Posts Tagged "Veterans"

Uneven Numbers Competition

Posted by in Love Letters | 4 comments

Uneven Numbers Competition

Frank only had a week off from his job at Torii Station to help me get settled into our new home. We worked hard to get settled in, and we did it. Frank worked 30 days straight of each shift, days, evenings then nights, with a couple of days off between the different changes. The day shift was from the hours from 6:00 A.M. until 3:00 P.M., the evening shift was from 3:00 P.M. until 11:00 P.M., and the night shift was from 11:00 P.M. until 6:00 A.M. Since Frank and I did not have yet have children, I adjusted my schedule to his schedule.  If Frank worked all night, I stayed up all night...

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Ralph and “Ole” Bondo

Posted by in Love Letters | 8 comments

Ralph and “Ole” Bondo

Frank and I had settled into the daily living in Okinawa.  Okinawa was such a beautiful island. We had made new friends with couples living in homes around us. Where we lived was designated as off-base military housing.  Across the road, in front of our house, was an area that was not a part of off-base military housing but had homes of Okinawan families.  Both of us felt that we were so lucky to be living in a house that touched different cultures depending on which way you faced or looked.   Frank and I  loved this so much. The single soldiers who lived on the base at Torii and worked with...

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Ralph’s Love of Leather

Posted by in Love Letters | 6 comments

Ralph’s Love of Leather

I have told you about finding our sweet dog, Ralph, and how much he loved leather, but I have not shared with you the things he could do to items made of it. Frank and I were given a bible by his Grandmother, who we called “Gram” on Christmas Eve in 1968.  The Bible made of white leather had our names engraved in gold on the bottom of the front cover.  We dearly loved this Bible.  I had carried it with me in my suitcase to Okinawa. We had a small coffee table in our living room, and our Bible laid on this table on top of a doily, which was an ornamental mat we had purchased made...

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Kobe Beef, Pizza Party & Carolers

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Kobe Beef, Pizza Party & Carolers

It was now October of 1969, and we did not have any more typhoons, habus, or flying doors.  The “Stealy Boys” would always be a threat, but Frank and I had learned to live with that. On October 4, 1969, Frank turned twenty years old, and then on October 6, 1969, I also turned twenty years old.  The single GIs that were our close friends invited us to go out to dinner with them.  They took us to a fancy restaurant in Naha, Okinawa. When we got to the restaurant, and once inside, we were seated on three sides of a large U-shaped bar that had bar stools around it.  There was a large...

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Stork, Water & A Note

Posted by in Love Letters | 10 comments

Stork, Water & A Note

Moving across the road from Torii Station, then living next to our best friend’s home was a whole new beautiful experience. Our home and the neighbor’s house were actually at a hill bottom. Houses behind us were separated from us by a fence then had yards that gradually sloped uphill until they were about twenty feet higher. Our next-door friends had a little boy about six months old who we fell in love with him. We had lots of married friends, and they all had children or the wives of the couples who did not have children were pregnant.  It seemed that the Stork was dropping...

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