A Day That Shall Live In Infamy It was early morning January 21, 1974 and it was still dark out when I woke up from a quick nap that I managed to take on that cramped, uncomfortable, loud, and smelly bus that had been chartered by the United States Government for the purpose of delivering 42 unsuspecting young souls to a little place called Parris Island, South Carolina. Just the name Parris Island was enough to send shivers down the backs of those 42 unsuspecting souls. Parris Island, a place we had all heard about over and over again for the past three days while being processed for this scary, unknown, and at the same time, exciting trip that we had signed up for. The stories that we had heard about some of things that had happened
That night we arrived at Benning after 14 long, grueling hours on a greyhound bus. We step off and of course there was nobody around except one Black hat (instructor) he said two things; one here is your room and be ready for week one, Ground Week, on Monday morning. The first week, Ground Week, was intense. I was drenched in sweat from 4AM to 6PM, we did a PT (physical training) test right off the bat 0400 that Monday I smoked it of course. After that we spent the day in processing which is always the boring part I thought, not this time if we weren’t busy we were doing PT.
To any other man waking up on a park bench would be a result of extraordinary circumstances, but for me that was just my daily routine. Dry mouth, headaches, and head thumping to the tune of my heartbeat. Waking up on my wood hard wooden bed in Central Park. I arise and my back cracks with my neck a stiff as a board. You would think that I would be used to it by now.
The audience watches in curiosity as the new morning’s sunlight hits a bed, 15-year-old Samson (Rowan McNamara) sits up, groggy from sleep and raises a can to his nose, taking long, deep breaths of what we can only assume, is petrol. Thornton then takes us through Samson’s day, most of which is spent in a haze.
The Ninth Tuesday they Talk About How Love Goes On. Meanwhile, Morrie's condition is rapidly deteriorating. He can't move his own head and is no longer able to use the bathroom on his own. Yet every morning he still insists on being lifted from his bed and moved to his study, where he can sit among his books and papers. His new saying is "when you're in bed, you're dead."
I spent 2 days just sleeping on the stairs of the ship that made my body extremely sore and my eyes were extremely tired and then came a thought in my mind if I will get out of this ship safely and if was ever going to make to America. Then finally I got to the Ellis Island with such an excitement however I was shocked to the see the big lines to make sure all the passengers were disease free and everyone had legitimate paperwork to enter in this country. Finally after proving my identity and showing the proper paperwork, I was able to board on another ship that was taking me to New York my final destination. Then again the same story in the ship, had to suffer because of no
Coincidently, we were both recently fired from our jobs, and we had to go pick up our last paychecks that day. I told him that I would pick him up in an hour. We cashed our checks at a local bar and we were on our way. On the road I told Scott how much fun that the previous night’s R.E.M. concert was and he just laughed and said, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”.
I wake up on the night stand with the bright morning sun shining on my dark black surface. My owner laid me to rest early last night. Usually I am up late working in the oval office with him. At times we were up all night long, not last night though, we go out of the office early. He laid me on the stand, kissed the Misses, and nodded off.
As it turns out that night and the wonder of going to my first concert was one of the most inspiring moments of my life. After waking up the morning after the show it seemed I couldn’t satisfy my lust for music. I started finding ways to listen to music whenever I could. Even during the short 3 block walk to school I had to have my walkman. For my ninth birthday all I asked for was more music.
16 hour drive days. 4 hours, break, another 4 hours, break, another 4 hours, bed. Repeat the next day. It was exhausting. I could only play slug bug and listen to the same 30 songs on my MP3 player consisting of High School Musical and The Jonas Brothers so many times before feeling like I was literally dying of boredom.