Wow! What a morning!

I was having coffee in the driveway which I generally do and one of the neighbors came by on their way to work and told me that when I was out of town a Marine officer was looking for me.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out who the hell it was until the neighbor said the man told him that his Marine Corps career started on my couch. Then I knew who that was.

Time flies and it must have been fifteen years ago when I did a kid a favor.  I let him crap out on my couch and have the recruiter pick him up at my place. 

What he was doing was running away to join the Marines.

Had his parents found out about it there would have been hell to pay and he didn't want the recruiter to show up at his house. Later I found out why.

The kid had to write home during boot camp so I got his letters. He had left word that he was running away to work in a marine environment which led the trail straight to me. A cop asked me a couple of questions and I told him I'd check the union hall to see if he had shipped as an ordinary.

Then I told him that it would be a good idea for him to swing by the house for a cup of coffee after he was off shift and out of uniform.

Surprisingly, he did and I told him the kid had gone into the service and to keep it under his hat because if the parents found out they'd go straight to the boot camp and try to pull him out.

A couple of days later the cop swung by the house and simply said 'Thank you' and that pretty much ended it. I don't know what the cop told the parents but I do know what happened when he came home from boot camp.

I got a call from him to come over to his parents house immediately and when I got there I instantly dialed 911. It was a domestic fight of the Nth magnitude and there was a young Marine PFC with a frantic look in his eyes trying to settle his father down after he had knocked him on his ass.

From what I made of it, the father was trying to kick the kid out of the house and the mother wouldn't let him. She was just glad to see her son. Dad shoved Mom and the kid intervened and wound up clocking his old man. Actually he did a pretty good job of it, looking back at it. I saw the makings coming on of a real Norman Rockwell painting of a black eye. A real classic shiner.

The cops showed up and pulled everyone apart and the father wanted the kid arrested. It was a mess.

I looked at the kid and said to him, "Why are you all shook up? Isn't that what Marines do? They fight for those that can't fight for themselves. You were just protecting your mother."

The kid looked a bit relieved and the cop looked curiously at me. Then he looked at the mother carefully. There were no marks on her and he sighed. He looked at the father and told him he had two choices. Be taken to a motel or go to jail. Any arguing meant jail.

Dad left with the officer and I bailed as fast as I could. The next day I found out that dad would stay at the motel a few days and the kid would cut his leave short.

I had to go back to work otherwise I would have offered to take him to the airport.

I wish I had been home to meet the kid because I'm curious as to how he commissioned. The last time I heard from him was almost ten years ago. He was a sergeant.

The parents have long since moved. I don't know if they're still together or not.

What's sad about this is that I don't remember this man's name, although I suppose if I heard it I'd remember it was him.


To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY