…It was back in 1953 when I was stationed thirty-five miles north of the thirty-eighth parallel, somewhere in North Korea. “The weather outside was frightful“, stolen lyric from the 1945 song “Let It Snow”, by Sammy Cahn & Jule Styne. Neither of those gentlemen had anything to do with my story. As a matter of fact, when they actually wrote the song, it was in the middle of the summer in a place called New York City (I think).
Back to Korea. It was about 2AM, a very heavy storm was making our lives hellish to the tune of thirty-five degrees below zero. Wouldn’t you know, without any real warning, nature called. Hurriedly, I threw on my clothes and made a mad dash to our company latrine, where I was semi-surprised to find a buddy of mine sitting on the pot with his shoes in hand, while he shined his flashlight lighting up the inside of his boots.
“What the hell are you doing,” I barked at him. “I can’t go to sleep without reading”, he answered completely embarrassed. “There was nothing to read in here”, he explained. Our company chaplain, who happened to be one wonderfully funny guy, commented to a few of us when hearing the story about reading your boots: “You know, guys, in life sometimes shit happens.” We all fell down laughing.
What made that tidbit cross into my thought pattern at this moment in time is beyond my comprehension. Some thoughts last; some disappear instantly. I guess what you remember has a reason for recollection. My shoe size happens to be size eleven the last time I looked.
…and so on with the show!
To be continued…
-HK-
