 | SubmarineSailor.com Find a Shipmate Reunion Info Books/Video | Binnacle List (offsite) History Boat Websites Links |
| |||
| Bottom Gun BBS | |||
| |||
| At random: A typical modern submarine may require as many as 2,000 working drawings for the more than 7,000,000 items used in its construction. Blueprints from these drawings if placed end to end would make a strip 250 miles long. |
 Anchor Bar, AnacostiaModerators: Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | |
| Forums-> Submarine Discussion | Message format |
dex armstrong |
| ||
COMSUBBBS Posts: 3202 Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: Anchor Bar, Anacostia This will take deep memory resurection. Across the Anacostia River from the then Washington Naval Gun Factory (now The Washington Navy Yard) in the 1950's was a Receiving Station, a major high security brig, Navy Band barracks facility and Naval Air Station...The brig housed general court prisoners temporarily transferred to DC for case review by the Court of Military Appeals...bad hombres hotel. The RecSta was the armpit of the planet...kind of a Pakistani Motel Six....I wound up there after graduating from Sub School, New London...bathrooms in a Tijuana Texaco were cleaner and more shipshape than the "T" Division accommodations in the RecSta at Anacostia. Outside the main gate about 200 yards away was the Anchor Bar...a seedy, run down place where old petty officers with racket billits in the Gun Factory had established a goof-off haven where a four hashmark "end of the line" PO could sit all day, puff butts, bulls**t, solve major world probmems and butt-buff barstools. There was an ex-Boiler Tender who wore a white Tee Shirt and apron and had more tattoos than the Chicago Sunday comic pages, who tended bar and sold numbers. He had the names and hull numbers of ten or twelve long gone Fletcher cans tattooed on his left arm and a bare chested faded hula girl below them. Air circulation depended on an open door and a squeeky overhead fan. The juke box had ONLY big band music...No, quote,"F--kin rock n'roll...or g--damn gittar whammin kids mu-sick." It was kind of relaxing to grab a cold longneck Blue Ribbon and a couple of vitamin enriched Slim-Jims, get yourself a table next to the window and share comments on the anatomical configuration of females negotiating the port and starboard sidewalks. There were old yellowed photos of Navy divers (dressed in 1918 Morse gear diving rigs and hardhats) all over the walls...a photo of the USS Oklahoma....one of the old PENNSY...Some Admiral who may have stood underway watches with Noah...That famous Budweiser "Custer's Last Stand" framed print....signs on the head doors reading BUCKS and DOES....It may have been ratty and careworn but it was a 100% United States Navy watering hole. It was simply called, The Anchor...and served as the anchorage for old salty bastards who probably never saw a Chiefs hat, because nobody ever knew where in the hell they were 3/4 of the time. That old bar..that old seedy, dusty bar was my first exposure to a true sailors bar. I was wondering, if anyone else remembered it. Urban renewal...the degenerating effects of time...maturity...and/or health and sanitation ordinances may have led to its' long overdue demise. That's probably a good thing because it sure wasn't conducive to the image our modern, present day Navy wishes to project....but it was educational and left you with great memories of old coot observations and fresh off the grill WWII naval combat stories...told by guys with the smoke of 40mm cordite still in their blood. Anyone remember the place? How about the stuffed parrot over the bar and the nude girlie calendar above the cash register?DEX | ||
| Doc Gardner |
| ||
Master and Commander Posts: 2254 Location: Foothills of the Ozarks | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia I went there once in November 1963. I lived in those barracks while waiting for my boat to return from the Med. While I was there President Kennedy was killed so my tour in that "resort" was extended while I fulfilled my duties in the Presidential Honor Guard, along with everyone else who was in DC at the time. I went into the Anchor only once since it was one of the few places an underage deckape could get a beer without too much hassle. After Nov. 22nd however, we weren't allowed off the base until I got my orders and I headed up to New London. Haven't thought of that place in over 45 years. One other reason I didn't go back there was a BM2 (but first class a$$hole) named Music. (yep that was his name). He was hoggin a stool and after one beer I figured it wasn't a place for my E-3 butt. | ||
| dex armstrong |
| ||
COMSUBBBS Posts: 3202 Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: Doc, At eighteen I was slightly brain damaged Doc, Probably I should have done the same....but those old sandbagging geezers were my heroes. I loved sitting there and listening to observations on the Pacific War told from the prospective of some idiot passing 40mm ammo to a gun tub or what life was like three decks below an 8 inch turret where sweaty guys were loaqding shells onto the shell hoist and getting knocked about when the gunners unleashed salvo after salvo. "Man, We dumped a lot of steel on the Nips at Iwo...Slammed 8 inch in on the bastards for two days and still the Marines had to root them out of their caves and holes. Finally some brilliant SOB brought up bulldozers and simply buried em alive in their rat warrens." For the price of two Blue Ribbons and a couple of Slim-Jims or a couple of packs of Beer-Nuts...you could get a gut load of slightly exaggerated first person sea stories. To a kid who cut his teeth on war movies and Ned Beach books...and watching Victory at Sea...these were real honest-to-God seagoing warriors. Hell they may have been shore duty barbers...guys who issued bras and panties at a WAVE base...Base Geedunk burger flippers....sailors who painted parking lot lines...or some second class tuba player in the Navy Band....I was a freshly minted American sailor enjoying my brand new sailordom in the presence of my fellow practitioners of the mariners arts and the skills of the seagoing fighting man. I had already mastered shipboard butt kit emptying....the donning of issued aprons....putting ones keys on a halyard clip to appear real salty.....crawling into an upper rack without stepping an a sleeping sailors face....the lost art of bilge pissing....and standing dumpster watches at New London in witches tit freezing weather. Hey, Even the Yellow Brick Road had a beginning...a scroungy bluejacket gin-mill gave a kid who loved the sea, a great start. It would not be the last place of similar description that I left beer glass rings on dinged up tables or rubbed shoulders with guys not welcomed at Episcopalian prayer dinners. But, any dump that has a juke box, with the Andrews Sisters singing RUM AND COCA-COLA can't be half bad....but it was smart to bring your opwn head tissue or stuff a hand full of paper napkins in you pocket before heading aft to the door marked BUCKS. DEX | ||
| vonzipper18 |
| ||
| Mess cooking Posts: 17 | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia In Key West, I guess the Gate Bar was something of the same thing. TSpoon can add to the Gate Bar. It wasn't more than a small wheelie with your Harley from the maingate. The owner of the bar was a great friend of mine, but I can't remember his name. He was about 6'4" and could break up any fight that would break out. And he always threw the other guy out of the bar. My brain. Someone told me all about him and I can't remember who it was or remember his name. There was also a bar called the 525 bar, just off Reynolds Ave in Charleston. Many of us drank our dolphin in the 525 because they sold hard stuff. Membership was a Navy Green card. Just back from the Madison reunion that was just great all around. There were afew people there that I could actually say I loved them. Von Zipper | ||
| Ralph Luther |
| ||
| COMSUBBBS Posts: 6180 Location: Summerville, SC | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia Yes, Von Zip, that would be the 525 ( Five-n- a-Quarter Club), also know as Toby's back in the DB days. Toby has been deceased now for a number of years. He sure was one hell of a good guy. He never forgot a face nor many names. He'd lend you the shirt of his back if need be. Gone but not forgotten! | ||
| Roy Ator |
| ||
Great Sage of the Sea Posts: 892 Location: Palo Pinto County, Texas | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia And near by was the Victory Grill where we had our wedding reception on July 14, 1956. JAN 56 – Reported as a trainee in the FT Conversion School, Anacostia, Washington, D.C. Promoted to RD1 on 16 MAY 56. 14 JULY 1956: Married Margaret June Wade at the Anacostia Naval Chapel. | ||
| Keg |
| ||
| Mess cooking Posts: 46 | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia Ralph Luther - 2007-07-10 6:42 AM Yes, Von Zip, that would be the 525 ( Five-n- a-Quarter Club), also know as Toby's back in the DB days. Toby has been deceased now for a number of years. He sure was one hell of a good guy. He never forgot a face nor many names. He'd lend you the shirt of his back if need be. Gone but not forgotten! I spent many hours in the Five-n- a-Quarter Club back in 1966-67. Toby truly was a great guy. Not only would he loan you the shirt off his back.... he wouldn't even ask for it back. | ||
| Stoops |
| ||
| Master and Commander Posts: 1405 Location: Houston, TX (Best state in the US) | Subject: Let me be the first.... To wish you and June a very happy anniversary...albeit a bit early!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations! A 51 year marraige speaks volumes about character! Roy Ator - 2007-07-10 6:56 AM And near by was the Victory Grill where we had our wedding reception on July 14, 1956. JAN 56 – Reported as a trainee in the FT Conversion School, Anacostia, Washington, D.C. Promoted to RD1 on 16 MAY 56. 14 JULY 1956: Married Margaret June Wade at the Anacostia Naval Chapel. | ||
| Pig |
| ||
| Plankowner Posts: 5024 Location: Gulfport, MS | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia I tended bar for Toby in the 525 while we were in the yards in '57 or '58. I kept a pint of 'hard stuff' in my back pocket with my shirt-tail pulled out and hiding it. That way if the place was raided there was only beer available. When the bottle was empty, I went in the back and got another one from a locked closet. Your choices were limited... but nobody seemed to care... just so it was some kind of whiskey. And "Yes" Dex, I have thrown a leg over ta bar stool in the Anchor Bar in Anacostia "once or twice" while at the Receiving Station waiting for orders. What great memories! | ||
| dex armstrong |
| ||
COMSUBBBS Posts: 3202 Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: This One's for PIG Up the street, about in line with the location of the brig on the other side of the cyclone fence with the concertina wire above it that seperated the naval installation from "the free world" was a furniture company with a giant dining room chair out in front of it. That damn chair had to be 75 feet tall and had Sheraton style legs and a upholstered seat. The firm was THE CURTIS FURNITURE COMPANY, I believe. One night I got half a load on and was carrying a package that allowed me to navigate in the accepted homosapian upright position and place my feet in the customary one-in-front of the other prescribed manner. In other words I had not reached the usual hands and knees, lost white hat, E-3 condition or the point where John Q. Bluejacket begins to communicate in the unknown tongue and revisit reappearing previously consumed Slim-Jims...I was with a CB Heavy Equipment Operator striker whose intelligence level or lack thereof, approximated mine. There we were, two half loaded idiots, in search of adventure and something soft, sweet smelling and of the opposite gender to "lay alongside" until an hour before morning quarters at the RecSta, First Lt.s "T" Division swine farm....We, me and my simple minded idiot sidekick,decided that our lives would not be complete until we had climbed up and parked our totally worthless butts on that chair....Fortunately there was no way to get purchase enough or traction required to climb the legs of that Paul Bunyan sonuvabitch...It would have been easier to have shinnied up a Crisco coated flag pole, than it was to get ten feet up that monster chair. That chair was there for the first thirty years of my marriage and never failed to remind me of our tandem failure that night....It would have been the caliber life accomplishment worthy of appearing in one's obituary, or the Guiness book. If the Statue of Liberty ever passed through Anacostia, the CURTIS FURNITURE COMPANY was totally prepared to provide the location for her to plant her cute fanny. Every now and then, God in his infinite wisdom and vast capacity for passionate intervention, saves his non-rated imbeciles from themselves. DEX | ||
| steamboat |
| ||
| Master and Commander Posts: 1814 Location: Boydton, Virginia | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia Eric, T he owner of the Gate Bar in Key Oassia was Jack Harner. Thought every true Atule sailor would remember that!! Hell i probably still owe him money on my bar tab! Steamboat sends | ||
| vonzipper18 |
| ||
| Mess cooking Posts: 17 | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia The owner of the Gate Bar in 1967 was Stacey or some thing like that. Then someone told me he sold it and had one on a Key or two up US1. I don't know what 'true' Atule sailor is suppose to mean, but give me the Madison any day. Maybe I didn't report on the Atule or something. But, I met Gary Walker, Jackie (Leslie) Gleason, and lived with Marleen Love for a year down Key West. It wasn't the best of times or the worst of times, but give me the Madison Loyaties anytime. | ||
| Pig |
| ||
| Plankowner Posts: 5024 Location: Gulfport, MS | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia Actually, the owner of the Gate Bar's name was Jack Harnish. His brother Stacy owned the Boat Bar on Duval St next to the Strand movie house (where we all went on Sundays while the bars were closed between 1800 & 200 for church hours"). | ||
| steamboat |
| ||
| Master and Commander Posts: 1814 Location: Boydton, Virginia | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia I stand corrected, Pig. Thanks. Second time today. Got an email from an O-ganger on the Tin Can I rode in '60 who corrected me on someone's name. Time takes its toll on memory. Steamboat sends | ||
| RCK |
| ||
| Master and Commander Posts: 1431 | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia I was too young to get served in the Gate bar. I was attending "Fleet Sonar School" during my 7 months there. I remember the sidewalk by the Gate Bar had a huge raised part caused by a tree root and I used to wonder how many guys nearly broke thier butts while entering or leaving the bar. The USO served good hamburgers, and the Strand was the only movie house,except the base threatre, that I knew of on the island. My favorite spot was the back patio beach near the Sonar School. Palm trees,a beer stand , and a beautiful beach where you could lounge around on weekends was a great place to catch some breeze and cool off.. There were some really good looking Canadian Wrens going to school there but they were off llimits to us poor home sick, love starved and horny sailors. | ||
| steamboat |
| ||
| Master and Commander Posts: 1814 Location: Boydton, Virginia | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia Yep, I remember the patio at Sonar school. Spent many a broke weekend there drinking cheap beer. Got Sh**faced there one afternoon, started a Florida monsoon, drove over some kinda pipe or something in parking area, got hung up. Base security came by and I thought I was going to the brig. But he pulled me off and sent me on my way. "Those were the days, my friend......" Steamboat sends | ||
| Pig |
| ||
| Plankowner Posts: 5024 Location: Gulfport, MS | Subject: RE: Anchor Bar, Anacostia I had forgotten about that damn tree root! The biggest problem it caused me was on the way to town. On the way back the whole world was uneven... like walking through the boat in a heavy sea, and it never seemed to bother me. | ||
| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] |
| Printer friendly version E-mail a link to this thread Jump to forum : |
| (Delete all cookies set by this site) | |
| Running MegaBBS ASP Forum Software v2.0 © 2003 PD9 Software | |
