User:Spiritofthebear

It all started for me in 1959 Truth is stranger then fiction in my case. I was born in Kansas in 1959. My dad was in the air force and stationed there. My mom and dad did not last and I ended up with my moms parents. I lived most of my childhood with them until my grandma got cancer and died when I was 9. After her death I went to my dad who had remarried to a woman with 2 kids of her own. I don’t think I fit into her plans at the time, because I never felt welcome. I was trouble for my dad and he always let me know it with the back of his hand or belt. When I got into high school I got worse until I saw a movie that played at lunch time in school it was a Clint Eastwood flick called A Fist Full of Dollars. After that Clint became my role model and I would sit through every movie I could find. Because of Clint I joined a Boy Scout explorer horse troop where I learned to ride and do cowboy things and that changed my life for good. I had a girl friend named Charlotte for a few years who always broke up with me and then came back, I had my first sexual experience with her. I was still bad in school so at the age of 17 my dad gave me an ultimatum I either join the army or live on the street. So I joined the army in 1977 at the tender age of 17. Charlotte broke up with me when I told her. I swore in at a hotel in Portland Oregon and then had my first drunk on. That hang over lasted 4 years. I went to Missouri for my basic training and AIT. During that time Charlotte and I got back together. After training I got my first tour of duty to Mainz Germany, but before that I went home for leave. My dad suggested I take a train to New York to get my flight to Germany (I guess to save money) I would have to leave 3 days earler then planed so Charlotte broke up with me again.

Upon my arrival in Germany, with thoughts of German women in their dirndls and the men in leder hose. I gazed out the airplane window in wonder at a new world and all the red roof tops around Frankfurt, I had no idea what this strange new place had in store for me and how I would become so interwoven with it and its people. I got off the plane at the 21st replacement center in Frankfurt and quickly ran through in processing. I was then put on a bus headed for Mainz where I got off at the train station with no idea where I was or where I was supposed to go. Soon though another soldier in civilian clothing came to ask if I was new and where I was going. I showed my orders to him, he made a call and I was picked up. I got to my new home, a place called McCully barracks ismack dab in the middle of a little village called Wackenheim. It was already evening when I got settled in. So enthralled by this new place and seeking adventure I set out for a walk around and fell in love with Germany and the history that went with it. Weekend came around and I headed into downtown Mainz where I ran into that same guy who made the call. He suggested we jump on a train and head to Wiesbaden and hit the disco scene. Ok lets go! We got to the bahnhoff (train station) and walked to the first disco with the pretty girls and great music and then the next and next till finally we landed at the Candy club where I met Monika 1 and Monika 2. Monika 1 was with a group of people who latter would accept me into their group. But first I would spend 1 few weeks with Monika 2 as she showed me her Rheingau. I started falling in love with her but she was after someone else. After that I went back to the Candy and found Monika 1 there with her friends and started in wooing Maria a small shy girl who had a look I couldn’t resist. We dated from November 1977 till February 78 when she took me home to meet her mom (father had been gone for years) we fell in love and got married in may 1979. I was next stationed in Fort Ord California toward the end of 79