Playing Fair and Being Kind

THAT WHICH EXCITES US

I got lost trying to find the Chinese food restaurant last night. I stopped in at a garage near where I thought the restaurant ought to be and asked the mechanic on duty for help. In the process I shared a moment with him that we could only grin about. We were interrupted in our conversation by a motorcycle leaving the intersection near his shop. It was a Harley. We both stopped speaking and maybe even breathing as the rider wound it out taking off. The exhaust noise was beautiful! He turned to me and shouted, I never get tired or hearing that noise. I agreed. A second later another motorcycle did the same thing; another Harley. The top of my head lifted off with the noise and we both again grinned as the bike roared off up the street.

The mechanic gave me directions to three separate Chinese restaurants in town. I’d heard of each one and the last one he mentioned was the one where I’d placed an order and was trying to locate. When he said the restaurant’s name I said, that’s the one! He told me it was on the other side of town and how to find it. The directions were simple; out U.S. Highway 70 next to Mario’s Pizza. Off I went to find my dinner.

Today I visited my friend Denny. He wanted to check out a new design with me for a channel marker that would be environmentally friendly. The Coast Guard had posted a request for bids for a buoy design that would reduce the amount of sea bottom damage from the excess chain required to moor the buoy and allow for tides and storm surges. We met for lunch at Tsunami in Morehead City. After we swapped stories and other tidings and the lunch had gone by we ordered coffee and pored over the drawings Denny had made of several techniques for keeping the mooring chain from dragging the ocean bottom. All the designs were practical and easily manufactured. Denny asked if I would help with writing the proposal if he sent me a rough draft and I assured him I would.

Looking at his designs and through the discussion of chain material and weights of the buoys we both were reminded of many stories and the afternoon passed rather quickly. We had seconds at the buffet table and another cup of coffee. More talk ensued and Denny was reminded of this and I was reminded of that. Denny is eighty years old and I am pushing seventy seven. We both have been down and up and back down a few roads. The stories kept coming.

Denny remembered and asked me if I knew so and so from Electric Boat in Groton. I said no. He said this guy piloted a deep submersible named Star. I didn’t know that boat. Denny said this guy knew of the location of two lead anchors each more than twenty thousand pounds in weight and Denny had the map where they were located out in Long Island Sound. The guy had died many years before and Denny believed he, Denny, was the only person who knew about these anchors. He has many stories like this and they are all believable and, I’m sure, true.

We talked more about submarines and the Long Island Sound. I told Denny that the submarine force lost more men percentage-wise than any other unit in the U.S. Armed Forces. One out of five U.S. submarines were lost; roughly three thousand six hundred men. Then Denny recalled the USS Dorado (SS 248) was sunk just a few months after being commissioned into the Navy. It was sunk in the Caribbean but not known how. Denny had heard it was by a U.S. Pilot and that it was hushed up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Dorado_(SS-248)

Our talk continued as we left Tsunami and headed to our cars in the parking lot. We both had further things to do so we parted company. The conversation was alive and both of us, I’m sure, lost a few decades of age in the process while it lasted. We said goodbye’s and each drove off. I wanted to find the Credit Union to cash an old check that was an account close-out from my insurance company. A check for two dollars and eighteen cents. I punched in the address for the Credit Union on the GPS and got underway on U.S Highway 70 East.

The Credit Union showed on the map to be on the right hand side of the road in Havelock on Highway 70. That should be easy to find. It was near the Slocum Road gate for the Marine Air Base where I was staying. The trip took approximately twenty five minutes. I saw the little blue arrow on my GPS was nearing the red marker on the map on the screen and I anticipated just a few more minutes. I took a glance over to my left and lo and behold there was the Credit Union on the opposite side of the road from what I expected! I adjusted my plans and changed lanes to make a U-turn. I drove back on Highway 70 for a quarter mile and found an entrance road to the parking lot. Whew! I wonder what happened to my GPS and why the accuracy was so off again like it was last night when I was trying to locate my Chinese restaurant.

After doing business with the teller I was leaving and I paid a brief visit with the receptionist. I told her I felt fortunate to have caught the mistake with the GPS on the fly. I told her that I expected to see the Credit Union up the road a bit further. She said, Oh, yes that was where the Credit Union used to be about 2009 but it had moved to this spot. It used to be up there where the Chinese restaurant is now, she said. Next to Mario’s Pizza. Well there you go, I thought. Another of life’s mysteries solved in a flash, just like that. Well at least I felt like I knew more than I did last night. I didn’t have to wonder anymore. I felt like I was in on a secret; one of a chosen few who knew the history of the Chinese restaurant, the Credit Union, and the interaction of locations in Havelock. The world was changing and changing faster than the GPS system could keep up with. If a Harley had roared by about this time I would have felt totally privileged and complete.

G. M. Goodwin

2 February 2016