Chapter 1
Saturday, 2 March, 1968, 165 days.
We had a wall locker inspection this morning as usual. Afterwards, First Sergeant Levine, better known as Top, stayed off my case for the rest of the morning. Since we only work half a day on Saturday, it was easier to dodge his harassing glare for a few hours than it is during the rest of the week. Larry Perry, better known as “The Monk” got one of his stripes back today. After lunch, I had to pull day-room orderly duty until midnight, when the day room is locked up, but so far I’ve only spent an hour in there. Since it’s a nice day out most of the guys took off to do something and left the barracks pretty much vacant.
To amuse myself I practiced blowing the fire hose nozzle and I was finally successful. Only a few of the guys can blow it, and the ones who do, use it as an attention getter, or a tool of irritation, especially at 0300 hrs., when everyone is asleep, and they come in drunk. “The Monk” is the only one who can actually play a melody on it, and that’s because he was a trumpet player in High School. Some mornings, before he got busted, when he was still an E-4 and still had to pull CQ, he would come into the bay and play the opening bars of “Good Morning” off the “Beatles” “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album on it to wake everyone up for reveille.
Tonight Bob Van Bueran is taking over my duty. Pete Rublay and I are going out to eat and to the show to see Peter Fonda’s movie “The Trip”, which is about an LSD trip. It’s playing at the Ritz theater in town. We stopped at the main PX and I picked up a couple of new 45’s. When we got back to the barracks The Monk, Smart, Stryder and Howell were standing around Smart’s bunk with a borrowed record player from one of the guys in the 4/46th sitting on top of his foot locker. They were playing and flipping out to the “Beatles” “I Am the Walrus”.
“I am the eggman” The Monk was screaming.
“They are the eggmen” Smart yelled pointing at the Monk, Stryder and Howell, and then he started hysterically screaming – “I am the walrus”
Rublay and I walked over to my wall locker to put away my 45’s, but when the guys saw that I had records they stopped what they were doing and the Monk asked – “Hey Toby, what jams did you buy?”
“Shame On Me” and “Love Is Blue.” I answered him.
“What the fuck did you buy that shit for?” Smart asked.
“Because I like it.” I told him.
Then Howell chimed in – “If Grines wants to listen to cowboy music and sappy instrumentals that’s his trip.”
Then Stryder turned up the volume of the record player and they started dancing around Smart’s bunk singing on the top of their lungs – “goo goo g’joob goo goo g’joob goo goo g’joob goo goo g’joob goo goo g’joob goo goo g’joob goo goo g’joob goo goo g’joob….”
This went on until we left the building.
Rublay and I ate at Fong Village, where I had mushroom Egg Foo Young before we went to the Ritz. Afterwards we had a couple of beers and talked about the movie and what we would do when we get discharged.
“I’d like to try acid sometime.” I told Rublay.
“Not me.” Pete answered. “I don’t want to lose control of myself, and besides how can it be any more fun watching clothes in a washing machine than some of the shit that they have on TV?”
“Stryder told me that some people claim that they saw God when they took it.” I answered.
Pete laughed and said. “Why would anyone want to see God? You’d have to be dead first.”
“That’s the point.” I said. “You can see Him and still be alive afterwards. It’s supposed to change your life.”
“I don’t want my life changed.” Rublay answered. “I already know what I want to do when I get discharged and I don’t want some chemical changing my mind.”
“I wish that I could be as sure as you.” I answered.
“How can anyone pass up the opportunity to go to college for free, using the GI bill?” He said. “I want to be a lawyer, and the government will pay for nearly four years of school, then I can apply for an extension to finish, and afterwards get hired by a law firm to do legal work, while I go to law school. Lawyers and doctors make the most money of any profession. By the time that I’m thirty I’ll be set up for life.”
“I’d like to go to school, but I don’t know what to take.” I told him. “Besides, if I were just interested in money, I could get my Wood Pattern Making apprenticeship in Detroit back. Pattern Makers make almost as much money as lawyers and doctors. They make more than plumbers and carpenters. The automotive industry produces more cars every year, so I’d never be out of work, but money isn’t everything. I’d like to meet a girl who I dig as much as she digs me.”
“If you have money you can get as many girls as you want.” Pete answered. “Chicks dig money more than anything. If you’ve got money then you can choose whoever you want. If you drive around in a jaguar, wearing a $200.00 suit then chicks will come flocking around.”
“Yeah,” I answered. “But I don’t want them to dig me for my money. I want them to dig me for myself and I’m not sure who I am yet.”
“Then I guess you have a problem.” Rublay answered. “We better get back to the barracks, the bar’s closing.”
We got back around 0200 hrs. and after getting ready for bed I turned in at around 0230 hrs. Although I was tempted to I didn’t blow the fire hose nozzle.
♪Jesus♬Rocks♬The♬World♪ 
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