Philadelphia

Me & Don Lash at Philadelphia Art Museum

 Remember in the movie ROCKY Rocky working out ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum by this statue?  Well, we were not running up the steps we were panting.    Philadelphia was only 40 miles away, so the town was no stranger to us.

Once in the Spring of 1965 I spent 30 days in the Naval Hospital in Philadelphia.  It was just down Market Street about 10 or 12 blocks.  I had a pyranoda cyst removed from my spine and it took almost 30 days to heal.  There, I made friends with an orderly and had dinner with he and his wife several times.  We liked the same literature.  Also there I was placed in the Officer's Personnel Office to do some light typing, earn my food, so to speak.  There, I made friends with my immediate supervisor and she found a loophole that after my upcoming release from the hospital I would have less than 90 days active duty to serve.  So, with less than 90 days to serve, I could choose to be released from active duty.  At the Naval Hospital I was at a new assignment and my old base would also be a new assignment, and you don't get transferred to a new assignment  with less than 90 days unless for special circumstances.

My special circumstances was that Lakehurst, New Jersey, was my playground.   and besides I had a comicbook collection in my locker.... and not only that my friend Don Lash was in care of my car while I was in the hospital.  So, I had the car to get.

Which I might have chosen something different if I knew the whole story:  I did not know until I arrived back at the Lakehurst Base that Don and some other friends had taken my car for a drive through the woods and hit a tree sideways.  The shotgun door had to be held on with a rope.

My friend Sam Kasuske took my car to a seedy car shop and had it repaired.  The door was fixed with no cost to me.