Bell bottom trousers, coats of Navy blue.....

My Anthony was a sailor.  Ah, but that was many years ago before Viet Nam. I have his wool top of his uniform and if I can find a camera I will post a picture of it.  Not of him, because I do not have him any more, but I do have his scatchy wool top and his green denim flak jacket. And playing through my mind is this little ditty:

"Bell bottom trousers, coats of navy blue, He'll climb the riggin' like his daddy used to do!  If you have a daughter, bounce her on your knee, but if you have a son send that "fella" out to sea!"

He was on the USS Proteus which was a sub tender.  That meant it was his job to make sure the submarines were all in tip top shape.  He was stationed at Pearl Harbor and that was a long time after the bombing there.  His time ran out just as Vietnam was becoming a way of life and he did not "reup".  I am glad he did not because Vietnam was not pretty and he would not have become the man he was had he gone there.

I have tried to think what it would be like to be submerged beneath the ocean for days or weeks on end and being the claustrophobic that I am, I can not even imagine life beneath the waves.  Anthony and all his shipmates had to be a special kind of person.  I think Irene told me that their father was also in the navy.  I think it takes a special kind of person to join the Navy.  

My father was in World War I.  He had a scar on his upper arm where a horse had bitten him.  He was in the cavalry apparently.  His sons were in World War II as I recall.  Richard was in the Navy, Gene was Army, and not sure if Earl was in at all.  There seems to be some sort of code they all follow, something I never understood.  Jake was Army and was in Germany, but it was peace time. Kenneth was Marine and he was in Korea.

There is one thing I know and that is when a man came home from the service, they were always clean shaven.  They kept their shoes polished and always seemed to be alert to their surroundings.  My son was in ROTC when he was in high school and I still keep the little awards he received.  I am glad he did not go into the service because I like him just the way he is!

Anthony was younger than me, but that never seemed to bother either one of us. I remember when I was in high school and how I lusted after the sailors in their little tight white pants before I was even old enough to know what lust was.  To think I had to wait 50 years to finally get my sailor is kind of sad,  but it was worth the wait!  Anthony stood straighter then most men.  He rarely got rattled and he understood my sense of humor.  Few men can measure up to my expectations, but he did.  He has only been gone for three months, but it seems like forever.

He was only in my life for a few years, but he has left a mark on my soul like no other man before him.  It is as if time has stopped and the world is standing still.  

I wonder if I will ever awaken from this dream?

Kansas Naval Air Station

 KNAS.  So, I am a little fussy on the years here, but I think it was back in the late 1950's that Hutchinson had the Kansas Naval Air Station located South of Hutch.  I was in High School and my graduation year was 1959, or at least that is what my class ring said.  Sadly, I knew all I needed to know by the middle of my Senior year and I dropped out.  I attended my Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior  year at Nickerson High School, go Wildcats!  Might not have been wildcats, but my memory says it was.

Now you may ask how this has anything to do with the Navy, but if you are patient, I will get there.  Now what was housed at the Naval Air Station?  Sailors!!  Now you must remember that at that juncture of my life I was a nubile teenage girl who had not sampled the forbidden pleasures of life and love.  Ah, but I had dreams!  And I had dreams because I had finally developed what appeared to be a bosom and I had heard the other girls talking.  I was not quite sure exactly what "Married Love" was, but I was pretty sure I wanted to be a beloved wife some day and that some man would sweep me off my feet and take me to paradise where I would live happily ever after.  

In the meantime, the sailors who were stationed at KNAS liked to come to our little town and cruise Main Street during our school lunch hour and try to pick up girls.  I was scared to death of men, but I gotta tell you those boys/men in those tight, white navy pants with two rows of dark navy blue buttons touched me and warmed the cockels of my heart!  The neighbor girls, Delores and Irene, were allowed to date, so they did.  Delores ended up marrying one named Smitty and moving back east some where.  Irene dated some guy and fell madly in love until he was "shipped out"  and she was left crying in the dust.

But the stage for my life was set by those boys in their white uniforms.  Army khaki and Air Force Blue meant nothing compared to Navy white.  Winter was Navy blue wool and the wool looked pretty itchy to me, so Spring and Fall we were good to go and my heart came to life, but Winter was verboten, which is kin to mauch's nix.

But my minds eye can still see the coupes, which were their chosen vehicle, and the sailors with their white hats cocked just so, cruising Main and hear the cat calls emitting from the vehicles.  Of course all the girls tee-heed and me right along with them. Sadly, I knew the sailors were off limits and if I was ready to start dating, I better hope that the one I picked was the geek with the glasses in my History  class.  And sadder yet, he was my cousin!  Since the Beck family had been the precursors to the Haas migration from Germany, most everyone was my cousin.  In order to carry on the family line and for Mother to make a decent wage, we had to move to Hutchinson for my Senior year.

That was also about the time that the Kansas Naval Air Station south of Hutchinson closed and the base was deserted.  A couple years later I married a guy who had just gotten out of the Army and returned from Germany.  Boy was that an exercise in futility.  The floors were wood and they had to be paste wax coated which meant I had to rent a buffer every time I cleaned the floor.  His Kahki pants had to be starched and the crease sharp and exact!  Of course the fact that he was just going to get drunk and spill stuff on them was entirely beside the point.  Oh, and the allegiance I held for the Navy must be replaced by the Army.  Charlie and Kenneth were both Marines. But guess what!  I finally got my sailor!

Anthony was in the Navy on board the USS Proteus, a sub-tender.  The motto was Prepared, Productive, Precise.  And he reflected that later in life as well.  He was stationed in Hawaii.  He was in Pearl Harbor, but it was after the bombing.  Of course that was many years before I met him.  There is a lot to be said for the twilight years, but right now it slips my mind that anything I come up with would be worth repeating.

I saw his white bell bottom pants.  Of course they did not fit him any more, but I did get to touch them and for a while I was back on the streets of Nickerson and the sailor boys were "cruising  Main".  I was still 17 years old with dreams of being a missionary.  I still could not look a man in the eye, but I could envision him with dark hair and soft brown eyes dressed in his Summer Whites.  I can hold my little sailor boy in my minds eye, but more importantly, in my heart.

And at this point in life, memories and dreams is about all we have, isn't it?