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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: USS SIRAGO and USS SENNET REUNIONS
I just had two of the most wonderful experiences attending two absolutely fantastic Diesel Boat Reunions...Both, first class affairs. The Sirago Reunion was held at a wonderful beachfront hotel in Virginia Beach...Woke up every morning to magnificent sunrises breaking on the Atantic horizon...made cups of what was a poor replication of bottom-of-the-pot "mid watch sludge" and read the local paper out on the balcony overlooking the beach and deep water merchant ships standing out to sea. For a man who never got the saltwater out of his blood, it never gets any better than that. The old raggedy bastards and their lovely wives were great....in four days we raised the art of insult and major league ragging to elevations never seen in North America and flushed our kidneys with a tank truck load of brewed and distilled products. The banquet was terrific and the band was nothing short of outstanding. They played across the entire spectrum of popular music from big band, music of the 40's and 50's and the music we all grew up listening to. Wonderful inadequately describes that band. The entire reunion was a truly well organized and very worthwhile experience...Then I spent several days in Fayetteville North Carolina with Kris (my daughter), Sam (her terrific husband) and 'The Peanut", my brand, spanking new Grandaughter Little Solveig Elise. Had a great time and went fishing with Sam....Then I drove to Myrtle Beach for the USS SENNET REUNION...same arrangement... super ocenview room in a great beachfront hotel...morning coffee overlooking the Atlantic with great view of early morning lady type personnel wearing very abbreviated outfits jogging up and down the beach. Great to increase the blood flow and increase the circulation...a couple of times I needed jumper cables to kickstart my heart. At Myrtle Beach we had two unforgettable experiences in addition to the crackerjack banquet...One evening we went to one of those "stuff yourself til you explode" seafood places called Crabby Mike's Calabash Seafood smorgasboard style restaurant...WOW...I love fried clams and GOOD New England clam chowder...it doesn't come any better...When I left, I bought a T-Shirt that reads I GOT CRABS AT CRABBY MIKES...Great taste in wearing apparel advertising. After the Crabby Mike's tummy stuff...we attended a absolutely heart stopping live stage production at the ALABAMA Theater....I wish I had a vocabulary to describe the wonder of that show....It was like attending a fireworks show of amazingly well timed and flawlessly performed acts...they came one after another with a great comedian filling in between acts requiring complicated scene changes...The show was three hours long and there wasn't a slow minute or poor performance the entire time. At one point, the MC stopped the show to recognize and honor the veterans of the SENNET and the submarine veterans in general....and as they used to say in newspaper critical reviews..."And the crowd whistled, appauded and cheered" All in all, it was an evening to be long remembered, savored and hauled out on a cold winter's night to be recalled in memory. Our own Ralph Luther...the King Raggedy Coot and his absolutely lovely bride were the sparkplugs for the entire program. I shoved off from Myrtle Beach at 3:30 AM on Thursday Morning and made a wrong turn somewhere after turning off RT 17 and spent the next two hours wandering around in northeast South Carolina, listening to crowing roosters and redneck radio stations playing music used in CIA torture sessions. In the wee hours of the morning down there all you have on the radio are "send me more of your money" radio preachers representing religious institutions nobody ever heard of and hillbillies singing about wimmin who left'em...reposessed pick up trucks...late night drinking...and their littany of ills. woes, trials and tribulations...and none of the roads are maked, designated or identified...and all the direction signs are shot full of bullet holes....and all the clotheslines are loaded with Big Mac bib-overiehuals. But I found I-95 North and a Waffle House at Lumberton with a big busted blonde waitress, with a smile like God gives angels...named Alice Anne....and wrapped myself around two cups of coffee, orange juice, large milk, waffle, three sausage patties and hash browns....and all was right on the planet when I saddled old Sparky the Wonder Horse and resumed my trek North....Before I forget, Cora and The Duchess of Lumpy Bumps were fondly and respectfully remembered and spoken of at both reunions and many of the fellow shipmates asked for me to remember them to both of these Sisters of the Phin...So Ladies consider yourselves fondly and respectfully remembered. DEX |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1405
Location: Houston, TX (Best state in the US) | Subject: RE: USS SIRAGO and USS SENNET REUNIONS
Thanks for a great report, Dex. Doesn't get any better than that! Glad you enjoyed yourself..I'd have loved to listen to all you tell your no s**tters.....I hope you remembered enough to spark another tale for the After Battery......
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: USS SIRAGO and USS SENNET REUNIONS
It was great. What made it great was that, I was with my own kind...men who rode the same class of diesel boat, that I qualified on...drank in the same rat holes I tossed down suds in...guys who could survive on Slim Jims and BEER NUTS and left beer glass rings on the same dinged up tables, I did. Men who had gotten tossed over the side when they qualified because it was accepted practice that you never got your first set of Dolphins pinned on a dry shirt. Time and the fantastic technological advances have left me behind and over time have made me lose touch with the modern boatservice...So the wonderful gift of attending a smokeboat reunion is the opportunity to share stories of shared common experience with men who did the same damn stuff I did and chased in many instances the same young ladies I did. It's great...That is one of the many reasons I am looking forward to being inducted into the HOLLAND CLUB...It was a magic carpet ride to yesteryear...all of a sudden I was again twenty feet tall and bulletproof and had the world by the short curlies. DEX |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 6180
Location: Summerville, SC | Subject: RE: USS SIRAGO and USS SENNET REUNIONS
Dave, believe it or not, Dex was very well behaved at the Sennet Reunion. I can't vaify any goings on at the Sirago Reunion, but in Myrtle Beach with Sennet the sea stories were running full on 4 and hip boots would of come in handy.
If any of y'all go to Myrtle Beach you've got to put going to the Alabama Theatre #1 on your list of things to do. It is a variety show consisting of Broadway musicals to, as you can imagine, country music. Dex was a little hesitant about going to a hillbilly, crying in your beer type of evening. After the show he was so pumped up he was wanting to get up on the stage do his routine.    |
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USS SIRAGO and USS SENNET REUNIONS
