While in the yards at Hunters Point my favorite hang out was San Francisco?s Mickey Finns. There was also a Mickey Finns in San Diego at the time. It was a beer /peanuts sing along place with live banjo and all that. There I met a really nice gal who was a fledgling nurse at the SF hospital. Long story short-I was going back on 7th fleet deployment when the yard period was over and felt it would be really unfair to her to start an emotional involvement. So we said our farewells almost as soon as we said hello. At the time I knew that the military and emotional involvements don?t mix at all. The one sure thing was that the first mail chopper out of Da Nang on the first day of deployment brought all the ?Dear Johns? and there was more or less an ad hoc anchor pool on who was going to get it. Kind of a cruel bet but that?s how we kept the green side up. The axe cut both ways and the wedding bands were put away as soon as we cleared the breakwater and it was a usual deal to see guys sunning their ring finger to tan out the white ring.
In time and distance, I?m sure I made the right decision but she was a really nice gal from Indiana that I?ll always have fond memories of. Her name is Diane.
Scamp
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