Why we never visited my father’s parents

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With me in tow, on her way to stay with my father in Guam, my mother stopped over in San Diego to visit with her father-in-law, Harry Minkler, for the first time. Discovering that he was a pedophile, she swore to herself that her children would have no contact with him henceforth. Later, growing up, I sometimes casually wondered why we regularly visited with my mother’s parents in Tennessee, but not with my father’s in Texas. I only later learned, as an adult, about my mother’s decision and how she convinced my father to go along. Actually, it was one of those occasions where she “put her foot down.”

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Love those storms

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My father, a navy man, was stationed in Guam near the end of WWII. In charge of some Japanese prisoners of war, my mother and I joined him there. The three of us lived in a one-room quonset hut. A typhoon hit. My father, mother, and I were up on the bed, out of the foot-deep water in our little home. The wind and torrential rain pelted from every side. My mother was thrilled with the violence of the storm. My father thought she was crazy. All my life I have loved storms, tornadoes, hail, earthquakes, and volcanoes. I suppose I can thank my mother for that. LOL.

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Gambling for our groceries

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On Saturday nights a few sailors would visit our quonset hut for beer and poker. My mother, staying sober, would win enough hands to pay for our weekly groceries. She gave the sailors instructions to keep their beer cans off the floor so that I wouldn’t crawl around and drink from them.

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Why do I like Asian women?

 

Some small groups of Japanese prisoners of war would often pass near the quonset hut where we lived. My mother said I would wave at them from the window and they were delighted to see me, waving back. They had been away at war for over four years and it had been a long time since they had seen a baby. I’ve often wondered about my attraction to Asian women and thought that it may have stemmed from this early experience of being happily exposed to Japanese (Asian) men.

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World War II ends

 

On September 2nd, Japan officially surrenders and World War II ends. I was one year and 46 days old.