a friendly visit; he said I was in for a rude awakening.

Saturday the weather was back to normal, cool and a little windy; we got to the restaurant a little before 1 and got setup again. The dining room wasn’t quite as full but still happy to see us, and the afternoon passed pretty quickly; we sang a couple requests, and promised to work on a couple more songs we didn’t really know. We did have a lot of fun with the crowd figuring out ‘Bad, Bad Leroy Brown’, and having them sing along when we finally got it together; Jack gave us an approving nod and smile when I told everyone they had to come back sometime so we could do it again. The restaurant stayed busy enough that we played until almost 7; we made over $30 in tips and Jack gave us another $50. The important thing was that Amy and Cindy were both waiting for us when we finished; we weren’t going to avoid talking tonight.

We followed the girls to their place, about a mile away; hard to tell in the dark but it seemed to be a bit more than a simple cottage. Once we got inside and were given a quick tour it made more sense; it had apparently been a duplex at one point before someone had converted it into a single-family vacation place. There was a big screened porch across front with a bunch of chairs and couches; the main floor had a big family room in the center with the kitchen across the back wall, and at both ends was a larger bedroom suite. Another porch across the back, completely enclosed this time, with a bathroom and a couple bunk beds, and an exterior shower to clean up after the beach; we were told the upstairs had two decent sized bedrooms with a common bath between them; all in all, it was a very nice vacation ‘beach house’. Plenty of seating in the living room; JB and I accepted drinks and settled in a couple upholstered chairs; the 4 roommates got comfortable around us.

Amy and Cindy were still in their waitress uniforms; black knee-length skirts and a white blouse with nautical emblems on them; cute, but more functional than sexy. We were introduced to housemates Pam and Sharon, dressed in jeans and baggy sweatshirts; all four were very attractive, but wildly different in shapes and form. None of them were far out of the typical range of height and weight for young women; Pam was a little heavy and Sharon a little willowy; all were within a couple inches in height, a bit over 5 foot tall. All four were wearing their hair in the current long, straight fashion; all were varying shades of brunette; Cindy came close to being considered blond. All four very nice to look at; when I told them so I got some smiles, and a couple blushes.

Amy was the one to start; “So where are you guys from, why are you here, and how long will you be staying?”

I let JB start, his story was a little simpler than mine; some of the stuff Amy and Cindy already knew, so this question was obviously so Sharon and Pam could catch up. JB talked about living in Nashville all his life, the Nashville music business, his fiancé Angie; the girls had a few questions. We asked them about themselves and that part of the conversation lasted quite a while. All we going to college locally, all were from the western part of Virginia; Amy’s family owned the cottage and they had been coming to the beach for summer vacations for years. I managed to keep them talking about themselves for almost an hour before Amy got down to business.

“Okay Carl, what about you?” she asked; “where are you from, and what’s your story?”

I tried giving an abbreviated history of my life, but that just generated more questions. I told them about living along Lake Erie during my childhood, and moving a bunch of times and attending a bunch of schools. When I mentioned that I had worked with my step-father and uncle doing home repair and was a pretty good handyman; Amy told me they had a broken shower and asked if could I look at it. After a quick check, it turned out the showerhead arm had broken off in the wall; after a little exploration I told them I would be able to fix it, but they really shouldn’t do sexual acrobatics in the shower, the fixtures weren’t designed for that. I was joking; but Amy blushed bright red and the other girls started teasing her, there seemed to be a story behind the broken shower.

I told them I liked to read about all kinds of things; had been fairly skinny before bootcamp, and had had a couple serious girlfriends. When I said I wasn’t interested in settling down, getting married, or having kids; the questions came hot and heavy. I ended up talking about Kelly and Irene, and explaining about them moving in with me for 6 months before I headed to boot camp; I got all kinds of questions from all four of them about that arrangement. JB wasn’t a lot of help; though he got questioned when he admitted to having met them when they visited Nashville. Things really got interesting when I told them a little about Becky and my relationship with her; and the fact that three of my ladies had met, and liked each other.

“I can understand JB not wanting any attention,” Amy said, “he’s engaged; but why not you?”

“I just want to concentrate on the training,” I told her. “My ladies and I have all tried to keep our relationship pretty casual; but even so it’s not easy to part ways when it’s time. Maybe we were together too long to keep it simple; but after 6 months it was difficult for us to go our separate ways, especially for them. Even now I’m still in touch with all of them; we write back and forth all the time. At least the girls in Erie are dating again, one of them even has a serious boyfriend.”

We talked about it for another 20 minutes; I don’t know why they were so interested in it; I think they were just looking for conversation, something new to talk about. It wasn’t a bad evening at all; about 9:30 JB and I said our goodbyes and headed back to the base.

Sunday morning, weather still not bad; JB and I both went for a long run, then had a breakfast brunch at the enlisted club for a change. A little before noon we left the base and drove up and down the beach a little bit; more places were open and were advertising for St. Patrick’s Day the following weekend. We saw a sign-up tent for a ‘Yuengling Shamrock Marathon’ the following weekend; after stopping and chatting with the folks there for a bit JB and I signed up to do the 6-mile race. No way were we ready for the full 26.2-mile marathon; though we did get a lot of advice on how to prepare for one. After a bit more sight-seeing we headed for the restaurant; time to go to work.

Jack and the waitresses were all glad to see us at 1 PM; the restaurant was packed and people were waiting for tables to open up. It was warm enough for Jack to open all the doors between the main dining room and the back deck; JB and I set-up out there this time. We played for a little more than an hour, then took a break; during the break we were able figure out how to connect to the speakers inside the restaurant so everyone could hear us. The restaurant stayed busy all afternoon; we’d play for 90 minutes, then take a 30-minute break; mainly to encourage the people done eating to leave. A bunch of them moved to the deck, leaning against the railings when all the seating was filled; they must have liked what we were doing. During our breaks JB and I roamed the dining room and deck, talking to the guests; we got a bunch of compliments and a few requests; and questions about when we’d be playing there again.

Again, business slowed down after 6; we finally got a chance to sit down and talk to Jack and his partner. This was our first meeting with the partner; Tony had a serious New York accent and spoke in a quick staccato; hard to understand at first. He liked our playing and interaction with the ‘audience’; said we were welcome to perform anytime. Jack told us the next weekend was when things would get really busy; he had a band scheduled then for most nights for the next month, from 9 until closing; which probably wouldn’t be until 1 AM or so. We told him we’d probably not play much during the week; we had other things to take care of; but we’d be there Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the very least.

We also got ambushed by Amy and her housemates; they wanted us to come to their house Monday after work so I could fix the shower, and maybe play some cards and board games; they really liked talking to us and wanted to ‘hang out’ some. We agreed to coming by the next night to work on the shower; we’d see about the ‘game night’. JB and I finally got back to base around 8, turned out to be a long day.

Monday, back in training. We’re now working on the black boxes on the test bench; first running a good box on the bench to see how that went; then the instructors would put in a few bad modules or mis-adjust a component and let us ‘fix’ the box. Turned out the computer recommendations on what to replace or adjust were good 95% of the time; the other 5% we had to really troubleshoot. It wasn’t really hard, just time consuming; especially taking the boxes apart. They were designed to operate in combat situations; surviving over 5 ‘gees’ during air maneuvers; the equipment was extremely heavy-duty, with dozens of screws and bolts holding it together. Many times, it took longer to take apart and re-assemble the box, than it took to fix it.

Monday after work JB and I went to the girl’s cottage; Amy and Cindy were there and I went to work in the bathroom. The shower backed up to a bedroom closet, there was an access panel so I could get to the shower head; half-inch copper pipe, soldered joints. Amy took me to the garage; her grandfather had left a bunch of tools nicely arrayed on the rear work bench; I found what I needed to remove the shower head supply-line. Once I got the shower head disconnected and out, she and I made a quick trip to the hardware store, fortunately they had everything we needed. I suggested we pick up a couple pizzas on the way home; Pam and Sharon had gotten home and we were heroes when we got back with food. An hour later I had the shower back together; ‘the Marines have landed and everything is well in hand’; JB and I had to explain that one; evidently the girls hadn’t watched many war movies. JB and I stuck around for a couple hours, talking and playing cards with the four girls. The six of us ended up playing rummy, hearts, and spades; we agreed to get together on Thursday night to try a couple other games. The girls wanted to try Canasta and Pinocle next time; turns out the cottage had several decks of cards and some old family board games, and we might try some of those too. At 9 JB and I called it quits; we were getting up at 6 AM for our morning exercises and needed our beauty sleep. The girls teased us about that a little, but finally we made our escape.

The rest of the week went quickly; the Thursday game night went okay; there were a couple new girls there and we ended up with 4, two-person teams. At first JB and I were a team, but the girls quickly separated us; we had played a lot of cards together in the barracks, and they swore we were cheating somehow. Lots of chatter and teasing, and a bit of innocent flirting; it seemed the girls had done a weekly game night for months that had slowly died out. It turned out to be a fun night, and the girls wanted to do it weekly again; with a little bit of arm-twisting JB and I agreed to attend while we were there.

The next weekend was St Paddy’s, and the beach started to really get busy. JB and I did the Sunday morning 6-mile run, and got a souvenir t-shirt; we did it in just under 35 minutes; it was nice running along the beach. We played the restaurant as scheduled, both Saturday and Sunday afternoon was packed; suddenly lots more college students, along with the usual families. JB and I were pretty popular, mainly I think because we interacted with the audience a bunch; telling stories and jokes, and asking about them and where they were from. We stuck around and listened to the band for a while on the weekend evenings; not bad, but JB said they’d never make it in Nashville.

The next two weeks went about the same; the training went well and we were now working on boxes from supply that really needed repair. The 25^th of March there was a freak snow storm that dropped about 6 inches of really wet snow; very pretty, but shut everything down for the day. The beach got busier and busier; by the first of April there were thousands of visitors, mostly college students on spring break; that first week of April was very warm, into the 80’s; the beach was crowded and everything was hopping. The restaurant was packed every night, JB and I took to playing most nights for 2-3 hours; the waitresses and bartenders could barely keep up.

The first phase of training ended the first week of April; the sailors went back to wherever they had come from, JB and I entered our second phase. JB was being trained on testing and repairing the main box of the INS system, with the gimbaled gyroscopes; and operating the test set for all the modules that came out of the INS boxes we had been repairing. I started training on repairing two additional black boxes that were also tested using the master computer test station; the Air Navigation Computer (ANC) and the Air Data Computer (ADC). They had their own separate test benches, and were also semi-automatic; load the proper test tape, connect the box to the test bench, and let the master computer run. The ANC was mostly an interface between the navigation system, and all the other systems on the aircraft that needed that data; the box contained mostly a bunch of relays, with some manipulation and conversion of that data to other forms. It sounds more complicated than it was, and using the test set was relatively simple. That test bench also tested the control stick out of the aircraft, which sounded simple, but was very complicated. The control stick is what is used to control the aircraft; no steering wheel or yoke here. That part was simple; but the grip that the pilot held had several microswitches that had to be precisely adjusted; and another 5 multi-function switches on it that the pilot used to control other systems of the aircraft; the simplest switch was the trigger for the armaments, but even that switch had 3 different setting. Getting all the switches working and adjusted properly took several hours.

The ADC box was a different animal, it handled aircraft speed and altitude via air pressure. It measured the barometric air pressure to get the altitude, and the amount of air coming in via the aircraft pitot tube to determine air speed. Sounds simple, but air density varies with the weather and the altitude; the ADC was filled with electronics and non-linear gear trains to make the computations, more on that later. Fortunately, the ADC consisted of a mounting rack and 3 sealed modules; all I had to do was remove and replace the modules; no adjusts were supposed to be made at my level of repair.

The game nights with the ladies were a lot of fun; we gathered with the 4 girls at their cottage a couple nights a week after work. Thursday nights snowballed and got more involved; usually with a campfire in the backyard, roasting marshmallows and making s’mores, something new to me. More and more waitresses and the girl’s schoolmates showed up, no other guys or boyfriends; the girls said they wanted our un-edited views and opinions on stuff, since we weren’t trying to get into their panties. The ladies were all late teens to late 20’s; a couple were married with kids, to sailors at the base. You can guess what was the main topics of discussion; men and women, dating and relationships and, pretty quickly, sex. They all seemed to be taking birth control pills and weren’t worried about getting pregnant anymore; now they wanted to have fun, they just weren’t sure how to go about it. I’m not sure why they thought JB and I would be experts on that; but that’s where most conversations led. Let me tell you, twenty or so women can get pretty loud and rowdy, and more than a little raunchy; I’m pretty sure they were mostly just teasing and testing JB and me. They admired and respected JB’s commitment to his girl; but I seemed to be an enigma, and a challenge. Sometimes it reminded me of the TV show Dating Game, only R-rated; or a how-to, or what not to do, discussion panel. Important fact to know; do not get into an argument or discussion with a woman that was on the high-school debate team.