Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Beware of Pink Curlers!

In Basic Training, we usually went everywhere in double-time. That was the Army's way to jog somewhere in formation. It also wasn't unusual for our drill sergeant to have us double-time somewhere and then we'd have to wait.

Hence, the expression: hurry up and wait.

And don't you just love the picture of me? I'm holding a gas mask. We were practicing how quickly we could put them on and get them properly sealed.

The hair was kind of an accident. lol I got a perm because I thought it'd be easier to care for. I totally forgot about having to wear a hat anytime we went outside. And the top of the perm didn't take well.

Unfortunately, we had to wear an Army baseball cap whenever we went outdoors. Which, of course, as soon as I took my hat off, made my hair on top stand at attention. 

One morning, I overslept and had to hurry to get in formation to head to the mess hall. I just put my hat over my curlers. It wouldn't matter because our company policy was to wear our hats in the mess hall. 

But, this day was different, I discovered. Not all of us had gone home for Christmas, and this was the first meal with us in what was called the Christmas Company and included members from all five companies in our battalion.

And we had a different company commander in charge--who had different hat rules! This commander wanted us to remove our hats while we ate.

Just so you know. Wearing pink curlers was not considered being in uniform. As soon as I took off my hat, I'd be busted.

Since I didn't have to remove my hat until I sat down, I spent 45 minutes working my way through the long chow line and then simply passed by the serving line (and all that food). I left the the building and returned to our barracks.

No breakfast, but I also didn't get in trouble. 

12 comments:

  1. The one day you had to take off your hat! Bet you didn't do that again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I still wore the curlers until I could get my hair trimmed but never outside the barracks. lol

      Delete
  2. Glad you figured out a way not to get in trouble even if you didn't get to eat, which is too bad.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Leaving those curlers on you was just accident waiting to happen LOL

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's hilarious! Way to think on your feet. My son is in Army boot camp right now, so I am now familiar with the idea of getting "smoked" for every little thing. You probably missed having to do push ups for every pink curler you had hidden in your hat. LOL

    Thank you for your service. I don't thin that can ever be said often enough.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pushup were so hard for me too.

      And thank you! <3 Same to your son!

      Delete
  5. Ack! The one day. Thanks for sharing. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a great memory! I hope you can work it as a scene into a story or novel.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That is hilarious! My dad made me go shopping with him, and I had a date that night. So stupid me wore my pink curlers to the grocery store thinking we'd be in and out super fast. NOPE! Two freaking hours later, and one cute meet. I wanted to die!

    ReplyDelete

Comments brighten my day.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...