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does anybody remember that old song that at some time includes the lyrics, "blue, navy blue, i'm as blue as i can be, cause my steady boy set ship ahoy, and joined the na-a-avy" ?

i need that song. i'm planning a party in my head right now. while andy was here earlier, explaining why he wasn't quite able to sign up today, and why he was advised by his recruiter to drink several gallons of water daily between now and friday, when they will sign him up if they can, i downloaded the village people's song about the navy. now i need this oldie. you may wonder why they are drooling all over themselves to sign up this kid who needs to consume many gallons of water over the next couple days to be signed up. oh, just a 96 on his aptitude test. [yes i'm proud of my son]

any others? no, i have not gone mad. has andy? i guess not. though it fills me with dread on one hand, and i am especially fearful that it will make him so miserable he won't make it through boot camp, i have to admit that first of all it's his decision, and secondly it might be a good experience for him. lessons in taking orders, being responsible, etc.

[no war! no war! don't make my baby go to war]
amen

i had to say amen because that is a major league prayer...my father joined the navy in 1941...was on the USS California on december 7 that year...his mother was informed of his presumed death and mourned him for about three weeks before learning that the announcement was premature. i still have the original telegrams from the war dept.

after pearl harbor my father was stationed on the USS Lexington and was present on that ship when it was sunk in the Coral Sea. He survived that too.

in 1968 my father returned to hawaii to begin his new job that would eventually require that our entire family follow him. Six weeks after he left CA, some 27 years after he'd been considered dead in Hawaii the first time around, he dropped dead of a heart attack. he was 49.

and none of that has anything whatsoever to do with andy, who has promised me that he will not enlist until he has a written contract promising that he will get the job he signs up for. Journalist. My son is going to be a journalist, and he's starting in the navy.

at least that's today's best guess. [dad, stop beaming! i'm worried! bush is president!] ok, what's that about? my brother enlisted in 1965: the marines. i was only 10 but somehow i still have the feeling that my dad was more upset that it wasn't the navy than that jim might get killed in vietnam.

he didn't - he got stationed in hawaii, to surf for the armed forces...but that's a different story for a different day
- posted by barbara @ 7/15/2002 06:52:00 PM