Trekking Down Memory Lane - Part 3

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My life starts to improve. Every time we went to the eye doctor at the recruiting station in town, I would read all the brochures for the various services. I thought long and hard about going into the service. I thought it would be a great way to get away from home. One night I decided I would go in the service, and wanted to know if that was what I should do and played high card for the answer. I figured two out of three. I got three out of three. Okay that meant I was going in, but which one - I liked both the Navy and Air Force so I flipped a coin and it came out Navy. I figured it was God's will for me to go in the Navy, and told my mother I wanted to go in the service. She told me Dad wouldn't let me. Mind you I was only 18 at the time, and a woman had to be 21 or have their father's signature on the papers. I told my mother, I was going in and I didn't care what Dad said about it. It was the boldest I had been in 18 years. My dad signed the papers, I went to Milwaukee to take the test, passed it, took the physical, passed it, got sworn into the Navy, and went home to wait for the phone call to report. I got it sooner than expected. I was supposed to go to Florida, however, they had room for candidates in the last companies at Bainbridge, Maryland. That recruiting base was closing with the last two companies. I was in company 30 of 31. I was going on my first plane trip ever. It was an exciting trip watching the landscape below and talking to the man next to me, who just happened to be Phyllis Dillar's doctor. He had stories about her, and said that despite how she was on TV and the things she said about her husband, she loved him very much. I flew into Baltimore International Airport and had to wait for the bus to take me to the base. The bus arrived and it was full, but not just with recruits. The bus also went to Annapolis before it went to Bainbridge. Boot Camp was ten weeks long. I learned a lot of Naval history as well as swimming classes where we learned how to survive in the water. There was drill, marching, and down time. I loved all of it. My mother said I wouldn't last because I couldn't take orders. I couldn't take her orders, not when they were filled with malice at every turn. I could take those orders with pleasure. Ten weeks later I was headed to my first duty base - North Island Naval Air Base - San Diego. It was there my whole life changed for the better or worse who really knows. I met my husband at the command I was stationed at. We had three kids, went to Guam, and when he got out of the Navy ended up in Elgin, Illinois for eleven years before coming to Green Bay and eventually divorcing. I was in the Navy for one year, two months and two days. They were the most exciting days of my entire life. Now I'm a grandmother and great grandmother and I love it. Life hasn't been easy these last 42 years, but they were better than the first eighteen. You might wonder how I survived my childhood. I started writing. I was eight years old when I began my writing career, though I didn't know it at the time. My stories helped me get through my childhood. However, the writing bug had gotten a good hold on me, and I never did stop writing, and now I have three published novels, one left to finish for that series, and many more to get ready for publishing. I have 50 titles, 14 finished novels, three of which are published.