In the winter of 1976, I put in for another leave. This one would be around two weeks over the Christmas holiday. To further belabor the poor time and personal life management skills of my Army colleagues, I could find no one to travel with me.
Look, I know what you are thinking. You are saying, "Well Bob, maybe you are just an ass, and no one cares to travel with you."
Remember, I had something no one else in my social strata had...a fuck'n car. Most people would ride with the devil, to get out of the barracks. It was cheap to drive, even though there were so many public transportation options in Germany. You see, as cheap as trollies and trains were, once the train got you somewhere, you had to find a place to stay. As young guys, we could always sleep in the car...for nothing.
Regardless of going solo, I headed out to retrace the steps of mine and my two chums' earlier exploits in Sitges, Spain - the place we had the most fun in and at, on our leave that past summer.
This time round I decided to ride through the tiny mountain country of Andorra. I remember it as mountain-rural and majestic with farms planted on the sides of the Pyrenees Mountains. Staying true to my form of seeming to attract the quirky side of planet Earth, I met two German dudes whose mission they claimed, was to pirate old junk left in mountain barns. There seemed to be a lot of barns without houses dotting the hillsides. The barns probably were build over the centuries to accommodate supplies, animal food for certain seasons, hunting, and mountain crop harvesting. Non-the-less, Uttee and Ottee were on a crusade to rip off every old hunk of carved wood they could pilfer. I declined their invitation to join in the looting. I envisioned myself being thrown in a mountain prison never to be heard from again. They did give me the name of a cheap hotel in Sitges that served up a meal or two for those that rented a room.
When entering Sitges on that first bleak Mediterranean winter day, I became disoriented. Surely it could not have been due to the recent break I had taken at the previous town back up the coast a ways. There were dandy little cafes and taverns at my every turn along the Mediterranean. Anyway, I was looking at my directions to the hotel that Comrades Uttee and Ottee had given me and I ran a stop sign at a four-way intersection.
Boom!
A car to my right was rear ended by another car as they tried to avoid my poor driving.
"Christ," I thought. And, I kept going.
Yet, I was still lost as can be in a town then the size of Delavan, Wisconsin. I rode round and round expecting to be assaulted by the Spanish military police at every wrong turn. About 15 minutes later, I came around a corner and things looked familiar.
"Woo," I thought. "Hey, look, a car wreck. Wonder what happened?"
There were two cars jammed up against each other at an intersection and the drivers were arguing. There were a couple motorcycle cops and a couple squad cars. One car had rear ended another and the cops were trying to sort it out. One the cops had jackboots, helmet, and submachine gun. He gave me a glower as I slowly passed the mayhem.
"Holy shit!" This was the wreck I caused. Again, I kept right on going. When I got to the hotel, remarkably, there was Ol' Uttee and Ottee. Low and behold, there they were, just sitting at the dinner table when I arrived - they were not the least bit concerned about their exploits and, apparently had avoided Andorrian officials without much effort. I was never so glad in my life to see a couple of schleps like Ol' Uttee and Ottee. Pyrenees pirate bastards!
The guy who owned the hotel joint was a Belgium expatriate. He invited us to spend Christmas dinner with him and his family. I remember how kind they were, but as I recall, I did have to chip in money for some of the expense for the dinner. He also had a cute daughter about my age.
A day or so later, I had a New Year's buffet dinner at a tavern we had befriended on our earlier trip to Sitges. My dinner at the tavern was spent mostly trying to fend off the tavern owner and his suggestion, or rather insistence, that I enter the nefarious world of stolen goods, under his guidance, of course. And, it took about a half dozen declines to stave off two muscular gay Spaniard guys who invited me to dine at Christmas dinner on a U.S. aircraft carrier docked off Barcelona at the navel base. They could not quite explain how they had special privileges to enter a nuclear aircraft carrier for a snick-snack on Christmas day.
Yikes! This old country boy did not just fall off a turnip wagon fellahs.
The Riviera was glum and cooler in the middle of winter, like Texas in the winter. It is still nice during the day, but cool at night, and it was too cold to swim in the Mediterranean. And for the most part, I had the place to myself in this tourist off season time.
I remember spending a good deal of time sitting at a cafe on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea that I would then think of years later when Don Henley's song "Sunset Grill" came out. Nowadays should that song happen in my ears I still think of that cafe in Sitges during that Christmas in 1976.
And drinking...and drinking...and drinking.
"Let's go down to the Sunset Grill...We can watch the working girls go by...."
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology. Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Staff Sergeant Robert Joseph Basham, 22, Kenosha, Wisconsin, died Saturday, April 14, 2007 at Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar. Basham was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 126th Field Artillery Regiment, Wisconsin Army National Guard out of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Several sources list his death as non-combat related. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Basham had volunteered for a second tour of duty in the Middle East war theater. He was first mobilized in 2005 for a year of service in Kuwait with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 128th Infantry. Soldiers from several units which included Basham's 126th Field Artillery, were assembled to join the 2nd Battalion,128th Infantry after it was activated for duty. When he was killed, Basham was working with a Kansas National Guard unit whose mission was in Iraq. Basham attained Staff Sergeant status at a relatively young age due to his leadership qualities. While he worked security for Camp Virginia in Kuwait, Basham was promoted to squad leader. The Journal Sentinel went on to mention that Basham attended field artillery school in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Basham became a forward observer in the 126th Field Artillery, where he helped direct fire when the battery was firing its large guns. Aside from Kuwait and Qatar, Staff Sergeant Basham participated in patrol duties in Iraq. The Web site iraq.pigstye.net (a data base for war casualties) noted via information from WFRV out of Kenosha, Wisconsin, that at the time of his death Robert Basham was at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar which is a base that provides rest and relaxation to soldiers who have served in Iraq. Qatar is a small emirate off Saudi Arabia. Wisconsin 2007 Senate Joint Resolution 63 notes Robert Basham was born on May 4, 1984. Robert was a 2002 graduate of the Kenosha Military academy in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There he achieved the rank of Cadet Battalion Commander and served on the Color Guard. At the time of his death, Robert Basham was survived by his parents Mitchell and Nora Basham; brothers Brian and Christopher; and, sister Jennifer Basham. Robert Basham was the 72nd Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Iraq since March of 2003. It was also noted that at the time, Basham was the eighth Wisconsin National Guardsman to die in the Iraq theater of war.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
98,691 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,780 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,432 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1379 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
827 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,988 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,240 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
103 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
24 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
144 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
