In The Navy (Sub School), Part 2

It seemed I had fallen through the cracks in someone’s plan, to me anyway. The first few days, I passed the time learning my way around base. I walked all the way up to the Hospital at the very top of the hill that is the Base at Groton. I found a path through the woods that took me back down the hill, very close to my empty barracks. I found the bowling alley, the PX (Navy term for on base store), the theater, the second smaller bowling alley and the Enlisted Men’s club. I wound up at the E-Club a few times, but got bored quickly, the same crap I saw at Great Lakes.

One afternoon I ventured off base. I walked along the outside of the long fence that separated the ball fields from the entrance road. Kiddy corner from the base was a restaurant, I don’t recall the name of the place, but it might come to me. It became a regular hangout much later. It was ½ restaurant and ½ bar. Pretty quiet during the day and the food was cheap. I hung out there a few times and got to know the owner, Milton fairly well. He was a nice guy, probably from Italy. The accent was thick and the English was poor, same with everyone who worked there.

Most days I would just grab breakfast at the chow hall and go back to the barracks. The weather seemed cooler here than it was in Chicago, so I would keep the windows open. I took a shelf out of a locker that was unused and put together a drawing board. I had brought a large sketch pad with me and with 17 hours each day to kill, I started drawing.

I was motivated by some of the work I saw my next youngest brother had turned out, when I was last at home. He was a genius, really. He had done some excellent portraits of rock stars; Pat Bennetar, David Bowie, David Gilmour and Jim Morrison. I never came close to reaching what he accomplished and probably never would, no matter how hard I tried. He had the gift, no doubt. I have several of his best works hanging in my living room right now.

I didn’t try to do many portraits, but let my imagination go. I did a Salvador Dali looking thing that was based on a woman’s face, some other Goth looking female characters that came out of my days playing D & D. I did do a caricature of Steve Martin from The Jerk, which turned out ok. These took days to complete and had a lot of detail, not your average boardwalk sketch. Few people saw them, even to this day, but for me it was a time of creative spewing, the likes of which I have never returned to. It was like the last drips from a dry hose, and then school started.