Misawa AB Japan 1959 – 1961 Part 2

I remember taking a trip to a park. Unfortunately, I don’t recall its name or location. Besides the beauty of the area, my most outstanding memory is of a statue of twins that commemorated the first set of twins that Japan’s emperor allowed to live. Twins were killed at birth as something evil. I bought a small statuette of the monument. Unfortunately, it was lost/misplaced during one of my moves.

I was stationed with the base hospital. I remember that we had our own barber shop manned by a young Japanese man (probably in his early twenties). For 25 cents, you got a haircut along with a neck and shoulder massage. Part of that was a vibrating massage done by him placing two fingers inside of his fist and vibrating across your shoulders and upper back. The final part of the massage was going down your arm to your hand and popping your fingers. Super relaxing!

The hospital occasionally got psych patients in from small outlying posts. We kept them until they could be evacuated to a bigger hospital for treatment. One patient’s thing was he liked to set off fire alarms for kicks. I’m sure he had other problems but that tendency required that he be watched all the time. On one occasion, I drew the duty to watch him. He was fairly rational but could not be trusted to go out of his room unescorted. I was chatting with him and he kept trying to go for a walk. I had to keep reminding him that was a no-no. I had the following conversation with him after telling him for the umpteenth time to stay in his room.

Him: “What would happen if I just took off down the corridor?”
Me: “I’d go after you.”
Him: “What would you do if you caught me?”
Me: “I’d ask you to come back.”
Him: (angrily) “And what if I told you I wasn’t going back?”
Me: “I’d drag your ass back.”
Him: “Oh. Okay.”

Never had any trouble with him after that. Not all patients were that calm. One became very violent and it took four of us to hold him down so the doctor could tranquilize him. I can still picture him struggling and snarling with his id card in his mouth. Scary dude. Never did find out what his major malfunction was.

Off duty we found things to keep us occupied other than drinking or running the downtown bars. I never cared much for the bar scene. Mostly because I don’t care to be around most people when they’re drinking. We killed time playing double deck pinochle, bid whist, or dominoes. Mostly for fun but sometimes for money. People think that sports has a lot of trash talk and it does but you should have seen our card games. It’s difficult to put into words but there was always a lot of loud good-natured insults and profanity involved. Frequently, we would start playing on Friday right after work and play continuously until Sunday evening. Usually, we had one table going with people waiting to play. Losing partners got up and were replaced. And on it went. I can remember looking around in the middle of the night and be the only white guy there. I don’t recall much racial conflict. Everyone just got along because we were all in the same boat thousands of miles from home.

The reason I got along with the black airmen so well was because of our mutual love of doo-wop music. I had brought quite a few 45s with me and bought more in Japan (bootleg copies made in Japan). I would go over to the Rec Center and get one of the music rooms with a record player. I tended to be by myself, turn the lights down and get lost in the music. Often I would attract other people who liked doo-wop and most of them would be black. Sometimes you could see tears in guy’s eyes when a song would bring back memories of home. That record playing led to me hanging around with the guys who would sing. Loved that harmony! Some of them were really good. Everybody wanted to form a group and be the next Del-Vikings (group of airmen from Pittsburgh Air Force Base formed in 1955 and recorded “Come Go With Me” and “Whispering Bells”). Tried but didn’t really have the voice (2nd Tenor) for it. I did discover that I could write lyrics though. While in Japan, I wrote some 80 songs and a list of 20 or 30 titles that I had planned on writing. Recently, I rediscovered them in a binder that hadn’t seen the light of day for at least 50 years. I remember that I typed them at night on the office typewriter. Looking at them now I can remember some of the melodies and why I wrote them. Others are just lost in the mists of time. I did have one of my songs performed in front of an audience. I was working with a vocal group, whose name escapes me, and they wanted to perform something original for a talent show. The song was:

Everybody Makes Mistakes

Everybody makes mistakes,
And they lose the one they love,
Then they fall down on their knees,
And pray to the Lord up above.

They beg forgiveness,
For the hurt they’ve caused,
They know they’ve broken,
All of loves’ precious laws.

Then the tears come to your eyes,
When you think of the things you’ve done,
You know you’ve really hurt,
The only one you’ll ever love.

You remember the look in her eyes,
When you told her you were to part,
You saw the tears come to her eyes,
And you knew you had broken her heart.

Then the answer comes to you,
And it says that’s the breaks,
You will be forgiven,
For everybody makes mistakes.

I don’t think we won but they didn’t get booed and at least I had the satisfaction of having one of my songs performed in public. For some reason, I quit writing when I got back to the States. Don’t know why. I lost virtually all interest in music especially after I got married in 1963. That didn’t have anything to do with it. Just a coincidence. Fast forward 56 years. A few months ago I woke up in the middle of the night and some lyrics were running through my mind along with a basic melody. I got up at 3:00 am and wrote the below in about 30 minutes. I have no clue as to what kick started the desire to write again. I have another one that has been in the back of my mind for a while. Maybe I’ll get around to it one of the days (or sleepless nights).

I’ll Be There

If you want someone to love you,
If you want someone to hold,
If you want someone to cry with,
I’ll Be There, I’ll be there.

If you need a shoulder to lean on,
If you need a heart that’s true,
If you need a love that lasts,
I’ll Be There, I’ll be there.

If your mind begins to wander,
If your heart is broken,
If your soul is troubled,
I’ll Be There, I’ll be there.

If you change your heart,
If you find a new love,
If you ever need a friend,
I’ll still be there.

I think that was what started me on the path to writing this blog. The internet got me into doo-wop again several years ago. I found a treasure trove of songs that were public that I hadn’t heard in a long, long time. I’ve amassed over a thousand songs that I listen to occasionally. Also discovered doo-wop radio stations on the net. Listening to them is a lot more enjoyable than the crap they pass off as music today.

It came time in 1961 to rotate back to the States. They sent me an assignment to Offutt AFB, Nebraska. Or as the troops called it, Awful Airplane Patch on the banks of the Misery River in Oh My God Nebraska.