A SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY

The first dance on the first day
of the rest of our life.

It is forty-eight years since that June of 1966 when I worked at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Waukegan, Illinois.  It was an exciting time for me in my life.  I was feeling very independent and free as a young adult.  Working on the Navy base had it’s privileges and I enjoyed the worldly feeling of working on the base.  I didn’t know it at the time, but it also would bring a life changing event to me.

On the first day I worked at the base I was working with a young Lieutenant, who upon observing a young women strolling down the street, cigarette hanging out of her mouth, pants a bit tight, he made a comment that forever affected my time at the base.  “See that girl,” he said turning toward me, “50,000 men on this base have not seen a women since they entered bootcamp and once out, one of them will be desperate enough to ask her out and she will think she is hot stuff.”  I decided at that moment that I would not be her…no interest in the sea of men that surrounded me.

Instead, I filled my time volunteering at the hospital, helping the guys that had returned from Vietnam with their broken bodies.  Our American Legion in Fox Lake, Illinois held an open event for the guys from the hospital every Saturday.  Buses would bring them to the Legion for a day of R&R.  An open bar, boat rides offered by the locals, barbecue on the lawn and ending with a dance with an invitation to the local young women to come and dance with those that could.

My role at the Legion was to make sure everyone was involved and not being isolated in a corner.  This time is filled with fond memories.  Purpose…in giving of ones self without expectations…to give comfort and aid just because it was needed.  Yes, these were moments I enjoyed.  And who knew that by the end of this month I would meet and fall in love with the man who would carry me in his heart for his remaining days.  

I hear some say, “Oh I wish I could have my childhood back!”  Not me—I would take life in June 1966 and relive the next fourth-five years and not change a thing.