Brain’s dry; Have to rely;
On stories past; Everlast
(This is a repeat of a Jottings from 1956 – You may have missed it.)
During my tour of duty in the Navy we were in an amphibian group. Specifically, we were in a 4-man crew (all 19-year-olds) on a LCVP, Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel.
It was a 36-ft landing craft designed to hit beaches, lower the front ramp and deliver man or machine to battles.
There were 24 of these boats aboard a ship, USS Woodford, AKA 86, and we were somewhere around Guam in the Pacific.
Anyway, we painted these square, flat-bottomed barges almost continually, a beautiful Pacific blue. Then we’d paint names on the side with a large X on the front of the ramp to identify us.
This particular day, after the Japanese had surrendered, we decided to paint a few words on the inside of the 5-foot x 7-foot ramp.
It read:
IS THIS TRIP REALLY NECESSARY?
We thought it was a huge joke and all our buddies laughed.
Before the paint was dry an order came over the loud speaker to lower our boat into the water.
So, down came the boom and hook to hoist our boat over the side.
We, in the boat, just got situated in the water and were looking up to the rail where our shipmates were rocking and rolling at our attempt at humor.
That’s when we saw our captain, Winston Folk, on the bridge.
HE didn’t laugh.
Our boat was brought back aboard ship, and we four in the crew were assigned various painting chores and additional watches from midnight to 4 a.m.
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Recently Gov. Snyder released the salaries of his appointees; directors, counsel, communications, etc. They range from $100,000 for the director of communications to $250,000 for the budget director.
Pay for his staff cannot be compared to counterparts on the Granholm staff because Gov. Granholm refused to reveal pay scales in the governor’s office.
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* Sticking with the past for a moment longer, did you notice how many and how frequent the commercials for dating were aired between the holidays? Besides E. Harmony.com there was Christian Dating for Free.com, Plenty of Fish.com and Christian Mingle.com.
* I had some left-over beef, so I shared it with Shayna. I’ve always been amazed at how fast dogs can chew and swallow, so I tested ma’dog. It took her four chomps to chew and swallow one piece. I compared it to me. It took me 56 chomps. Where’s her enjoyment and my thank you’s?
* I’ve been told many adults at church and funeral services can become quite annoyed by the younger generations? continual use of iPods at these times. Seems out of place to me, too.
* The first public product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At the time, the most known player on the market was the Victorola, so they called themselves Motorola.
* Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes? Same thing for deficits?