Donald Bruno Lash's Black Eye

Don Lash.  This picture was taken on the fire escape 2nd floor (or deck) landing  of HU-4 Barracks in 1964.   Don Lash is posing with his black eye.  He was proud of his black eye, sort of like a trophy.  He had never had a black eye before.

The story how he got his black eye:  A lot of snow fell on NAS Lakehurst, NJ.  We were snowed in.  We could not drive off the base.  But we could walk to the E.M. Club. 

The beer flowed through the evening hours and people got drunker and drunker.  A table of drunk Marines started self-body dance with the beat of the loud music from the juke boxes.

And some of us mocked them dancing solo.  Although, I think most of the Marines at the that table did not realized they were being mocked, just self-dancing like they were.

But one Marine did not see the humor in it.  He knew exactly what was going on.  He leaped across the floor from their table to ours and POW!  He socked Don in the face.

We got the hell out of there.

End of story.