I drove the Volks down to the Dana Point Marina entrance and, after working my way through the ruts of dried mud, up to Butch’s front door. It was closed, with a note taped to the handle: “If you sell vacuum cleaners or Encyclopedia Britannica’s then come right in.”
I smiled. The man was amazing, not to mention original…like either of those kinds of door-to-door salesmen would ever dirty their shoes to approach a trailer that only some construction worker or manager might inhabit. I tried the door, adding to the humor. I knocked loudly.
Into the breech indeed Jim. I have been thinking that since you were hospitalized with your war wounds. Little did you(or we) know just how deeply you would become involved in the many things that took up your time since then.
I sometimes have to just shake my head at your motley crew!!
Thanks Leo, for the neat comment and the compliment. I start my day with reading your comment and that means with a smile!
Semper fi,
Jim
Agian a very interesting chapter in the days of your life . I think about it often between chapters ,starting to wonder what will interest me after this kind of writing. Keep it up SIR!
Thanks, Ron, for that interesting compliment! At least I’m taking that last sentence as a great compliment.]
Much appreciate the support and your writing on this site.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim
What amazing writing; your style communicates with a reader who quickly gets a key word and creates communication through the unspoken shared experiences.
Homan is friend like no other.
What makes a friend unlike any other is the unique bond, trust, understanding, and support they offer, often without judgment. Friends share experiences, laughter, and hardships, and they accept each other for who they are, creating a special connection that can’t easily be replicated.
“Fernando” the song about nostalgia, longing, and the passage of time. It tells the story of two friends reminiscing about their past, particularly their experiences during times of conflict and war, while pondering the uncertainties of the future. The song’s melancholic melody and reflective lyrics capture a sense of longing for a simpler time and a desire for peace and stability.
your writng reached and engages my brain and my soul together most unique
Taken with your writing this day, so I cut and pasted and put this comment up on my Facebook sites…and LinkedIn to boot.
Thanks a great deal for the writing you do on here and also the ‘over the top’ kind of compliments on my writing.
Your comments are among the few that I have to reread several times to take in and that’s a compliment from me.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
Totally off the wall, like I frequently am, I think Homan was saying vignettes, if I phonetically parsed it correctly.
Your editorial about civilization was true enough for the progress made in improving the lives of the human race. The civility of human interaction is another thing entirely.
An interesting change of pace “chapter”, setting up the move to Albuquerque.
Thank you once again for an entertaining and interesting read Jim.
Thanks Tim, and after talking to the Colonel I found you to be accurate in your assessment. I didn’t get it when he wrote it though.
Yes, the move to Albuquerque was a very definitive one in my life and I wonder through the years about whether it was the best course
to follow…and I was following a course not breaking a new trail. Thanks for the compliments at the end of your great comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Two spell correct in the lead paragraph ore should be more and later you have Dutch instead of Butch. Just hope that this helps. Enjoy your story. Thanks for the hard work.
Wow,Gary, you have sharp eyes and a keen intellect. Thanks for the help with the editing on here!
Semper fi,
Jim
Another great read. In one line about the ABBA song you call Butch Dutch.
Keep us on the edge of our seats!
Chris
Thanks for the editorial help here Chris. Also, the compliment at the end. Much appreciate the help and the kind words about the work.
Semper fi,
Jim
Wow, I am not a very eloquent writer but you sure write an amazing chapter that leaves us all wanting more…… like an addiction!
Thanks most sincerely for that compliment Charles! Addiction might be as negative word but you sure managed to use it in a positive way.
Much appreciated…my friend,
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim,
Nice to see you are back in the saddle with your writing. and in your story also slowly getting back in the saddle there as well.
Always a highlight of my day when I get to read a new chapter of yours and ponder the contents therein. THANKS!
“…without the preamble Dutch had given them in his own words.”
I think you meant “Butch”
So you slept for two days and missed your morning meeting with Butch at Galloways?
What ARE you going to tell the ‘Dwarfs’?
Are you going to share with us what names you heard on the tape?
Blessing to you Sir.
THE WALTER DUKE. The answer to your questions are all the same, or is the same might be more proper English. I am going to tell
the readers the names and wha I do and say to the Dwarfs and what they did then. The next chapter deals with the appointment I did indeed
miss and the result of that…and that you noticed I didn’t mention the missing appointment at the end of the last chapter speaks volumes
about your own intellect and attention to detail. I love it.
Semper fi,
My friend,
Jim
Butch has you figured out to a tee. May know you better than you know yourself. Fernando, a song I have always liked really well but never thought of in terms of out you put it. It certainly fits the bill. Was thinking as I read the chapter that maybe the new chief will meet the maker driving the Bronco. Could happened even yet. Thanks LT for another interesting chapter.
Thanks JT, for the great comment. The Chief was a piece of work, especially since he followed a really terrific one.
Butch was true blue and a staight arrow. I always have wondered how I pegged him wrong at the very beginning of our relationship.
Thanks for the analytical pursuit of answers and your commentary on the writing.
Semper fi,
Jim
Dang LT! Wow! Question you don’t have to answer; after all these years, do you still hear the drums? Do the damned things ever stop?
Joe, I think a segment of the television series called West Wing did a great job of describing a bit of PTSD
caused by sound. Josh, one of the guys has PTSD and he was set off by the Christmas music in the halls of the White House.
I don’t hear the drums…unless I hear something like Fernando being played…and then I don’t do anything action.
I just pause and reflect. My memory is funny though, because the drums back up over the valley were made of crudely
assembled and out out 50 gallon oil or gas drums. In my memory they remain some the best drum sounds of my life…
which simply can’t be true, but there it is.
Semper fi, and thanks for the great depth of it.
Jim
You’ve heard the song before and it never occurred to you that it’s about you, right?” Buch said, his voice low and a bit sad.
Typo on Butch
Yes, Don,I got the spelling of Butch’s name wrong,as you are herping to edit and modify.
Appreicate that. Don’t know what I’d do without the editing help of the readers on this site.
Semper fi,
Jim
Hey, James. Never been much of a music fan, although I did enjoy the Beatles in the ’60’s. “Can you hear the drums, Fernando?” Kind of resonates with my life also. But I chose the swamps and forests, and the creatures within.
Been a state LEO, but greatly prefer the “Call of the Wild”. Really not a “people person”.
Your writing continues to enthrall me, however, and I always eagerly await your next chapter. You have a style that always leads the reader onward. You lead with subtlety, giving away a few almost hints, making me wish to know more.
I do realize that this is your autobiography, and appreciate your sharing.
Keep going, my friend!
Semper Fi – even tho I’m an “Anchors Aweigh” man!
Craig, the ‘magic’ of America’s military might so evident everywhere across the planet today is part integration and part
a concentration on quality middle management. Non-coms are so vital to it that its hard to describe their worth.
Without the Navy, and a great one, there would be no Marine Corps. At the start, Marines only existed to guard the captain
from mutiny. Thanks for all you write on here and for the compliments you always pay me.
Semper fi,
Jim
I cant tell you the range of emotions your writing causes for me . Could be because I was in my 20s during that time and because of my time in the Navy, I came to meet and befriend a few who had experienced some of what you describe. Those memories never fade, they only need an occasional bump to bring them to the surface.
You must wrote one terrifically complimenting comment from beginning to end and I am writing back to it after rereading with
a great satisfied smile. Until I read comments like your own I really have no idea of the impact the writing might or might not
have. I just write on into the days and nights, laying it down as it comes to me. Can’t thank you enough Charley.
Semper fi,
Jim
Amazing, I have always enjoyed “moving on” but also developed relationships I worked to maintain! But I have never really been in situations as complex San Clemente except maybe Afghanistan & Iraq.
Sometimes I think chapters are the wrong name….maybe venyets…
You, Colonel, are indeed, different..to say the least. The most amazing thing is just how many
people think the world of you. I like being inside the magnetosphere you emit when we are out and around
together…I get a share of your popularity….sorta like, “well, if Homan likes him, what the hell, he must be okay.”
Thanks for that…and more.
Your friend,
and Semper fi,
Jim
Other than 30 days this was one of the sadist sounding states you have been in to date. Like it was all a rush and you where back in the valley! It is the beginning of the end of Junior and the the rise of a ghost aka a spook, as is what you are really about to become. Maybe I was over reading it all, just my take on this chapter, thank you and keep em coming Semper fi sir
Very interesting observation, Bob, in that you have me going from being Junior in the valley to a spook as I move ever deeper into my return
to civilization. Not to reality as it can take the return from a brutal violent adventure and then emergent work to return to what one left before the adventure to realize, or begin to realize, that there is no reality as formerly defined. We are all coming from concretely defined pasts, through a near instantaneous present on into open future paths that are limitless in number and almost impossible to predictably select. There’s the reality and the definition should make anyone sit back and either frown or smile. Thanks for the very interesting comment. You’ve made me stop and think for a while.
Semper fi,
Jim
I have listened to the tune of Fernando for ages not hearing the words. Now I will never forget them. I guess each of us lives that song every day. That short paragraph probably changed the lives of many of us. I wonder how many of us will read the word “Firelight” as firefight’. Can you hear the drums, Fernando? I still can.
Fernando as a war song was something I discovered only after hearing it many times over the years. ABBA was not known for war-related music but this piece can certainly be fit into that genre. Thanks for the compliment you’ve written in stating that you have been changed by my written interpretation of the words. Having an effect as a writer is about everything and hearing or reading about such effects can literally keep an author going.
Semper fi, and thank you.
Jim
Browsing thru the comments I see you may divulge the names on the tapes. Hooked again, waiting for that one. Big changes coming physically & otherwise. Great read keep them coming.
Thanks for the compliment and hanging in there with me. It’s been that kind of life, not that I didn’t ask for it or sustain it when
things just seemed to come along.
Semper fi,
Jim
Well written.
Butch’s comments about ABBA and “Fernando” brought you back to the Valley when the NVA used the Drums. Scary!. To confirm my order for the “Third of the 30 Days” Still waiting for the book’s arrival.
Regards:
Alan
Wrote you an email about the order so check for that, requesting as current mailing address and phone number…with apology!
Thanks for the kind words and sticking with me…
Semper fi
Jim
James, What a contrast – from a warrior like Butch to a narcissist like Brown. May we all have more people like Butch in our lives.
“You sound like Metzger’s Husky trying to talk,” Has to one of the best lines I’ve read.
A Volks may not be a muscle car; but give me a Volks on ice.
The adventure continues…
Some minor editing suggestions follow:
up to the front of Butch’s front door
“front” twice
Either leave as is
OR
Drop “the front of”
up to Butch’s front door
It is closed, with a note taped to the handle
Seems “was” rather than “is”
It was closed, with a note taped to the handle
going to get something like that in a place like this?
Close quotes
going to get something like that in a place like this?”
Either that or your dying
/Can read this as: trust with the subject of your dying – so leave as is
OR Butch thinks Jim is dying – if so, then – or you’re dying
I heard about you on the radio and then the T.V.
Drop period after “T”
I heard about you on the radio and then the TV.
plugged into some amplified I couldn’t see
“amplifier” instead of “amplified”
plugged into some amplifier I couldn’t see
it never occurred to you that it’s about you, right?” Buch said
“Butch” instead of “Buch”
it never occurred to you that it’s about you, right?” Butch said
made their impact without the preamble Dutch had given them
“Butch” rather than “Dutch”
made their impact without the preamble Butch had given them
made their impact without the preamble Butch had given them
/”preamble” – but Butch speaks after the music played
Maybe “postscript”
made their impact without the postscript Butch had given them
prepared to die, Butch intoned by heart, and I’m not ashamed
Maybe single quotes to separate ‘Butch intoned by heart,’
prepared to die,’ Butch intoned by heart, ‘and I’m not ashamed
and no you didn’t come home from that way
“war” instead of “way”
and no you didn’t come home from that war
“Tomorrow at Galloways’,”
/If this usage works for you, then during final editing be consistent throughout manuscript. Else, whatever you choose./
We need to get the DWARFs back together for a meeting
/First time I’ve seen DWARFs in all caps. Maybe change?
We need to get the Dwarfs back together for a meeting
I: said to her
Drop colon after “I”
I said to her
Yes, the dwarfs, whoever or whatever those might be
Maybe capitalize “D” in “Dwarfs”
Yes, the Dwarfs, whoever or whatever those might be
/OR does the lower case “d” indicate Brown’s ignorance of who they are?
especially when
Gularte wasn’t fully recovered
Backspace to join sentence fragments.
I felt many times better than I had since ever encountered the fire
Maybe change word order to “ever since”
Change “encountered” to “encountering”
I felt many times better than I had ever since encountering the fire
“You mean he’s not there?” she said immediately after realizing who I was.
“Here?” I asked. “Where’s the here he’s coming to?”
/Pat says “there” You say “here” Maybe better to stay with “there” even though we immediately learn “there” IS “here”
“You mean he’s not there?” she said immediately after realizing who I was.
“There?” I asked. “Where’s the there he’s coming to?”
there was a heavy knocking t the door downstairs
Maybe “at” instead of “t”
there was a heavy knocking at the door downstairs
making no move to turn the cent knob I was pointing at.
Maybe “center” instead of “cent”
making no move to turn the center knob I was pointing at.
Blessings & Be Well
Thanks Dan, and I hope you don’t get tired of reading that short phrase. What you are doing means everything to me and the work,
as I persevere writing on into the historical future of my past life . I sound like the title of that movie!
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim