rbeville%tekig5.pen.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET (05/13/89)
From: rbeville%tekig5.pen.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET During WWII, there was an Army Air Base outside my hometown(Florida) Some of my childhood recollections were: Fighter airplanes practiced 'dog-fighting' in the sky over the town; I remember standing in the middle of a large vacant lot beside our house once when one of the planes... P-?? type seemed to single me out and did a dive at ME!...he came in below roof top level buzzing the field... The building beyond the vacant lot was the town's Womens Club building, built by the WPA. During the Army's stay, it was used as the USO hall. I only recall soldiers outside the building intent on playing dice in the rain during the eye of a hurricane. The town square contained one of those quaint bandstand gazebos with ornamental ironwork fencing and gates around it. I watched men torch and hacksaw the iron off down to the concrete bases for that 'scrap drive' campaign. Later, my parents told that I had made a contribution, too; they weaned me off my baby bottle saying that ** I gave my nipple for defense **. An aunt ran a dairy farm on the acreage beside the base and she had a standing offer from them for any weak, lame or dead cattle. She also sold the base live hogs. After the base was deactivated, folks drove in for souvernirs and I saw ***an air strip lined on both sides with small wire-mesh enclosures filled with the rotting carcasses of those animals; the stench was still strong. ***.... a souvenir that I saw but couldn't do anything about was a TOTEM pole made in the form of nude female torsos. Another area was littered with gas masks. An uncle was a baggage master on the Seaboard. He brought me numerous helmets, web belts, 'pistol' belts and canteens that soldiers left in the Pullman cars. Another aunt/uncle lived near the shore at Jacksonville Beach. I remember in the evening their concern to pull down the "Blackout" curtains before we turned on any lights... at the ocean where we swam, they pointed and said 'The German submarine was just offshore there.' Gee, what strange things impress little boys. best regards, rbeville@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM Bob Beville, Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR 97077 Sir, we've intercepted another one of those weird messages...It is certainly in code... It says to deliver two tons of peanuts to some pass in the Alps. It's signed Hannibal. We'll let you know as soon as we break the code, sir....