My next duty station was at Camp LeJeune, Forest Troops. Luck would have it that after I was there for about two months we were deployed on a cruise to Viegues, Puerto Rico. It was a small island not far from San Juan. This was going to be my last duty station as I only had 6 months left in the Marines.
I sold the Shoe Shine spray in a day. This was going to be great I could see dollar signs. I called home and had my mother send a couple cases to me and I sold them all over the base. The spray was a hit. In the two months before we left for Puerto Rico I sold a lot of spray. I was back into the groove of selling. I was having fun!
This duty was some of the best. We got to practice blowing things up. The duty was easy we had some small construction jobs remolding some buildings into offices. The weather was great. The beer was cold and these were going to be the last friends I would have in the Corps. We had beach parties. We ate lobster that we got by trapping them in old tires we placed under water.
Six months went by quickly and I was able to leave. I felt so glad to be leaving and yet I was saddened by leaving the friends and the life I had grown to know. What would the world have in store for me? What was I going to do? A lot of the guys that I knew that had gotten out said they were going to take a year off and let their hair grow out, smoke some dope and just screw around. I had a different plan and I thought it through on the bus ride home.
I was going to live at my parents home for just a short while. I knew that I could not be around my father for long. I would get a job right away. Get a car and save my money and get my own apartment. I was going to live the bachelor life. I was going to be a playboy. Life was going to be cool.
After I was home for a couple days my sister Sabrina brought up Darlene to me. She said that she had ran into her and they talked for a while and she told Darlene that I was home. Well, I was a little curious. My sister said that Darlene was working at a dry cleaners and that I should look her up sometime.
The next day I took my Marine uniforms to the dry cleaners where she worked for their last cleaning. When I arrived though the cleaners was closed and in a car leaving was Darlene and her mother. Darlene told me to call her later. I did we talked for hours. It was great to be able to talk to someone who didn’t judge me. She happy to talk to me. The next day I took my uniforms to her for cleaning. She introduced me to the owner, Hank. Hank was a man that had a great since of humor. He asked me if I like beer and of course I said yes. He gave me a few bucks to go over the this little pizza joint called Pizza King and get a six pack of beer.
