Boats
02-17-2013, 10:12 AM
** WARNING ** There is some off color stuff in here. But it's absolutely necessary to give you the flavor of life in the Service back then.
** You have been warned. **
Clyde, pig, Jim (sorry if I've forgotten others), how many of these places have you hung out in? Me, at least five or six. Plus an even dozen or so not mentioned.
Hope it brings back fine memories.
Boats
Sailor Bars -- A great look at a vanished American Navy
Think John Bulls in Piraeus, Mamas in Naples, Jimmy the Greeks in Malta, Pauline’s in Olongapo, the Rio, the Admiral and the Three Sisters in Olongapo, Kaoshung, Pusan, Hotel Street in Honolulu, the Pearl City Tavern, Captain Harry's Blue Marlin Bar, the Savoy in Norfolk, Leos first and last Chance in Newport, and places in Key West where only submarine sailors were allowed! Think that was bad....go where only the EOD guys were allowed!! ...and they cavorted with marine mammals with no tits!!
We were paid to live a life of deprivation from fresh milk and eggs, from no beer for months at a time, and we had to smell stinky socks, smelly wet suits, and diesel fuel forfuqinever, and a life with a few shots over the bow of some Mideast creep that wanted to threaten the US of A, but what a life we lived when we got ashore in the Med or in WestPac!! We wuz SAILORs and we earned every right to be men ashore as we were at sea. God, I miss it. I'd go back tomorrow, particularly if I could be on a US flagship off Somalia!!.
Our favorite liberty bars were unlike no other watering holes or dens of iniquity inhabited by seagoing men. They had to meet strict standards to be in compliance with the acceptable requirement for a sailor beer-swilling dump.
The first and foremost requirement was a crusty old gal serving suds. Even the CPO Mess with Nora and Doris in Charleston didn’t quite match up to our overseas standards!! How about Mary Sue in Hong Kong? She could Di-rect your young butt to the best places in the Far East and even knew your ships schedule!!
She had to be able to wrestle King Kong to parade rest: Be able to balance a tray with one hand, knock sailors out of the way with the other hand and skillfully navigate through a roomful of milling around drunks telling lies and drinking San Magoo. On slow nights, she had to be the kind of gal who would give you a back scratch or put her foot on the table so you could admire her new ankle bracelet some "mi gook" brought her back from a Hong Kong liberty.
A good barmaid had to be able to whisper sweet nothings in your young sailor ear like, "I love you, Baby, no shit, you buy me Honda??. Air conditioned helicopter? Rice steamer? Levis?" Pusan was particularly good at the Levis!!
"Buy a pack of Clorets and chew up the whole thing before you get within heaving range of any gal you ever want to see again."
And, from the crusty old gal behind the bar "Hey dickheads, I know we have a crowd tonight, but if any of you guys find the head facilities fully occupied and start pissing down the floor drain, you're gonna find yourself scrubbing the deck with your white hats!"
"I ain't your Mom and I ain't cleanin' up after your dumbass."
The barmaids had to be able to admire great tattoos, look at pictures of ugly bucktooth kids and smile, be able to help haul drunks to cabs and comfort 19 year-olds who had lost someone he thought loved him in a dark corner booth. They could look at your ship's identification shoulder tab and tell you the names of the Skippers back to the time you were a Cub Scout. They knew where your ship was going before you got there and they knew where you were going after that!
If you came in after a late night maintenance problem and fell asleep with a half-eaten Slim-Jim in your hand, they tucked your peacoat around you, put out the cigarette you left burning in the ashtray and replaced the warm draft you left sitting on the table with a cold one when you woke up.
Why?
Find out in Part 2 :)
** You have been warned. **
Clyde, pig, Jim (sorry if I've forgotten others), how many of these places have you hung out in? Me, at least five or six. Plus an even dozen or so not mentioned.
Hope it brings back fine memories.
Boats
Sailor Bars -- A great look at a vanished American Navy
Think John Bulls in Piraeus, Mamas in Naples, Jimmy the Greeks in Malta, Pauline’s in Olongapo, the Rio, the Admiral and the Three Sisters in Olongapo, Kaoshung, Pusan, Hotel Street in Honolulu, the Pearl City Tavern, Captain Harry's Blue Marlin Bar, the Savoy in Norfolk, Leos first and last Chance in Newport, and places in Key West where only submarine sailors were allowed! Think that was bad....go where only the EOD guys were allowed!! ...and they cavorted with marine mammals with no tits!!
We were paid to live a life of deprivation from fresh milk and eggs, from no beer for months at a time, and we had to smell stinky socks, smelly wet suits, and diesel fuel forfuqinever, and a life with a few shots over the bow of some Mideast creep that wanted to threaten the US of A, but what a life we lived when we got ashore in the Med or in WestPac!! We wuz SAILORs and we earned every right to be men ashore as we were at sea. God, I miss it. I'd go back tomorrow, particularly if I could be on a US flagship off Somalia!!.
Our favorite liberty bars were unlike no other watering holes or dens of iniquity inhabited by seagoing men. They had to meet strict standards to be in compliance with the acceptable requirement for a sailor beer-swilling dump.
The first and foremost requirement was a crusty old gal serving suds. Even the CPO Mess with Nora and Doris in Charleston didn’t quite match up to our overseas standards!! How about Mary Sue in Hong Kong? She could Di-rect your young butt to the best places in the Far East and even knew your ships schedule!!
She had to be able to wrestle King Kong to parade rest: Be able to balance a tray with one hand, knock sailors out of the way with the other hand and skillfully navigate through a roomful of milling around drunks telling lies and drinking San Magoo. On slow nights, she had to be the kind of gal who would give you a back scratch or put her foot on the table so you could admire her new ankle bracelet some "mi gook" brought her back from a Hong Kong liberty.
A good barmaid had to be able to whisper sweet nothings in your young sailor ear like, "I love you, Baby, no shit, you buy me Honda??. Air conditioned helicopter? Rice steamer? Levis?" Pusan was particularly good at the Levis!!
"Buy a pack of Clorets and chew up the whole thing before you get within heaving range of any gal you ever want to see again."
And, from the crusty old gal behind the bar "Hey dickheads, I know we have a crowd tonight, but if any of you guys find the head facilities fully occupied and start pissing down the floor drain, you're gonna find yourself scrubbing the deck with your white hats!"
"I ain't your Mom and I ain't cleanin' up after your dumbass."
The barmaids had to be able to admire great tattoos, look at pictures of ugly bucktooth kids and smile, be able to help haul drunks to cabs and comfort 19 year-olds who had lost someone he thought loved him in a dark corner booth. They could look at your ship's identification shoulder tab and tell you the names of the Skippers back to the time you were a Cub Scout. They knew where your ship was going before you got there and they knew where you were going after that!
If you came in after a late night maintenance problem and fell asleep with a half-eaten Slim-Jim in your hand, they tucked your peacoat around you, put out the cigarette you left burning in the ashtray and replaced the warm draft you left sitting on the table with a cold one when you woke up.
Why?
Find out in Part 2 :)