Winter Memories

Snow in Donghae City, Republic of Korea
(Source)

Sometimes I blog to entertain, sometimes to educate, sometimes it's to document something from my past which maybe someday my grandchildren might read, something to give them a better idea of who I was, where they came from so to speak, at least in part. Today it is something from my past, which the current weather in my area brings to mind.

I have loads of winter memories from when I was a kid. Winters back then were colder, longer, and had a lot more snow than I see nowadays. I don't blame mankind for that, there is no blame to be assigned, weather patterns change, they've been doing that since the Earth cooled.

Anyhoo, it's not a memory from my childhood that I wish to recount today, no, it's a memory of when my son, The Naviguesser was a little boy.

It was the winter of 1979 when my son was only four months old. It was December and we were living in a new apartment in Kunsan City, Republic of Korea. It was a two room apartment, which seems small, but when you consider that one room was the bedroom and the other was the living room and both rooms were pretty spacious, and there was but the three of us, one being a small baby, it was pretty nice.

It was heated better than our old place as well, that place had relied upon a single pot-bellied yeontan stove which heated one room, for a radius of about six feet. The other two rooms, much smaller were semi-arctic. My wife's oldest sister once commented that staying with us was like sleeping in a refrigerator. Hey, once you were under one of those big Korean mink blankets it was toasty.

Nevertheless, once The Naviguesser was born, The Missus Herself began to seek warmer quarters for her wee family. The new two room place was nice and toasty. Though the cooking and sanitary facilities left a bit to be desired, it was really a step up from the old place, Did I mention it was warm in the winter? Yes, the prime reason for selecting that place I believe.

At any rate, we were all set to have The Naviguesser's first Christmas in that place. We had a tree in the living room, separated from the bedroom by a shoji-type door, which was usually left open. Our son seemed to really like the sparkling lights and the shiny decorations from his usual spot on the bed. I have to admit, I liked it too.

Christmas Eve rolled around that year with the prospect of Your Humble Scribe having to work from 1900 to 0700. Yes, a twelve hour shift beginning Christmas Eve and ending on Christmas morning. My first Christmas as a Dad, my son's very first Christmas ever.

What was worse, the reason we were working the long shifts were that we were in the midst of a periodic exercise. We did this a lot when I was in Korea, it was the one place in the military back then which an assignment to qualified one to be a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Little Rhody even says I'm a "war veteran," which my two oldest kids get a kick out of as they actually were involved in the GWOT*, as it was (still is?) called. The Naviguesser's ship actually fired Tomahawks at Iraq during the opening stages of the Iraq War. The Nuke's ship actually ran patrols in the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf during that same conflict. Hey, I don't claim it, it was thrust upon me.

At any rate, on Christmas Eve 1979, I donned flak vest, steel pot (helmet), parka, and mukluks (USAF issue, damned toasty they were), kissed the wife and bairn goodbye and headed off to the local bus stop. (No one had a car back then, no one.) Of course, it was also snowing to beat all. Really improved my morale that did.

So with the world looking all "Christmasy" and me being all grumpy, I rode the bus from where I lived, to where I worked. Sort of...

It was about a 500 yard walk to the bus stop from my front door. The bus dropped us off at the Recreation Center on base, which was roughly a mile from my shop. A total distance of roughly six and a half miles. So I rode the bus for most of the way.

Normally the base bus service ran periodically and we could catch that from the Rec Center down to my shop. Now did I mention it was snowing? Snowing like crazy as a matter of fact, bit windy too as I recall. At least I remember the wind coming in one side of my parka hood and kind of rolling around inside my helmet before heading out the other side. My head stayed warm as I had my issue faux-fur winter cap under my helmet. An item I still have and still wear when the weather outside is frightful.

My winter cap is still a good friend,
you can only see one ear flap
in this photo. Yes, I was cold.

The evening looked rather like that opening photo above, only I was on an Air Force base where most everything was closed (I mean it was Christmas Eve) to include the base bus service. Yup, that's right, no buses. We'd have to walk the mile to the shop.

Now mind you, the first part of the journey was in amongst barracks and other buildings, rather sheltered it was, the rest would be out in the open, crossing one of the taxiways. We'd be exposed to blowing snow most of the way. There was talk of finding the idiot who shut down the shuttle bus and making him pay, but for the nonce we had to get to work, first and foremost, we had duties to perform, more senior sergeants to answer to, and aircraft to maintain.

Just about when we were to enter the open area of the base, a big six-passenger pick-up truck owned by one of the fighter squadrons stopped and offered us a lift. The front was full of pilots and WSOs, but we didn't mind. Crossing the "plains" (as it were) in the back of an open pick-up truck was far preferable to doing the same on foot.

The nice aircrew dropped a bunch of us off at the Component Repair Squadron (where I worked) and went on their merry way. As I stomped into the back loading dock, where the flightline guys would drop off and pick up malfunctioning bits of aircraft radar gear, brushing off snow, stomping my feet to clear mukluks of same (Skip, our boss, would rip us a new one if we tracked up the shop with snow), I bemoaned my fate and prepared to do a twelve hour shift.

In the office, Skip told me and the rest of the night shift to park our "nasty asses" on the office sofa. He had a few phone calls to make and was waiting to hear from Job Control on a topic of great interest.

So we waited, not too long as it turned out. Skip talked on the phone for a bit, thanked the guy on the other end, then turned to look at us, the night crew.

"Exercise is over, go home. Merry Christmas and see you the day after tomorrow."

Well, we unassed** the premises in a hurry and flagged down another pick-up headed back to the main part of the base. As we rolled up to the Rec Center, in another Christmas miracle, the bus to Kunsan was just rolling up. In less than an hour (travel was awfully slow that night) I was back home in the bosom of my family.

It was a most excellent Christmas, having that exercise shut down in time to get home for Christmas Eve was one of the best presents I ever received for Christmas. Every time it snows, I remember that night. It started crappy, wound up great. Never give up on a situation, while odds are things will only get worse, sometimes they get a whole lot better.

Sometimes.

Best of all, got a big smile from my little boy when I stomped up the stairs and The Missus Herself announced, "Merry Christmas! Daddy is home!"

A cherished memory.




* GWOT = Global War On Terrorism.
** unass = to dismount or disembark (a vehicle); to get off of (something); to unseat (someone); to leave (somewhere). Editorial Note: This term dates back to at least the 1960s and the Vietnam War. It is especially associated with the military, from where it has spread to politics and aeronautics.