| General Fiction posted July 14, 2021 | Chapters: |
...8 9 -10- 11... 
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my cousin Bobby
A chapter in the book Fifty Days of Friendship
Buddy System
by Bill Schott
I believe I mentioned one time or another that the area where I grew up was dense with relatives. No one could marry anyone else from within the county without the fear of breeding two-headed babies.
One of my cousins was Bobby. He, his sisters Barbara and Nona, and younger brothers Lloyd and Timmy, were my mother's aunt's grandchildren. None of us really got along very well for most of our childhood.
In high school though, Bobby and I became closer. We would play a lot of pool, gamble at cards with pop bottle caps, later money, and eventually cruise bars looking for low-hanging fruit in the form of fun-loving girls.
I had gone through some social changes at this stage. Having become sexually active, I was now motivated to BE active on that front. The opportunities did not present themselves as often as I would like though.
Bobby didn't seem to have any problem. He was slick and smooth, one might say swanky, as he emulated the Rat Pack attitude and was always on for a good time.
He was a hard worker as well. His dad had brought him up as a carpenter and he was able to get lots of off-the-books construction work. He would give me a call and I would be his helper for drywall, paneling and drop-ceilings (it was the 70s), and even a couple exterior house paintings.
One day we were in the Otter Lake bar and a Marine private, in uniform, home on leave from boot camp, came staggering into the tavern. He looked like a soup sandwich with his uniform open and shirt tails out. What a sight.
Bobby turned to me and said something to the affect that "We could do better than that."
The next day he and I were talking to the Marine Recruiter in Detroit. Within an hour, Bobby was sworn in with a guarantee of Intelligence, and I was promised Communications.
This is when I discovered that Bobby was also guaranteed an automatic promotion to Private First Class as he had brought in another 'bone'. That was me. So, my cousin had been here earlier, and became motivated to find someone else to join for his bonus.
I felt like a bit of a sucker, but accepted it as part of the magic of the Marine Corps experience.
We were enlisted and placed on the DEP (delayed entry program). We were to leave for San Diego in October. I was later called by the recruiter and asked to ship in mid September. I said yes, and then promptly forgot about it.
Bobby and I partied at his father's house for a couple of weeks until my girlfriend called me and said the Marines were looking for me. She said they told her I was AWOL and would be hunted down if I didn't report immediately to the recruiting staition.
The station was about twelve blocks away so I walked speedily there. They were happy to see me; threatened to have me arrested if I didn't ship the very next day. I called Bobby, he said 'Sure'. I had lost my guarantee, however, and would be seen as an 'open contract'. So, at some point the Marine Corps would tell me what job I would have.
I'm not going to elaborate on boot camp in this piece, as that would be best taken in smaller chunks. "What a Long Strange Trip It's Been" would be a good title.
The last thing to say about Bobby was that we entered boot camp on the 'buddy system'. What that resulted in was that we were in the same company, but in different platoons, so we never saw each other, except briefly, for three months.
We both graduated and I was made a ballistic meteorologist and Bobby joined the S1 as an intelligence operative. He wound up involved in Operation Frequent Wind which was the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war.
He eventually became a Warrant Officer, then resigned to return to being a carpenter in the town we grew up in.
I see him from afar now and then, but we haven't spoken in forty years.
I believe I mentioned one time or another that the area where I grew up was dense with relatives. No one could marry anyone else from within the county without the fear of breeding two-headed babies.
One of my cousins was Bobby. He, his sisters Barbara and Nona, and younger brothers Lloyd and Timmy, were my mother's aunt's grandchildren. None of us really got along very well for most of our childhood.
In high school though, Bobby and I became closer. We would play a lot of pool, gamble at cards with pop bottle caps, later money, and eventually cruise bars looking for low-hanging fruit in the form of fun-loving girls.
I had gone through some social changes at this stage. Having become sexually active, I was now motivated to BE active on that front. The opportunities did not present themselves as often as I would like though.
Bobby didn't seem to have any problem. He was slick and smooth, one might say swanky, as he emulated the Rat Pack attitude and was always on for a good time.
He was a hard worker as well. His dad had brought him up as a carpenter and he was able to get lots of off-the-books construction work. He would give me a call and I would be his helper for drywall, paneling and drop-ceilings (it was the 70s), and even a couple exterior house paintings.
One day we were in the Otter Lake bar and a Marine private, in uniform, home on leave from boot camp, came staggering into the tavern. He looked like a soup sandwich with his uniform open and shirt tails out. What a sight.
Bobby turned to me and said something to the affect that "We could do better than that."
The next day he and I were talking to the Marine Recruiter in Detroit. Within an hour, Bobby was sworn in with a guarantee of Intelligence, and I was promised Communications.
This is when I discovered that Bobby was also guaranteed an automatic promotion to Private First Class as he had brought in another 'bone'. That was me. So, my cousin had been here earlier, and became motivated to find someone else to join for his bonus.
I felt like a bit of a sucker, but accepted it as part of the magic of the Marine Corps experience.
We were enlisted and placed on the DEP (delayed entry program). We were to leave for San Diego in October. I was later called by the recruiter and asked to ship in mid September. I said yes, and then promptly forgot about it.
Bobby and I partied at his father's house for a couple of weeks until my girlfriend called me and said the Marines were looking for me. She said they told her I was AWOL and would be hunted down if I didn't report immediately to the recruiting staition.
The station was about twelve blocks away so I walked speedily there. They were happy to see me; threatened to have me arrested if I didn't ship the very next day. I called Bobby, he said 'Sure'. I had lost my guarantee, however, and would be seen as an 'open contract'. So, at some point the Marine Corps would tell me what job I would have.
I'm not going to elaborate on boot camp in this piece, as that would be best taken in smaller chunks. "What a Long Strange Trip It's Been" would be a good title.
The last thing to say about Bobby was that we entered boot camp on the 'buddy system'. What that resulted in was that we were in the same company, but in different platoons, so we never saw each other, except briefly, for three months.
We both graduated and I was made a ballistic meteorologist and Bobby joined the S1 as an intelligence operative. He wound up involved in Operation Frequent Wind which was the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war.
He eventually became a Warrant Officer, then resigned to return to being a carpenter in the town we grew up in.
I see him from afar now and then, but we haven't spoken in forty years.
One of my cousins was Bobby. He, his sisters Barbara and Nona, and younger brothers Lloyd and Timmy, were my mother's aunt's grandchildren. None of us really got along very well for most of our childhood.
In high school though, Bobby and I became closer. We would play a lot of pool, gamble at cards with pop bottle caps, later money, and eventually cruise bars looking for low-hanging fruit in the form of fun-loving girls.
I had gone through some social changes at this stage. Having become sexually active, I was now motivated to BE active on that front. The opportunities did not present themselves as often as I would like though.
Bobby didn't seem to have any problem. He was slick and smooth, one might say swanky, as he emulated the Rat Pack attitude and was always on for a good time.
He was a hard worker as well. His dad had brought him up as a carpenter and he was able to get lots of off-the-books construction work. He would give me a call and I would be his helper for drywall, paneling and drop-ceilings (it was the 70s), and even a couple exterior house paintings.
One day we were in the Otter Lake bar and a Marine private, in uniform, home on leave from boot camp, came staggering into the tavern. He looked like a soup sandwich with his uniform open and shirt tails out. What a sight.
Bobby turned to me and said something to the affect that "We could do better than that."
The next day he and I were talking to the Marine Recruiter in Detroit. Within an hour, Bobby was sworn in with a guarantee of Intelligence, and I was promised Communications.
This is when I discovered that Bobby was also guaranteed an automatic promotion to Private First Class as he had brought in another 'bone'. That was me. So, my cousin had been here earlier, and became motivated to find someone else to join for his bonus.
I felt like a bit of a sucker, but accepted it as part of the magic of the Marine Corps experience.
We were enlisted and placed on the DEP (delayed entry program). We were to leave for San Diego in October. I was later called by the recruiter and asked to ship in mid September. I said yes, and then promptly forgot about it.
Bobby and I partied at his father's house for a couple of weeks until my girlfriend called me and said the Marines were looking for me. She said they told her I was AWOL and would be hunted down if I didn't report immediately to the recruiting staition.
The station was about twelve blocks away so I walked speedily there. They were happy to see me; threatened to have me arrested if I didn't ship the very next day. I called Bobby, he said 'Sure'. I had lost my guarantee, however, and would be seen as an 'open contract'. So, at some point the Marine Corps would tell me what job I would have.
I'm not going to elaborate on boot camp in this piece, as that would be best taken in smaller chunks. "What a Long Strange Trip It's Been" would be a good title.
The last thing to say about Bobby was that we entered boot camp on the 'buddy system'. What that resulted in was that we were in the same company, but in different platoons, so we never saw each other, except briefly, for three months.
We both graduated and I was made a ballistic meteorologist and Bobby joined the S1 as an intelligence operative. He wound up involved in Operation Frequent Wind which was the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war.
He eventually became a Warrant Officer, then resigned to return to being a carpenter in the town we grew up in.
I see him from afar now and then, but we haven't spoken in forty years.
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