'Those Were The Days'

Here is another one sent to ‘Dan the Navy man’ and his Internet Bullshit Show… I hope you enjoy this ‘No Shitter!!!’

How many of you old crotchety bastards remember coming out of Bootcamp in the late Sixties?!? It was the Vietnam era in the middle of summer, hot and sweltering!! We’d do anything to get out of the sun and into some cool shade!!!

Well as the story goes and it got better after a few beers...  One of our shipmates was a bit stir crazy after eight weeks of Bootcamp and ready to hit the town! It was 1970 and straight out of ‘RTC’ we didn’t have a whole lot of Somalians between the lot of us!! So one of our shipmates, we’ll call him Jimmy, said he was gonna jump up on the table in the first Go-Go bar we go into and drop his drawers and start yelling “BINGO” at the top of my lungs!!!

Needless to say it never happened! We never found a Go-Go bar and Jimmy probably didn’t have the balls…

About a few hours or two into our liberty we were about fifteen to twenty Squidly-Do-Rights heading into a seedy theater to watch a movie! The movie was called ‘The Stewardesses’ and was in 3-D...complete with 3-D glasses at the entrance to the theater!! It was kind of a big deal back then… especially since it was out of the sun and air-conditioned!!!

We all sat together in the middle of the theater as the movie started out with a gal knocking on an apartment door! No answer, but the door was unlocked so she walked in down a hall!! By now you could hear the sounds of heavy breathing and assorted other sounds associated with sexual conduct!!!

She rounds a corner and with the aid of the 3-D glasses another lady's legs come right through the screen at you and you see a man’s ass and summer whites, Dixie Cup and all going up and down in full ‘operational mode’ and just as the Crackerjack gets his cookies off ol' Jimmy jumps up and out of his seat yelling at the top of his lungs...

"BING-GOOO...FUCKING  BING-GOOOO...BING-GOOO!”

… And the rest of us just freaking erupted in laughter! We hooted & hollered and pounded on our chests like a bunch of dumb bastards but we were having the best of times!! I do believe the management or somebody came down demanding we mind our manners!!!

So later the movie ends and we're all outside waiting for the transit bus to take us back to the base! Pretty soon our ride shows up with all of two people onboard… the bus driver and alone decent looking young lady!!!

Now please allow me to explain… The driver sits where all drivers do with the first few seats behind him facing inboard! With fifteen to twenty Squidly-Do-Rights coming aboard, is where the little Miss was seated!! You could imagine the thoughts going through most of our heads!!!

So with the young lady in question seated where she was and being the good Sailors we were, we filled in every seat around her and began the salutations, flirtations, and the pick-up lines! Now there was one particular fella who thought his shit didn’t stink and he assumed he was God’s gift to women… let alone the rest of the human race!! I just happened to be sitting directly across from him and get a pretty good picture of everything that was happening as it took place!!!

So the bus heads off and right away Mr. God’s gift starts running his mouth trying every corny pick-up line I’d ever heard and then some! Meanwhile she’s doing her damnedest to ignore any and everything any of us had to say!! I mean he was using every line, lame or otherwise he could think of to get her to bite the hook and he wasn’t gonna give up!!!

Bear in mind, we’re all Crackerjack Sailors in a Sailor’n Town with the high & tight haircuts and the whole bit!!!

So eventually, after several minutes of continually bombarding this lil’ thing with bullshit and desperation…

“So do you know who we are?”

… somehow thinking this was going to impress the little gal that we’re all Navy Crackerjack Sailors, Defenders of the free world, and adventurers of the High Seas!! She finally turns to face him and says in a very matter-of-fact voice…

“Why yes I do! I work with guys like you every day!”

… To which he brightens up thinking he’s finally gotten somewhere with her! He then asks…

“Oh really… So where do you work?”

… To which she quickly and clearly replies for all of us to hear...

“I work at the State Mental Hospital!”

… And promptly turns back and faces where she was prior to the little conversation!! We all just busted out laughing like it was no one’s business!!!

After nearly Fifty years I can still remember it like yesterday! It was too gauddamned funny!! It gave us all a chance to let out some uncontrolled and tear-filled laughter!!!