It was New Years Eve, and I was trying to get back to Copenhagen from the little island in the Baltic where I was stationed as sergeant in the Danish army.
The ferry had left on time for its eight hour trip, but the weather was bad, and we were late.
The ferry was full of enlisted men who wanted, more than anything in this world, to go home and get drunk for the new year.
And then the PA system announced:
Sgt. Madsen to the bridge. Ship to shore call.
Now this is the early sixties, and in Denmark long distance calls were rare and expensive. Ship to shore calls on the ferry were even more rare.
Looking back, these many years later, I see a crowd of guys who just wanted to get home, get drunk and-- hopefully-- get laid, listening to some dude getting a ship to shore call which was, well,
weird and impressive.
And all it was about was my friends being concerned about me not being at their gathering.
But it gave me a lot of clout though.
The guy who had a Ship to Shore call New Years Eve.
Me.
No comments:
Post a Comment