Some sailors in the squadron ran their households while on sea duty as if they were only gone for the weekend….writing a check for the light bill from 12,000 miles away. The rest of the family men had to put certain things out of our mind or it would greatly affect our performance and safety. We prepared our affairs, possessions, and loved ones before we left and then just let them go. Wives essentially became single mothers. We thought about them in a sort of helpless manner avoiding the details about what might be happening back home. This was a time when wives had a great need to express those details. Coming home after six or nine months was a shock to our system....an abrupt end to this emotional and perceptual freeze-frame. Our wives had different hairstyles, our babies turned toddlers strained to remember this man, someone else had repaired our cars, and the furniture was out of place. Yet we were very much the same person in the same place we had been before we left. We had counted the days, remembering what we were returning to, only to find that life had pressed on while our memories were stuck in a time capsule….and for a while….a little homesick even after we returned.
The worst things: To be in bed and sleep not, to want for someone who comes not, to try to please and please not. - Egyptian Proverb
One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don't come home at night. - Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1901-1978)
Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes. - Jim Carrey
No comments:
Post a Comment