Thursday, March 7, 1968, 160 days.
I got up at 0530 hrs. and made it to breakfast after reveille. Top had me running ragged today. Before the mail came in I had to check out a 3/4 ton truck from the motor pool, to bring in some new office furniture for the orderly room. When I distributed the mail at the Blockhouse, LTC Newman was in the middle of reprimanding 2 Lt. Jones for something. It was nice to hear an officer getting it for a change. Besides that, it distracted LTC Alford from asking for mail from his girlfriend. After lunch the rest of the afternoon was spent bringing in a couple of desks, and a file cabinet. After I took care of the afternoon mail, Top let me off early, so I went to the gym to work out, but got back to the barracks too late for chow.
The Monk invited me outside to take a couple of hits off his hash pipe. Then he asked me if he could borrow fifty cents. All I had was a $5.00 bill, so we walked over to the PX, where I got change and gave him 50 cents. While I was there I got myself a couple of burgers, fries and a shake. After I gave him 2 quarters The Monk took off, so I sat there eating my burgers and listened to the juke box playing Percy Sledge’s song – “When A Man Loves A Woman.” The song’s lyrics tell the story of a man who loves a woman so much that he is willing to overlook all her faults and even “turn his back on his best friend if he puts her down.”
I remember how one time when I was sitting in this same PX talking with Frank Ryan that song came on and tears welled up in his eyes. Then he started telling me about his girl friend back home who cheated on him with his best friend, who he wanted to kill. He said that’s the reason why he dropped out of college even though he was getting straight A’s and let them draft him was because he just didn’t give a shit anymore.
I started dating when I was fifteen and had a bunch of girlfriend’s but wasn’t really that serious about any of them. We just mainly did things together. The one that I was most serious about was named Sheila Dombroski. She was a stone cold fox, and I met her through one of my mom’s co-worker friends who was her mom. I was getting really serious about her, but she dumped me for another guy because I didn’t want to get married. I felt like shit, but was just beginning my senior year in High School, so I just partied with my friends more to forget about it.
James Lemur came in and sat down next to me. He was the only other guy from Detroit currently in HHB so we were friendly towards each other because of our common geography. He was black and lived in the ghetto, while I was white and lived in the suburbs back home, but here we were like old buddies. It’s funny how bonds are created by such simple things. Lemur worked as a clerk in personnel, and would be ETSing soon. He was over six feet tall, but lanky. Off duty he usually wore a doo rag on his head, both with fatigues and civies.
“Hey Grines.” He said, as he sat down. “You goin’ back to Motown when you ETS?”
“Yeah,” I said. “But I’m thinking about going to San Francisco for a while first. I want to check out the Hippie scene in Haight Ashbury. How about you?”
“My parents got another house.” He said. “It’s by 7 Mile and John R.
“Did they manage to salvage any of their stuff after the riots?” I asked.
“Not too much.” He said. “After they put out the fire there was so much smoke and water damage that most everything was ruined.”
Lemur’s family lived in the 12th Street area on the West side of Detroit where the riots began last year. When I went home on leave my friends and I would go down to the Blind Pigs that were in the area. We frequented the Negro ghetto since we were in High School, since there were no questions asked about age. Prostitution, gambling, drugs and alcohol were available to whoever had the cash to pay. The rioting began at one of the Blind Pigs, after 80 people were arrested, who were celebrating the return of a couple of local soldiers from Vietnam.
James and I walked back to the barracks at around 1840 and then we went into the dayroom to watch TV. It was packed, but would be emptying out when the bus to Lawton came by at 1900 hrs. Some of the colored guys from the 4/46th were in the TV room and greeted Lemur as he walked in. It’s funny how we act differently towards each other when we’re alone than we do when we’re in a group. James and his gang often commandeered the TV and generated heated arguments, that sometimes escalated and fights would occur over who controlled the channel selection with hillbillies from the 4/46th and sometimes even the guys from HHB. I tried to stay neutral and watched whatever everyone else was watching, unless I was the only one in the room. You learned to not plan on watching anything, unless you owned your own TV set.
After watching TV for a while I shot some pool with Nyles, until 2100 hrs. It was dead, so I went into the bay and lay on my bunk while reading a couple of chapters in Henry Millers “Sexus.” I was tired so I went to bed at 2200 hrs. and fell asleep almost immediately.
♪Jesus♬Rocks♬The♬World♪ 
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