Tales From The Dark Side AKA My Youth

I did not look like a bad girl, I had a good girl persona and look to me. In fact I was sort of nerdy. But that was just the outer coating. Deep down inside I was a wild child. I think my dad knew this about me because he kept a close eye on my comings and goings and he had a good reason to.

This is a story I was reminded of when a blogger asked us all to tell a tale of our dads, this is my favorite memory of mine, and the times surrounding it.

First I want to explain that this was not my natural family this was a foster family and he is the only dad I have ever known. Having grown up with only girls, living with them was the first time I had experienced boys and  it was a shocker. John the oldest was allowed to take girls to his room and Mike was generally a jerk that liked to give me trouble. My dad was a lover of all and carried lifesavers in his pocket to hand out along with hugs. Personally I thought it was only to get his arms around pretty girls again but it was a theory never proven. He had met his wife when he was stationed in Germany while in the Army. They met in a bar. She was a little pixie of a girl, they fell in love, married and he brought her home with him. Oma (her mom) hated my dad with a passion.

Oma came from Germany each spring and stayed through fall spending 6 months in America and 6 months in Germany. In the evenings Oma and I sat outside and drank her hot shockolat (that's how she pronounced it). I loved these moments and miss her very much. She would bring with her suitcases full of German and Swiss Chocolate and we relished it eating it slowly because we knew it would be another year before we got more.

Well, Oma encouraged me to go out she said I should be dancing and having a good time, I had been in school and working so there was little time for fun. But then a friend invited me to the USO and I went. This was the Bob Hope USO in Hollywood it was old and I was very nostalgic of the better times it had seen. I could imagine starlets singing their hearts out on the stage as young women and service men danced around the floor. However, there were no stars,  all we had was a DJ booth and a very few dedicated service men that showed up every Friday and Saturday night to spin the discs or load their home made tapes while we disco'd (yes disco'd) the night away.

This is where I met Jeff, he was in the Navy and looked like Opy Taylor. I was quiet smitten with him and dreamed of being a sailors wife. My dad having been in the Army was not impressed with Jeff especially when Jeff's motorcycle had the good sense to get to my home and break down then proceeded to sit in the courtyard and leak oil all over my dad's very white and always clean cement. This made him doubly unimpressed. Then Jeff did not return for it. Which made my dad mad...at me.

But I am getting ahead of myself, when Jeff  would come to pick me up, my dad usually gave him the evil eye and left him to stew in the family room while I finished getting ready. One night we decided to stay home and we cuddled up in the recliner watching T.V. All the lights were on and it was late. Suddenly my dad appeared in his underwear, looks at us and turns off all the lights even the one in the living room leaving us completely in the dark with only the T.V. as lighting...very strange. Without a word he turned and went back to bed. I had NEVER seen him or any other man in his undies before and was quite shocked by the whole episode. Jeff took it as a cue to leave and was gone in a flash. The next night as Jeff again waited on me, my dad appeared, glared at Jeff placed an old rifle against the wood burner glared at him again and left the room, knocking on my door as he passed letting me know Jeff was there. Jeff thought he was done for and almost pee'd himself. When I came in the room and saw the gun I was puzzled and more so when  Jeff popped up grabbed my elbow and pushed me out the door whispering I'm going to die he is going to kill me. He never came to the house again, hence the motorcycle leaking it's life blood in the courtyard.

I believe that was also the weekend we went to the mountains to park, if you know what I mean and got busted by a couple of policemen who told us to go home. We started to, but I fell asleep leaving Jeff to negotiate his way down the mountain and hopefully back to his base. However, Jeff got lost in the rain turning north instead of south heading up to San Francisco instead of down to Long Beach. By the time he woke me up we were about 10 hours away from where he needed to be and he was pretty upset with me, I drove back to Long Beach from there while he slept. Jeff was supposed to report in uniform at 8 A.M., I got him to the gates at 8 A.M..... he was confined to the ship for a good long time. Once he was no longer on restriction he broke up pretty quickly with me stating I was not the kind of girl he could take home to meet his mother. And that ended my dreams of being a Navy wife.
Some people have no sense of humor do they...

You can verify this story because Jeff is on my Facebook friends list.....:)