It's amazing what a small world it really is!
On the Canopus, I met a girl who is still one of my close friends to this day. I'd just checked on board and spent the weekend hanging out in berthing. I didn't know anyone so I didn't have anything better to do. So I walked back and forth between there and the vending machines several times. There was a group of people on duty sitting on the mess decks (missiles were being moved and they needed to be close in case of emergency.) They got tired of seeing me wander around and invited me to hang out with them. They asked how come I kept changing clothes? I didn't know what they meant, since I was in civilian clothes and had been all day! They said they'd seen me go by several times in uniform! Come to find out, they were mistaking me for Laura! We don't know how anyone could think we looked alike, but we ended up being friends.
Ugh - my cover is crooked here and it bugs me!!
One of the other postal clerks on the Lincoln was from Southfield, MI - that's not 20 miles from where I grew up!
While I was in Bahrain, we delivered some mail to a small ship that was in port. A couple hours later, a submarine was due to pull in, so while everyone else got to get learn how to drive a forklift, I got to babysit mail. In the hot desert sun. Next to the water. With a sunburn. Yay. So I sat in the little bit of shade I could find and dozed. At one point, the messenger of the watch came down off of the small boy (sorry, I don't remember which one it was) and asked my name, since the Boatswain of the Watch up there, who couldn't leave his post, thought he knew me. Sure enough, I had worked in deck department with him on the Canopus!! After his watch, he came down to visit me.
I ran in to 2 older American men who lived in Bahrain! One surprised me on a bus, since he was dark skinned, wearing robes and a turban. But when he spoke to me and another girl, it was pure Chicago came out of his mouth! He told us a lot about life there. And the other gentleman was at a bar we found, wearing his USMC ballcap. He said he fell in love with the area and stayed. When he left, besides picking up our tab, he stopped by where I was sitting with a girl from another ship, and he laid 2 - $100 bills down between us - "to help us girls get home". We were stunned!
#AtoZChallenge
As a new Navy spouse, I went to my first Family Support Group (Family Readiness Group now) meeting and met another spouse who had a child about the same age as Sophia. The kids bonded right away and so did we. Twenty years later, we are still friends. My husband has been an instructor at two different duty stations and he is constantly running into his former students in various locations. The Navy is a small world.
ReplyDeleteIt really is! I was always surprised when I ran into someone I knew!
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