It's hard to imagine how naïve I was in 1959 when I shipped off to San Diego for Marine Corps Boot Camp. A couple of trips to the Twin Cities was the extent of my travels. TV entered our home in 1954 and football was not on TV watching agenda.
Boot Camp was an arduous twelve weeks of total confinement. Reading two papers daily now I notice how much print is give in the Minneapolis StarTribune to the Vikings Football team. (I think football is morally bankrupt. A friend who is a retired orthopedic surgeon said youth football injuries were a huge part of his practice. The illusive goal of fame and fortune leads to significant permanent injuries for too many young people.) But that's a discursus. What all the football news reminds me of is an oddity of Boot Camp.
One Sunday during Boot Camp our entire company of four platoons were herded, yes much like cattle, unto buses. The buses took us to a game of the San Diego Chargers Football team. Why? It was the only time in our twelve weeks of training that we were off the base. Did the Chargers need to fill a stadium? We were all dressed in our green fatigues...we must have been quite a sight. When we arrived in Camp we were directed to pack our civilian clothes and ship them home.
Knowing nothing about professional football, I played six-man football in high school, most of the game details are long forgotten. Who did they play? No clue. Did they win? No idea. But it was treat to be off base for a couple of hours.
Takk for alt,
Al
In my dress greens after promotion of corporal.
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