Good Evening;
Now I'm back in Pikesville sitting in front of the First Watch after getting off the bus, (driven by my other buddy, Simon, a friend of Daniel at the gas station, both of whom are Kenyan.....more factual trivia you have no earthly use for.....lol), and going into the Giant here to squeegee myself off.
When I left the Starbucks Rachel called and we wasted 5 of my minutes by 'cross-calling', (calling each other back at the same time and getting voicemail....repetitively), after getting a bad connection on the first call. I finally got through and we talked for 15 minutes while I went into the Giant up at St. Thomas Shopping Center, where I had not been for 2 years since before they remodeled. I went in because they used to have a lot, A LOT, of pre-packaged deli always reduced by $1.00, $1.50, or even $2.00, you could get a pack of lunchmeat for a buck or less on a regular basis, where here at Pikesville it is a rare occasion. Not tonight, most likely not at all since the total remodel, renovation, and reset of the store, it is a mini-me version of the Gucci Giants.
Anyway..I left there and went to the bus stop. The torrential downpour had stopped about 45 minutes previously but there were awesome displays of lightning, South Florida quality and quantity!, to the Northwest and Southwest and the East, but it was finished where I was in Owings Mills.........NOT!!!!!!!!!
About 10 minutes before the bus was due, (and just FYI, a bus that is always a few minutes early), the first few drops fell. It's just a sprinkle I told myself, there's no lightning or thunder in the immediate area...FLASH-SIZZLE-CRACK-BOOM.
Oooopps......the hundred year old oak tree on the property across the street belonging to Garrison Forest School might refute my last statement! It did not split, topple, or severely damage the tree itself, but the rain of dead and rotten wood was like a bad case of deciduous dandruff as all the debris showered down on the driveway and lawns. It was pretty damn impressive!.....lol. But then I find thunder storms, both calming and arousing, a kind of hypersonic hypnoses and an electrical aphrodisiac, like taking a Valium AND a Viagra together.
(And doesn't THAT series of images bring back memories, probably the very ones that have me such a 'thunder-junkie' . Yeahhhhh, it's all coming back to me nowwwww.....Summer 1981 - I had just been rejected by the USAF when I had tried to enlist, "DQ3"-ed by a freakin' gynecologist on loan to AFEES [now MEPS] doing physicals who had no effin' clue as to the status of my congenital heart defect, pulmonary stenosis, or it's relationship to my (then) capabilities or limitations regarding physical activities as related to service in a non-pilot duty in the USAF.
The stupid bastard did not even look at the data prepared by the Johns Hopkins Hospital Cardiology dept, and the Children's Cardiac Clinic where I had been not only a patient but a long term study participant since birth, all of which cleared and released me for nearly any military activity short of something like Special Forces training, (and I had already gotten clearances for both SCUBA (sport) certification and skydiving, (sport again, AND with an Okay for high altitude jumps, with or without oxygen!). The dumb, lazy, paper pushing, crotch cleaner took the easy bureaucratic way out when confronted with a situation that requires independent thought and action; look it up and rubber stamp it DENIED if it any way deviates from the established norm, and/or pass the buck to the next level.....or both. His supervisor in this case was a woman, who was in no way inclined to rock the boat by ordering any deeper research or investigation into my case that might upset her already fragile military career.
[At the time the USAF was dumping whole commands back into the Reserves or civilian life wholesale]
So...DQ3 Disqualified w/No Appeal
(And my father even called in some political credit from a State politician on a military appropriations committee to try to help....no luck)
I was obviously disappointed, but even more than you may imagine because through an Uncle in a high level Staff officer position heading up one of the then state of the art...and beyond!...Sat. Com. & Telemetry And Advanced Electronic Communications schools.....(I can't remember the real acronyms or abbreviations)......I had a solid gold, diamond edged, platinum lined guaran-damn-teed spot in the school as soon as I would have completed basic training and the basic electronics school afterwards and been ready to go to the next level of advanced schools. But alas, he had no juice in recruiting and no one there owed him any favors, so I was SOL! Having been sure of getting in the USAF, and busting my fat ass down to size and being Sure I could meet all the listed physical requirements, and Damn Sure I could pass, if not Ace the ASVAB with all the studying and practice tests I took, and knowing my eyes were not good enough for combat pilot qualification so I had lower levels across the board to meet....I was devastated. I had so KNEW I was going into the Air Force that I had burned a lot of bridges and given a whole hell of a lot of stuff away. Depressed and disappointed I moped around and did a fair bit of drinking for a while after the final door slammed shut. Then I got it into my mind that, hell I'm in shape now anyway, why not do what I always wanted, (and still do), to do....hike the Appalachian Trail! (A fair bit drinking mixed with some good weed and many hours of outdoor oriented channels on Cable TV......lol). Ah, but it's the middle of summer you say, no way could I hike the whole trail in the time left before winter shut down the northern half or more of it. But....(it was really good weed)....I reasoned.....'If I headed South from where the Trail crosses Interstate 70, (and to where I would hitchhike to from where I lived, right near the Baltimore Beltway, 3 exits from where I 70 begins......see, weed makes you smart....lol),....I could get through the I took a bunch of money left over from selling my cars and bought a bunch of camping and hiking gear to supplement what I already had, all the Trail Guidebooks.......
Oh Hell.........Battery is almost dead.......back shortly
Okay, so it took 3 hours.....sue me....................lol.
.........a new pair of boots, (which I wore down to the stream and waded in to rest my old compact fishing gear, and after the boots were nice and soaked, wore them for close to 10 hours walking around the city until they were broken in amd molded to fit like a pair of kidskin gloves, the sleeping bag I'm using now, (31 years later....lol), lightweight tent and cooking stove, and 12 pounds of freeze dried meals for the periods I would be between points where I could get to a town and buy food, (and the state of the art back then makes MREs taste like gourmet cooking!.............lol).
Once I eventually got packed, after unpacking and repacking 3 dozen times weeding out weight and volume, I thumbed a ride to I -70 and another to Myersville Md. where the Trail crosses the Interstate on a footbridge. I climbed the embankment and climbed over the well worn spot in the fence, checked the Trail markers, pulled out my compass to double check, (don't laugh...I once traveled half a day, an overcast day that is in the opposite direction because some prankster had swapped signs N for S !) and started walking South towards Springer Mountain in Georgia, southern terminus of the trail, 1035.8 miles away. The first day I made it to the Weverton Cliffs Overlook above Harpers Ferry W.Va. about 17 miles south, where I spent the night sitting under a tarp rigged between some trees watching an awesome display of lightning flash and tear the sky and the cliffs and the river into a stroboscopic slide show. I was joined by a young woman from a group of college students on a week long vacation who had been surprised and trapped by the storm. Most of them their large communal dome tent up and zipped themselves in out of the rain, not Rae, she sat up with me all night long talking and watching the storm. By the time morning rolled around it was decided she was leaving the group and hiking south with me to Thornton Gap in Va., where she would be picked up by her friends at the entrance to the Skyline Drive, about 85 miles south, about a 4 day hike, Well as they say about best laid plans.......lol....at about the 20 mile point, near Crescent Rock on the W.Va./Va. line, on the morning of the second day of hiking, my knee swelled up to the size of a small melon from a nasty tendonitis attack, and we hobbled off the AT on a small side trail that led to the house of a woman who would occasionally host thru hikers in a small cabin she built, offering a shower and a hot meal in exchange for some work around the place, in the garden, cleaning the cabin, etc. The cabin was booked but she took one look at my knee and told us we were staying in the main house, a huge old rambling lodge with porches and verandas on both levels and all sides. There was always a breeze and deep shade on one side or another all day long. Beth, the owner somehow got the impression Rae and I were newlyweds on a camping honeymoon and proceeded to pamper us royally, no matter how much we protested. So we got into the spirit of it and acted newly married. By the time the day came to a close, we were almost not pretending, so easy was it to stay 'in character'. Neither of us wanted to end the play acting and face the reality who was sleeping where yet so we went out the french doors to the private porch off the bedroom window over looking the valley. We could see a storm traveling east down the valley towards us. Two thirds of the valley and the enveloping mountains were filled and covered with fog and a thick ground haze but across the valley, pink and orange and shining like Lando Calrissian's 'Cloud City' we could see the lights of Charlestown Racetrack beckoning in the distance.
The storm roared up the valley towards us and we realized that it was actually BELOW us in the valley. Never having seen anything like that before we were captivated and just stared at the magnificent display. The thunder was so loud we could not hear one another from 6 feet away, so Rae came and sat on the cushions of the chaise I was in/on with my leg raised. After an extremely close and loud lightning and thunder strike as the storm was rising up the side of the mountain to encompass the house Rae jumped, squeaked and squealed and slid into my lap, wrapping her arms around me and burying her face into my neck. Instinctively my arms enfolded her and slowly, shyly, tentatively we slipped even deeper and more realistically into the roles we had been playing of a just married couple.
We were there for 3 days before I could walk, albeit slowly and carefully at first.
We took a couple days to get to Ashby Gap in Va., where the Trail crosses U.S. 50. We hitched a ride into Winchester and got a room in a hotel for the night, a single, as Mr. & Mrs. Justin and Mary Toudae.....lol! She called her friends and made the changes in plans to be picked up the next day. After going out to dinner we strolled slowly back to the room arriving just as another thunderstorm struck. With looks and feelings of both anticipation and relief we slipped back into newlywed mode as soon as we locked the door and threw open all the windows. All through dinner we had been dancing around the subject, but after the storm(s) ended in and out of the room, we approached the subject of 'what now-what's next?' like an E.O.D. with the hiccups approaches a jar of nitroglycerin, delicately, cautiously, and gently, not to mention sloooowly.
As it turned out, she was getting married for real in September!
At the look on my face she burst out laughing and then into tears, as my reaction was 180 degrees the opposite. When we finished our emotional outpourings, we wrote each other a note and our parents addresses and sealed them in envelopes with promises not to open them for 10 years...all very melodramatic and romantic......lol. The next morning I put her in a car with her friends after a hug and a handshake.....and pulled her back out for a real goodbye with a kiss that had us both quivering and weak in the knees, turned away and never looked back,(Though I did hear one of the girls say, 'Damn.....if someone kissed me like that I'd f*ck 'em right here on the hood of the car in broad daylight !!!!", and crossed U.S. 50 and instantly caught a ride with the first vehicle that came by, a truck that took me all the way to 495 the Capitol Beltway, where after 3 hours of no damn rides I ended up walking down the exit ramp and lucking into a Greyhound mini-terminal in the first shopping plaza. 3 hours later I was home.
2 weeks later I moved to Ocean City, Md. for 2 years and watched the thunderstorms on the bay and the ocean through the front or rear windows of our beach house....
And no, none of this really related to being homeless in anyway, except maybe the camping out parts.....lol, it was just a wonderful memory triggered by both of the thunder and lightning storms today...one 'dry', and one which I am still damp in places.........lol!
DAMN....It's 6:55 am.! At least it DID cool off a good bit, time to sleep.
Later......................Dave
No comments:
Post a Comment