A Life In The Day (57)

THE FACE OF GAWD
Later that night, as I met Willeker in the crews mess, He explained to me the nature of the
watches on board ship. The shifts , 2 hrs. stand by , in the mess , 1 hr. at the helm and 1 hr. on bow watch. His first hour was to be the bow, for him, so he asked if I wanted to join him?
"HELL YES!", I said!
There was an eeriness that's hard to explain. I don't know if I'll be able to do it justice..............
As you walked out on deck at midnight from the hatch-ways, all light and sound ceases. All one "hears" was heard thur the exposed skin to the night breeze, that blow across the black ocean.
The further away from the crews quarters amid-ship, the darker the world seemed to get.
The whole time I really didn't bother to look up, but when I did, I gasped with such awe that I fell back on my ass, dizzy and REALLY SCARED!!!!! I was speechless! I couldn't take my eyes off the heavens! I kept thinking, "I am such a nothing in it all!"
I felt like every Modern Day Space Hero I'd ever read about as a kid. Buck Rodgers, Flash Gordon, John Glenn, Capt. Jet!
The magnitude of it all! THE TOTAL BLACKNESS OF IT ALL! And then to see the millions of silver points of light that Gawd happened to sneeze on that black velvet! HOLY SHIT !!
Williker just leaned against one of the hatches and chuckled a bit and said,
"I'll see you at the bow, son. When your done introducing yourself to Gawd."
I really am not sure how long I lay there on the deck, but Williker must have said something to
the seaman he had relieved, I wasn't disturbed for at least 1/2 hr. When I finally pulled myself together and made it to the bow, Williker was having a smoke and looking at the night sky also. Before I could say anything and without turning around asked,
" Well son? are you and Gawd on speaking terms yet?"
"What made you ask that?", I asked.
"Well", he said, "when I saw the look on you and your friends face, telling about what the two of you saw in that village in Central America, I kinda got the feeling that the two of you might of stopped believing in the Almighty. So I thought that a personal meeting between you and HE might be in order.Was I very far off the mark?"
All I could do was stand there and start to cry like a big baby.
He, like my Father might have done , just walked over and put an arm around my shoulder and said,
" I get the feeling that life is going to hold more surprises for you, son. Just be ready for them when they come to get in your face."
After that, we just stood there and looked for any distant lights on the horizon until his hour on watch was up, then we walked back to the crews mess and drank coffee and talked for two hours.
The rest of the voyage was pretty uneventful, but I made it a habit to be on Willikers midnight to 4am watch from that time forward.
On some mornings while we were at the bow, we would talk of poetry, sometimes of his wife, sometimes of why I ran away from home, of what to look out for whenever I would hit a port city anywhere in the world, but ALL the times he talked? I listened!

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---------------BOW WATCH----------------

and the face of God

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As the day rolled on, Joel and I, drifted off to our cabins and got what made us feel good in our minds and hearts. We walked back to our cabin. Joel got His drawing paper, I got my writing paper.

Joel then went to the aft part of the ship, got comfortable on the poop deck and proceeded to draw the seamen at work "chipping the deck", in preparation for the "red leading",

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CHIPPING and RED-LEADING

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The process of "CHIPPING", is done with an instrument that looks like a short handled WEED WHACKER, protruding from the edges are rounded metal projections about 5/8" long, that vibrate at a high rate of speed. When held to the deck, it "CHIPS", the rusted metal off the deck. After 1/2 an hour , your arms feel like you've worked with a jack hammer for the day long! Smoke brakes were standard every 20 minutes. All this being done for that section of deck for that day, all the rust chips would be washed off the decks with sea water and allowed to dry as the rest would have lunch. As the crew returned, they would start to swab the decks with fish oil drawn from 50 gal. barrels and left to dry for 1/2 hour, at which point the decks would be swabbed with "RED LEAD", or the same thing that is on the "GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE", to give it that color. After an hour or so the crew would come back again to swab the decks with "Black" paint and the job was then considered done.

It seemed that work on board a freighter at sea was/ is basically "BUSY WORK", until a port is reached.

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Joel would try to look inconspicuous as He drew, but some of the crew would notice and attempt to look as GALLANT at their work as possible. hahaha, ( for Joel had shown some of His work in the mess hall and the crew could see that He was good at His calling.

Joel did this for the rest of the day and seemed to come out from it all lighter and refreshed. He smiled more for the rest of the voyage.

I on the other hand took my interests to the bow of the ship, for me the future was my calling......

It was one of those days where the storm was receding in the past , both metaphorically and in reality, and the sun was beginning to shine its face on my face.

At that time of day I was alone to think on what road I would walk in my tomorrows. Would there be days of riches? poverty? drama? pain? love? tears? I thought "the future would take care of itself." I sat there pretty much for the rest of the day, occasionally looking over the bow to see playful Dolphins swimming along side of us and wondering ,"what is going Thu their minds?, how many ships through out time had they escorted to adventure or ruin?"

I was in a state of dreams, I saw myself as the GREAT Voyager "ODYSSEUS". It was rather presumptuous of me , but hey! I was 17! hahaha !

I was pulled out of my reveries by one of the older crewmen, who I came to know and learn a few of life's lessons. I developed a strong respect for this old fart!

It was dinner time and as we sat at table, the seamen started to ask about other aspects of previous remarks, all the time staying away from any reference of the village but asking for just more telling of "stories around the campfire..........."

Toward the end of the meal and into desert, conversation just seemed to wander like a puppy chasing a slow rabbit. That's when the old sea dog, WILLIKER, by name , started up a conversation with me pretty much to see where my head was. It seemed that in his youth he taught philosophy at some university in Belgem and took to the sea after his wife died, (a precursor of my future.). We hit it off mentally and something more..........ethereal, metaphysical. He noted that he had seen me at the bow for a good part of the day looking both at the sky and the sea and wondered what I saw in the two?

It took me a while to assess the question. no one had EVER asked me a question like that before!

After awhile, he asked me if I wanted to meet him for bow watch at midnight.........and see the face of Gawd?

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PAST ADVENTURES and BOW WATCH
................................................................................................................................sorry for being away so long folks, but I'm back now.......................................................................................................................Since it was Sunday and the crew had pretty much nothing to do until watch change, we all just sat around the mess hall, and Joel and I talked and the crew just listened as we unfolded the happenings of the past few months...........As we sat there and told of our experiences with the BULL SOW, (oxy-moron!), that was stoned on phycotropic fruit, or Joel knocking Himself out with His bolo while hunting, or the attack of the killer MOTHS, and the killer Tarantulas, or the riding of adolescent Crabs in the river,or the meeting of THE BANDIT KING, they all laughed with uproarious mirth! When we came to the massacre of the village.............Joel started to silently cry and the crew either lowered their eyes or looked at us with either horror or pity.It was then that I realised my stupidity. I had no idea that I was either so double jointed or that I could fit my size 10 foot into my mouth. I unwittingly had sucked the air out of the room! I tried to pull the fat out of the fire by quickly changing the subject to the valley of light and finding the river of GOLD!, and the Piranhas in it, and later the territorial Headhunters as we were leaving our camp site, with our packs filled with the river gold. I believe that some of the seamen picked up on what I was attempting to do in changing the subject so as to get Joel out of His private hell. Some of them laughed overly hard at my telling how we had outsmarted the assayer in his office, at his own game.This work was harder than I thought. I started talking about the dumb things we had done to the dumbest things we had done, as time progressed the seamen started to get into a state of jocularity at our silliness of our adventure and Joel came out of his funk. I kept talking about more dumb things and it was obvious by Joel's demeanor that he was coming out of His hell. As the morning wore on, the Sun seemed to shine in the mess hall.
Finally the watch was changed, and we decided to go out and look at the sea without roiling stomach's. Joel and I went to the poop deck and looked out at what we were leaving behind.. An old life in America and a new life in who knew where..............................
............. and then I said,"Aw,fuck it. Tomorrow's another day."

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CHICKEN of the SEA....BOW WATCHES

It seemed that during the night, as Joel and I were driving the Porcelain Bus,
Flying Fish had sailed onto the decks of the ship, driven by the storm. And the Chief Cook had gone on deck to gather as many as he could to prep for lunch, before the Sun could have its' way with them.
It turns out that Flying Fish are sweet and delicate in taste. and if buttered and lightly battered and quick pan fried, the taste was unusual and more exquisite then you could have EVER expected! BAR NONE!
As we sat at table, the chief cook brought in 2 platters of sweet and salty Flying Fish, 2 platters of buckwheat hot cakes, real honey and pitchers of cold milk and hot coffee for all of us.
Being Sunday and a skeleton crew, we all sat and ate with time as our guest.
We were being asked of our ..adventures? hahahha

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----------------------- ACCEPTANCE -- CHICKEN of THE SEA -- AND THE MIND ON BOW WATCH --------------------

As we came back down to the Crews Mess, we could see that the crew had relaxed smiles on their faces. Apparently the Officer Steward had passed the word that we hadn't ratted on them. As we walked in the crews mess, we were asked if we wanted something to eat? .............................................. AFTER WE ALL STOPPED LAUGHING....

We were STARVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The short foods we were fed DID NOT FILL THE VOID!!!!!!! hahaha

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A Life In The Day (52)

--------------------AND THE YAWNS CONTINUE--------------------

(and POSEIDON SERVES us REAL FOOD)

That night we did nothing more then curse the day our mothers gave birth to us!

Joel was put in the top bunk, He was a bit shorter then I, so easier to lift. Bad mistake! We should both been put on the floor close to the buckets! As the sea rolled on, in what turned out to be a medium sized hurricane, we found out that our stomachs didn't know that we didn't have anything left to offer and kept calling for more presentations to "The Floor GAWD!"

Joel hadn't realised that he was in the top bunk when he reached to the bucket and fell out to the floor!! He lay where he landed! This was not a time for me to laugh! ( but I gotta admit. I tried!). I rolled outta my bunk to the floor and LITERALLY crawled over to him to make sure he was ok! Nothing broken!, just more vomit!

The next morning, we had to admit, we were both disgusting in our appearance and smell!! and our cabin looked like a toilet that hadn't been flushed for a week of use! As we started to staggered out of our cabins one helping the other, one of the petty officers happened to be coming down to check on us and stopped due to, not only our appearance but the smell emanating from us a short distance away. (He was trying to hide a smile.), and directed us to the crew showers for a, ( clean-up-go-about), and asked if we would join the officers in the mess for breakfast? He had to turn away to keep from showing us his laughter when he saw the looks on our faces at the last remark! But we were game and said,

" Yeah, sure, great, you fucking bet!". He went off laughing to tell the other officers about the 2 landlubber kids!

After we showered we felt it necessary to clean up our cabins and did just that! we mopped first and cleaned up all our mess and then opened up the port holes and aired the cabin, even if the sea was still a little rough. (a little my ass! it was still 15degrees list!), so the salt water wouldn't hurt.(MUCH!).

We made our way to the crews Mess first FOR COFFEE NOW!!! As it being Sunday, there was only a skeleton crew on duty and the rest were in the Mess. We walked into a room of smiles and good cheer, and were asked,

"Want a cup of warm grease, mate?" or,

"How bout some hot greasy bacon and fried eggs, bud?", or,

"What about some steamed okra?".

Try as we might? and seeing the looks in their faces? We started laughing about the same time they did! We all laughed for bit, and said that we were asked to join the officers for breakfast and had to go. Immediately a look of apprehension came to their faces, but went over our heads for the moment.We said we'd come back, and left.

We made our way to the Officers' Mess, with at least Coffee under our belts and REALLY Hungry! As we entered, we saw looks of subdued mirth on the Officers and Captain. faces. You could just tell that they wanted to know if what they had heard in the night was true?

The Captain asked me, with a slight smile, if the seamen had forced Greasy food on us for a joke? (As He was asking this question I could see out of the corner of my eye that the Galley Mess Steward was nonchalantly listening to the conversations. Like a fly on the wall.).

As Joel was about to answer, I could see that He was a bit pissed off, I taped His foot under the table to shut Him up! (Joel and I had developed a good repore during our travels and understood.). I then piped up and said that it was our idea to ask for FOOD! That we were starving! "bring it on, please!', AND HOW WE DIDN'T KNOW OF THE CONSEQUENCES! At which point the Captain and Officers laughed uproariously! The crew was cleared of perfidy! hahaha. At which point pancakes were brought on. ( stable in the stomach.) and toast and coffee. Even seamen can be affected with sea sickness it seems.

As we ate, the Captain and Officers started asking us of what had happened upon arrival at the dock and how we got here? As we drank our coffee and shared our adventures to the gathered assembly, I saw the Galley Steward leave with a smile on his face and go below.

Apparently, we showed ourselves to be ok lads and seemed to be accepted by the Captain and Officers as ADVENTUROUS kids with a goal in life.(go figure!). Pertty much after the meal, the Captain told Joel and I that it would be about a 3 week voyage to SOUTH HAMPTON, ENGLAND and a, SEA of WORTH, and we had the run of the ship as long as we kept out of the Officers and Crews way. Apparently , WE were accepted by the Captain and the Officers.(WHAT A HOOT!)

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A Life In The Day (51)

--------------TECHNICOLOR YAWNS-----------------

The morning seemed to start with white caps, small swells and dark morning clouds on a 34 hundred ton freighter, little did we know what would come ...up (?)....next? haha. We were both starved and headed to the crews galley, not knowing that we were invited to the officers state room mess. Apparently as the crew saw us come in, the word was passed to the cookie to 'SERVE US THE BEST", especially since the sea was getting rough, and we had hit a storm front!

The sea was getting rougher by now , we had to hold on to the bulkheads as we walked in, we should have known that we were in for bad weather when we came into the mess and saw towels wet down and spread on the tables and the edges of the eating areas pulled up!(so the food wouldn't SLIDE off the tables!). As we sat down, the crew all seemed to have smiles on their faces. (why? a happy crew? ), hahaha. Little did we know that we were about to be the BUTT end of a joke!

The crew made room for us to sit among them, and told us that the mess was about to be served and why didn't we go to the officers mess? We told them that we didn't know about that, and were told in return, that we were welcomed here. The crew kept us busy with alot of small talk as the food was being prepared. Our noses were telling us, YEAH BABY!!! They asked us about what and how and why we were on this boat, as our stomachs ROARED! We answered as best we could and saw wonder on their faces.

When the food finally came, served by the galley mates, even they had smiles on their faces as they put down the food. What was severed were mounding plates of Greasy pork chops, Greasy sausages and Greasy fried eggs and 1 small plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with full pots of coffee. Joel and I had no thought about why the crew was only eating the PB&J sandwiches and coffee, if they did have eggs, they patted off the grease. Joel and I ate as if there were no tomorrow, to the on looking , grinning crew.

We ate and ate and ate.......my gawd , but this was the greatest meal we thought we ever had since we ran away from Home, even if some of the plates were sliding off the tables due to the list of the ship! THEN IT STARTED!.............

As we sat there talking and drinking coffee after our meal, and the walls of the mess hall swaying and ,and, and the deck rocking and rolling, and.........OH SHIT! We lurched to our feet and scrambled out of the mess hall to find the outer deck and headed for the rails! All the time in our ears we could hear the crew in the distance laughing.........

We barely made it to the rails! Grabbed, leaned and let out such a cascade of colors! PETER MAX would have loved the palate of colors! hahahaha

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EDITORS NOTE

NEVER ....EVER!

SPIT INTO THE WIND!

PEE INTO THE WIND!

OR THROW UP INTO THE WIND!

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We were there for what seemed days , calling our dog, "RAWLF!".

The weather was really BAD and we were helped to our cabins by some of the crew as the rest looked on and laughed. Who the fuck cared! WE DIDN'T! WE JUST WANTED TO DIE!

We were helped to our cabins and our bunks. As we lay with vomit all over us, the seamen grabbed and shoved our life jackets on the outside, underside of our mattresses and told us this would keep us from falling out to the floor. (ah, what little joys to look forward to !)

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