My worst New Year’s memory.
December 31st, 2008 by John MorrisIf you guessed my worst New Year’s memory was in Vietnam, try again. It was enjoyable. There was a cease fire; we had turkey dinners; and the village people of Ben Luc played Christmas music all day (badly). It was the year before Ho Chi Minh’s and his gang gave us the Tet offensive.
This bad memory was spent in Fort Riley, Kansas. It got a lot better the next day when I met my wife, Lyn, but the day before was a bummer.
There was only a few of us without local girl friends and unable to return home. The lifers were all gone, and we had the run of the company area. The mess hall put out some sandwiches and milk. We decided to substitute beer for the sandwiches and reassemble in the rec hall.
On December 30, 1968, we spent the morning playing foosball and ping pong. We morphed into two separate actions: poker and TV watching. I had lost faith in my poker playing and opted for a coma inducing food and TV binge.
The pre-cable TV at the fort had only four channels. We learned - to our disappointment – they were running soap operas on this last regular broadcasting day of the year. It’s all there was for three hours.
It started out as a lark. Let’s watch these shows for the joy of making fun of them. One ended by showing a perfect TV family gathered around the tree and presents. The lead male character signed off the show by wishing their viewers a Happy New Year. Then he launched into a script about “Will Donna’s baby survive the operation?”; “Will Trevor be heading to prison?” and other such dribble. We actually threw food at the screen. That was fun.
The next soap was going off the air this day. In what was machine gun-like efficiency, they settled all long running questions and traumas. When it was over, all was sweetness and light in their made-up world, but you could see some desperation in the actors’ faces as their gig grounded to an halt.
Men will always make their own fun when left alone. This day we tried and came up short.
This day still ranks as memorable to me if only for the wrong reasons.