Birth of the Blue Missile


Now in the woods was a source of food. It was a type of wild grape called muscadines they were sweet and filling for those afternoons in the woods. The vines were everywhere and easy to get to. But for the more severe cases of the munchies we would travel west through the woods instead of north towards the lake. It was about a twenty-minute walk to the top of a hill overlooking the back parking lot of a Dairy Queen. During the summer the owner was sure to leave the back door open and the screen door closed. We would go to the back door with our order, place it, pay for it and retreat back to the top of the hill, a short walk away. When the order was filled he would stand at the back door and we would run down and get it. Most of these orders were consumed back at the top of the hill over the rise just out of sight of the road over looking the hills. After eating we would lie back and stare at the sky through the sassafras and beach trees do another doobie and then later wander back to the barracks.

Now if you didn’t feel like going to DQ there was a little “burger joint” called the grill attached to the back of the main dining hall. When you walked through the door you found three or four four-tops, a couple of pin ball machines, and an AM radio playing all the time. You would walk up to the counter and order your food, which were mostly burgers, the thin patty type and greasy French tries. Nothing fancy just a place for the cadets to get a little something extra on the weekends. The grill was open during the week after classes but most of the guys were in the dorm either studying or partying. If you were smart you would take advantage of the one study hall everyone had. It gave you more than enough time to get the bulk of you homework done for the classes that preceded study hall. The rest had to be done after school. That gave you three hours of free time before dinner and four hours after. During the summer there were no after school activities so your time was all yours.

Now the regularly scheduled meals were pretty good. This was the south remember. I was introduced to grits and eggs, collard greens, lots of fried chicken, and meat loaf that everybody called ‘Mystery Meat’. You ate off of a divided metal tray/plate affair which I had never seen before, but that I was told was standard issue in prison. You drank out of metal cups with little round handles on the side. They looked like metal tea cups, which if filled with ice and salt would freeze quite securely to the tray if given the appropriate amount of time. This made the kitchen workers time cleaning off the trays rather humorous to us. There was one meal I was introduced to that was the cause of many skipped meals. It was a cream like gravy with shaved beef served over a couple pieces of toast. It was called by all those had experienced it prior “**** on shingles” or SOS. When it was served, anything else available such as rolls and desert is what you ate. I do remember during the course of the regular school year, that one evening there was quite a commotion at the mess hall. About an hour later there were several Kentucky Fried Chicken vans delivering food to the back door of the mess. As it turns out one of the cooks had accidentally set off the foam fire extinguishing system, all over the chicken that was originally supposed to be for dinner. Let it be said there was no food left over that night.

The summer time was the school’s time to try out new staff. During the first summer there was a teacher just out of college, I don’t remember what he taught. One evening after lights out I was invited to a party on the second floor across from my room. When I arrived the lights were out and there were towels stuffed under the doors of both rooms and over the windows. I remember that Black Sabbath was playing and a nice sized spliff was being passed around a circle of us on the bed and all the chairs they could muster between the two rooms. As each person would take a toke his face would light up just for a moment then go dark. As it got around to the other side of the circle all of a sudden this teachers face lit up. My first reaction was Oh MY God we’re busted, but then reason took over and said he’s one of us, you know a stoner not the Man. Well for some reason he only lasted another couple of weeks, and he was gone, go figure.
More later
Andrew