Bravo Billy: Autobiography

What New Orleans Means to Me

Mon, 29 May 2006 17:05:22 GMT

I got a newsletter from Benjamin Franklin class of 62 today and I am in tears. I have memories flushed inside outside and drizzling down my cheeks. I have memories of snowball stands. Hell, I used to work at one, selling pickled pigs lips and snowballs to little black kids and sandwichs right after I left the Naval Academy. This was on Freret Street. That was one of streets that had the electric trolley buses when I first got to New Orleans. I wonder what happened to the snowball stands.

I remember Napolean Ave, St.Charles Street Car, and K&B drug stores, purple. I remember Chris Smither and I going into the drug store and ordering water for a fizzy, pulling out our own fizzies. Hamburgers at lunchtime.

New Orleans, was always music to me. And it was garlic, the smell of garlic on the bus on people's breathes as I rode the Magazine Street bus to downtown Canal Street. I would cross it then to wander through the wonder of the French Quarter. There were art stores, the smell of old beer along the way. I would feel the cool breezes coming from the insides of the different shops, bars, and restaurants that I would pass by as I would wander through.

I was on a mission going to meet someone in the French Quarter. I remember the sounds of the various shoeshine boys, "shoeshine mister, for a quarter, I'll tell where you got them shoes," I was intrigued as to how they could possibly know where I bought them. "Hambone"...I remember the sounds of the various musicians and I would stop briefly. Some were white, some black. There were various performers, mimes, musicians, and dancers all performers for whatever they could. I would keep on trucking. It was an important date in Jackson Square.

I cut through the Cabildo and heard a ship blow its whistle on the river. I wanted to go to the river, something pulled me to river and the ships. I remember going inside St. Louis Cathedral just for a moment and remembering my confirmation to Catholicism. I remember oyster poboys at little shops and eating oysters on the half shelf with a cold draft beer, followed by shrimp with sauce.

New Orleans was foods, smells, sounds from the Lake Front all down Esplanade, through the French Quarter, up and down Canal Street, across the Algiers ferry and back, up and down the Magazine Street busline, up and down the St.Charles Ave. Street Car Line to Benjamin Franklin. New Orleans was riding a bicycle or taking the train through the Park, and Monkey Hill. New Orleans were the trees, the flying roaches at night, the snap, crackle and pop of walking down the street.

New Orleans was my father's apartment building at Napolean and St. Charles Ave. across from a K & B drug store. New Orleans was the little neighborhood restaurant that he would take us to, making sure that we all knew that he was paying for it, pulling out a $50.00 bill. New Orleans to me started out to be a memories of stress, then were followed up with memories only those who are from New Orleans can understand. I remember watermelons at Chris Smither's house, mischief on the waterfront with him, walking up and down the railtracks along the river.

New Orleans was working at warehouse jobs, living in slave quarter apartments, having my first job, having my first true love, riding a bike to work. New Orleans was riding a bicycle from the French Quarter to Tulane University flying down Freret Street. New Orleans was driving out to the point to park with a date.

New Orleans was riding the Zephyr out at the Lakefront. It was crossing the Mississippi River Bridge and then coming back over on the Huey P. Long Bridge. New Orleans was the sounds of tugboats, horns blowing, people yelling, whistles, things clanging, buses kissing and hissing as they stopped, streetcars bells and I had forgotten it all until now.

New Orleans was Robert E. Lee Circle and forgetting to turn and going back around again. New Orleans was meeting people for lunch, inspecting buildings, drinking beer right out of the Jax brewery. New Orleans was getting punched in the mouth, having my tooth broken in Jackson Square. New Orleans was La Casa, the Napolean House, Dixie's, the Acropolis, and running around on the northern end of the Quarter.

New Orleans was packing everything up and going to Washington, DC and coming back again. New Orleans was going to Illinois and staying too long. New Orleans was taking trips after a divorce and my mother's death. New Orleans was an affair with a friend of my sisters. New Orleans is where we met when my mother and when father died.

New Orleans is where I went for my 20th year high school year reunion staying at a place on St. Charles Ave. New Orleans is where I went for my 40th year reunion.

New Orleans is just plain home to me. Now what?

Viet Nam

Tue, 16 May 2006 18:35:27 GMT

Viet Nam

Britt W. and I walked into a bar on Decatur Street while they were showing films against the war in Viet Nam. They started out with local news, and then became like something from overseas and then View Nam itself. The thing ended with Cubans arguing about how they needed to fight against Communism. I thought nothing of the whole thing. I had no idea that the US Government was keeping track of all who went in the place.

Since I had a Security clearance, then next thing I knew, when I got back to the base, I was under investigation by the National Security Agency. Well, when they spoke to me, I was honest with them and volunteered to work for them.

I was sent for training, outside of Falls Church, Virginia. I drank most of the time during the training. But, I learned hand to hand combat. And when I was trained on the rifle again, they showed me how to fire a weapon from the hip, since I had had problems with rapid fire at the Naval Academy.

I also learned Survival...

We walked for miles looking for some place to lay down and get a nap. I was exhausted. My body was searing with pain and I was sweating more than I was drinking. The heat was unbearable as was the humidity.

Three days earlier I had been joking how it reminded me of New Orleans. Now I would have gladly be returned to New Orleans. I had no idea where we where headed the night we left....

All I knew was that I was outfitted with a radio and a M14.

I soon found out how screwed up this was. Half the guys were not combat trained. I thank God now that I had been. Frank was telling me how he had learned to eat snakes in his training, but that he had flunked the final test.

I got the impression that we were the flunkouts of the military. Each of us had something that we had walked into or were trying to overcome. All I knew I wanted to survive this. By the time we got to Okinawa, I traded the M14 for a pumpaction shotgun.

Buck was clowning around harassing the kid from New York by getting close to him with his breath.. The kid was real shaky and I suspected he was on something.

As we touched down in Danang, we were met by Maj. Tom. US Marine Corps. I thought I was hallucinating because he did not look like most Marines. His hair was long and he wore a bandana around it.

I wanted to drink so bad to make it all go away or smoke some pot. Major Tom had convinced me to keep myself straight while I was here. He and I would drink a little beer now and then. But, he told me I needed to slow down, and keep myself straight, and I would stay alive. He taught me how to listen to the sounds all around me and learn what was friendly sound and what was not.

It really tore me up the day they brought Tom in. The bastards killed him because he had learned about Air America and what they were doing in the drug scene. He was really pissed. There was so much that he and I had found out about, that we tried to pass on, that we found out that when we talked to the wrong person, then people would die:

I was walking point. I heard noise behind me then firing. I dove into the water in the pond that was nearby. For three days I lay there. Snakes crawled over me. Charlie (The VC) did not see me and walked right past me shouting and saying something.

Four days had gone by and I had no idea how many of us were alive. All I could do was dry myself off and try to stop shaking. I was cold and hot at the same time.

Focus, Bill, focus. Get the radio. Get the ammo. Get your ammo. I had been laying in the water somewhere in Southeast Asia while my unit got shot up. I was hot and cold, scared and tired and hungry and lonely all rolled into one.

I walked back to the unit and found bodies and parts of bodies all over the place. I wanted to puke, drink, get drunk, stay alive, cry, go home, all at the same time.

I found Jacob still alive and Buck was moaning loudly, “Medic.” I said, “Hush your mouth, boy, you want get us all killed. Then I went over to see what I could do for Jacob. But before I could even get to him, he died.

Buck, saw me and, said, “What you doin’ here, fool?” I went over to him and tried to stop the bleeding but it was too much. He told me to just hold him and, then asked if I knew Jesus. There was blood on my chest, and I had blood on my hand from trying to stop the bleeding.

It was after the unit got shot up, that I started keeping watch, and listening to the flow of traffic on the radio. I was transferred to a Comm Center back in Danang after that. I was burned out with the bush any way, and I was Navy to begin with. I was supposed to be working for NSA to start out.

I think it was a test or something. There was indoctrination in our original training, and I was already convinced that Ho Chi Min was a jerk, just by seeing what was happening to the people around the area. The communists had no regard for any of the people. But, when I found out that our own people were playing games with us, I lost it.

Then they started their petty shit with me. So I volunteered for every hairy assignment there was. I ran into Frank again. Frank and I got lost in the bush one time. Frank was the same one who talked about eating snakes in survival. But, when I ran into him in the bush, and he and I were lost, trying to find our way back to a pick up point, he fucking broke down crying, blubbering about apologizing for scaring me.

We ran during the day, and slept a little during the night what we could in the bush, then ran more the next day. I don’t have a clue how we made it to the pick up point when we did; but, some how we were there right on time when the fucking Huey showed up.

All I know is Charlie showed up, too. But, the gunner in the chopper, took care of him, all three of them. And they were just three kids. Three fucking kids trying to kill our asses. And all we wanted to do is get out of there. Frank and I got aboard and the stupid, pilot spins that sucker around and I am not quite in, and almost fall out. I could have kicked his ass, the mother-fucker. But, he was my way back to a shower and pack of cigs. Frank was already crashed out. And I was headed that way soon.

Finally, I am transferred to listening post south of Danang, near Chu Lai. A gook shows me around the post. By this time I am learning to accept almost anything. I really missed Major Tom. I was pissed how he was snuffed, but I was not about tell anybody what he and I knew was going on with Air America and the drug scene.

I quickly stowed my shit into a hooch and found the comm unit. All I was supposed to do was listen for odd ball traffic. I made sure I brought my .45 with me each day. Some of the guys would laugh at me because nothing had ever happened at this comm center.

It was like this was the place where the fuckups and burnouts were sent for rest. I could hear an occasional jet go overhead, Hueys going in and out all the time and the sounds of distance gun and rocket fire. But, nothing nearby.

It was on early morning shift I went in, and barely had finished my second cup of coffee, when I saw out of the corner of my eye, the gook came in carrying a grenade. I quickly reached up, grabbed my .45 and blew him away. All the guys thought I was a hero.

But, it was too much for me. I just shut down. I could not handle it. The blood all over reminded me of the unit being shot up. I just shut down. I could not talk, nor did I want to talk…

They all kept saying, “Did you see what Dunn did?” The gook was going to blow us away and “Dunn saved our asses.”

The only problem was I was not supposed to be there according to the NSA. So the chopper just loaded me up, and off I went.

First I went to Danang, then to Okinawa. We stopped once for refueling somewhere, then in Hawaii, then in San Diego. I was switched to a plane to Colorado and there I was “deprogrammed.”

After several days, then I was shipped back to NAS New Orleans. I got back and I thought I was still in the Comm Center there. I found out I was assigned to the barracks when I went to got to work and my keypad did not work. Before it was over, I was written up several times.

I decided I was going to get out of the Navy. I acted bonkers and they sent me to the Naval Hospital in Pensacola, FL.

I received more “debriefing” there from the doctor. By the time I got out, I did not remember having ever gone to Viet Nam at all. The memories came back after I stopped drinking.

I would up with a General under Honorable Conditions discharge. Then I moved in with my father, and later down in the French Quarter in New Orleans, then back with father.

This is all before the 4 failures at marriage, fathering 2 sons, getting my AAS in Radio Engineering, BA in Communication/TV Production, living on an Indian Reservation in South Dakota with the Lakota while working at KILI radio, starting recovering from alcoholism and addiction to marijuana in 1985. It wasn't until the recovery that I started having memories coming back to me.

One morning I was taking a bath and flashbacked to the blood on my hands and chest. I have survived. Now what?

United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.

Tue, 16 May 2006 18:17:09 GMT

Then within 3 weeks I was in: United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md. When we got there we had our heads shaved off. I felt like a cow going through the branding, and I never saw Mike Sinisi again. The first few Sundays we were in the Chapel at Protestant service. Later, we marched into town to the Episcopal Church.

I learned to fold clothes and I still fold my clothes the same way to this day. I received a laundry number, I received my service number.

They told us that Plebe Year started on 5 July 1962. I thought that I would wake up and start to “brace up.” At midnight, they woke us up, and the legitimate harassment began. I remember pushing balls of socks down the hall, saying, "Beep, beep, sir."

Some of the things I learned at the Naval Academy: I learned to fire a 45 caliber automatic. I learned to fire a M1. I was already familiar firing rifles. But my rapid fire group was scattered.

I learned the value of teamwork. I learned to sail a small boat. I learned to fence, en guard. I learned the meaning of Honor and keeping your word. There were only five responses to questions: yes, sir; no, sir; I’ll find out, sir; no excuse, sir; and aye, aye, sir.

I did not know that I have low blood sugar and Attention Deficit Disorder would kick in when the low blood sugar is amplified. What would happen would be that I would not get enough to eat and then my blood sugar be low, and I would not be able to think straight.

One day I got lost and mixed up could not figure out where I was supposed to be for class. By the time I got to the room I broke down crying. The first semester I made it okay except for chemistry. The second semester, all hell broke loose and the upperclassmen focused on me. I got almost 200 demerits in two weeks. I wanted to die.

Ludwig Von Shumaker, who wanted to be a Marine Officer and Bill Bondi were at opposite ends of the table when I finally broke down and tried to choke myself. Before it was over I decided to resign from the Naval Academy.

I told my mother, my legal guardian, I wanted to be an Episcopal Priest. My father was very unhappy with me. Because I was at the Naval Academy, I had incurred a 6 year obligation to Navy.

I came home then joined a reserve unit, but did not go to weekend meetings. I missed a special drill and I was called to active duty. I decided to sign up for Training Active Reserve Duty at New Orleans.

That is where I met Britt W. He is one of the guys with whom I used to go out drinking in the French Quarter. While I was in the Navy I lived in an apartment with Phil. Phil would practice his French horn.

I used to see Clark W. getting off work then rushing to take a shower and coming in late. Clark wound up introducing me to Maggie M. And the next thing I knew I was getting off work and coming in late. I had an affair Maggie M. who was 12 years older than me. She was in a play. Seeing it was like an education in theater: from reading of parts, watching the set get built, rehearsals, to opening night.

I also worked at your Father’s Mustache Banjo parlor. I drove a 54 Ford and a Honda 305 Dream motorcycle. The whole time I was drinking and started to smoke marijuana. I hung out at La Casa De Los Marino’s , the Acropolis, the Napoleon House and the Seven Seas and various other places in the French Quarter. I hung out in Jackson Square, drank coffee and chicory on Decatur Street, listening to boat whistles at the same time.

Benjamin Franklin High School

Tue, 16 May 2006 18:06:58 GMT

Benjamin Franklin HS, New Orleans, La

The next thing I knew I was going to a introductory meeting Benjamin Franklin High School, for IQ of 120 and above:

I took my Ham Radio operator QSL cards, thinking I would be “cool”, and hand them out like business cards. That is how I met Chris Smither. He was doing the same thing. Chris and I became friends all through high school and after into college.

During my sophomore year, I dated different girls, went on hay rides, went to dances. Chris and I ran the record hops. I built a switcher in a cigar box and Chris made it better.

There was a dance called the Bug that the guys did acting like they had a bug on them, then passing the Bug onto another guy all to the music.

Chris played his guitar since he was eleven, and was starting to play at parties now. I hung out a Chris’s house, since my house was very tense.

I had a crush on his twin sister, Kit. Also, I went steady with Maureen M. and dated her my Junior and Senior Year. She wrote to me while I was away in school.

I remember going to Rick Levy’s house and his father was Fat’s Domino’s attorney and listening to Fat’s Domino music on a tape recorder. Because there were some Jewish kids at Franklin, I began hanging out a the Jewish Community Center dances.

A lot of the time, it was because I was doing anything to do get away from home as my parents were going through tension and not happy. My sister Jane came home from college and became a Playboy Bunny. Daddy was not happy.

One time, Daddy and I were confrontational and before it was over, he had hit me in the head. The whole time I was an acolyte at the Episcopal Church. My mother decided to leave my father.

After My mother, brother and sister and I had moved out and my father had resolved the separation, there was the issue of where I would be going to school for college.

I was never sure what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to be: 1. An Episcopal Priest. 2. A Naval Officer. 3. Electronics Engineer. I looked at Georgia Tech, using NROTC, the program which paid your way to different schools while you trained for Naval Officers. I flunked the test for color blindness for the NROTC. I took the test for the Coast Guard Academy, but did not pass.

Finally I decided to go to the U.S Naval Academy. I had a Senatorial Appointment; and ,somehow passed the color blindness test . Benjamin Franklin was happy. Daddy was happy. Mama was happy.

I graduated from Benjamin Franklin and within two weeks Mike Sinisi and I went to his family on Long Island and White Plains and I ate Italian food like crazy. Within three weeks I was at...

Wright Jr. High Days, New Orleans, La.

Tue, 16 May 2006 17:57:26 GMT

Wright Jr. High Days, New Orleans, La.

Mama drove us from Georgia to New Orleans. Daddy went ahead finding a house. The first thing I remember when I got to New Orleans was the banana tree in the back yard. The second thing was the little black boy that wanted to play with my brother Bob. We lived in a two story house on 703 Napoleon Ave. below Magazine Street. There were electric trolley buses on Magazine Street.

I was just learning to dance. I was going Wright Jr. High School. Jane and Mama outfitted me in Ivy league shirts and slacks and white bucks shoes like Pat Boone. The problem was that the kids at Wright dressed in jeans and black loafers and were from a different part of town.

They would ask me, “What are you, Cat or Frat?” And I did not know what they were talking about. Alan Dupre and I became friends because he wore white buck shoes. He liked the DJ’s. And one time He and I went to see one of the DJ’s.

Another thing I did when I was at Wright was march in a Mardi Gras Parade because I was still in the Boy Scouts. I was in the honor guard. But I lost interest in the Boy Scouts when they took us camping because their idea of camping was to, take us out and set up a camper and the Scoutmaster cook for the boys. So I quit.

This was beginning to be a pattern for me. I had already quit piano lessons, now I quit Boy Scouts.

I was also friends Felipe Echeverria. I was an active acolyte in the Episcopal church during this time and was not a fighter. My father never taught me to fight. So when the boys would taunt me, I would say it is against my religion.

One day they followed me home trying to get me fight. The next Monday, they set up someone to pick on me and he threw the stuff from my pockets down the stairwell. By the time we got to the gym, I was pissed off and swung at him and he hit me giving a bloody nose. The fight ended. At least I tried.

But, I was never able to defend myself, and always being intimidated by Jesse Fernandez. Even during the summer vacation, he would stop his car and harass me. Someone told me they had decided I was one of three most queer guys in school: Felipe Echeverria, and Alan Dupre being the other two. Felipe is now a PhD. Alan I am not so sure about.

So when I met Andy Calandria, who introduced me to ham radio at Wright, I realized that I was not queer, just smarter than the rest. Andy helped get my ham license. KN5UFA. Daddy told me if I got my license he would buy me the transmitter. I already was using the shortwave receiver that was in my room. Mama and Wright Jr. High had me getting ready for High School, but I was not sure where I was going to go.

Smelly Springs, Augusta, Georgia

Tue, 16 May 2006 17:46:44 GMT

Smelly Springs, Augusta, Georgia

We visited Aunt Sister and Uncle Bob and Mama’s Mama in New York and then we took the train to Georgia. When we got to Augusta, at first we stayed at the BOQ at Fort Gordon, then Daddy found a house where there were 4 cats. When he found the house at where we called Smelly Springs.

We could take only one cat, so we took Boots with us. Boots had all kinds of cats with the old tom cat that was there. Daddy made a bedroom for me and Jane and Fontaine shared a room off the breezeway. The house was on a pond and I used to fish and swim.

Daddy made me learn how to clean fish and then taught me how to cook fish. I am now glad he did. Another thing I learned at Smelly Springs was how to press clothes.

I joined YMCA and they had everybody swim in the nude. At the YMCA, I won first place in a Halloween contest when Jane and Fontaine dressed me up as a girl.

We used to listen to the radio until I was about 11 when we got a TV set. Then we started watching TV. George Pierce and I used play war going in and out of the swamp with our cap rifles. We would dig foxholes and leave them when snakes would come into them.

There were forest fires. I remember one time when Daddy was burning weeds with his burning and accidentally started a forest fire and the farmers came from all over. Another time, I was burning trash and the fire came out the barrel. There was another time I remember it going through the tops of the trees.

I went to Bayvale Elementary School. At Bayvale, I volunteered to be patrol boy and helped out on the buses and at lunch time. I was considered a Richmond County Jr. Deputy Sheriff. I had a little badge on my white belt that crossed my chest. I also helped put the flag up and down. We were supposed to sell magazine subscriptions, but I could not do it, going from house to house.

I was active in the Boy Scouts in Troop 99 sponsored by the Army at Ft. Gordon. On campouts, they would take us out in the woods and dump us and have us set up our tents, cook our own dinner, dig our on latrines. Everything was mapped out on a written schedule for us. Later, we had the “Little Men’s Chowder and Marching Society” that was supposed to be some sort of “secret” society but everybody in the troop belonged to it. We would sing and have fun. I enjoyed camping out with that troop.

We used to play Clue and Monopoly as a family. Jane started having boys come over to the house and lots of different guys hung out. My favorite one was Mickey. He worked at the local TV Station. But he was killed in an automobile accident.

Daddy went to Korea and all the while he was gone I had to chop the wood for the fire place. When came back, there was talk about he and mama divorcing. But, he was transferred to New Orleans and we all had to go there. I really hated to leave Smelly Springs. When we left, we had 19 cats we left behind.

My Life

Tue, 16 May 2006 17:37:12 GMT

My Life William Perl Dunn, Jr. My background is Scots-Irish. I am a direct descendant of Irish Billy Dunn who came here in 1808 from Ireland. My father was William Perl Dunn. His father was William Pearl Dunn. His father was Henry T. Dunn and William J. Dunn also known as Irish Billy Dunn was his father. Irish Billy had 10 children.

I feel like I was born on the road. The first thing I remember was reaching down into a cooking pot for a piece of bread while we were in transit from Georgia to Pennsylvania when Daddy was transferred to Carlyle, Pa. I love eating tomatoes and I remember eating them at Aunt Heddy’s and Aunt Annie’s house in Colquitt, Ga., before we left. I am not sure when the memories are, before or after. At any rate, I kept being asked where I got my red hair from and I would say from eating tomatoes, smart ass that I am.

Then, we went back to North Augusta, SC, while Daddy was in Camp Gordon, Ga., Mama was always going to church, and leaving us with black baby sitters. And one night, some of them stole money from her mite box.

But it was right after the war. Then Daddy had to go to Germany, and he take us with him. We were all excited. So we went to New York first, and we got to see Aunt Sister and Uncle Bob, and Mama’s mama. She was a little white haired lady. And my cousin Billy Wheeler sent me a nice little red car from California. His father is Uncle Al, my mother’s brother and Aunt Jo. I think she is Italian.

So we went to Germany by ship. I do not remember to much about the ship ride over there, other than the loud horns and fog. I remember having to stay at the BOQ (Bachelor Officer’s Quarters until Daddy found us a house in Kissingen, Germany. That’s near Wurtzburg on the Mien River. Daddy was Deputy Provost Marshal there. I went to school with black kids there at the Army Dependents schools.

We moved when I was in first grade to Bremerhaven. It was on the waterfront and that is when I realized that I really liked the waterfront. That is where Mama and Daddy had a party and the floor was waxed big time. Fontaine and I were chasing each other around and I slid into a radiator and split my forehead open and had to have it stitched. The guests put there coats on my bed and said hi to me.

Later on, I am not sure of the time frame, Mama kept drinking. She hid her whiskey and German beer bottles in my dresser drawers. Finally, she was sent back to the States to Walter Reed hospital.

During this time, we had governesses. I liked the Scottish one, best. She would make us take baths in the same bath water. Because it was winter she had me wear three pair of underwear. She took me down to the waterfront and there I found out I liked the boats rocking and the seagulls calling to each other.

But, I guess that Daddy and her did not get along, so we got a different governess named Miss Jost, who thought she looked like Elizabeth Taylor. And I think that Daddy liked her because he bought her dresses. Fontaine and I used to play hospital on the bed together and we missed Mama.

Mama came back from the States and then we had to move to Augsburg. I was in the 2nd grade in the Army dependent schools. I also had a medical problem with my kidneys--nephritis. One night I started peeing blood. It was scary. This was right after some man had made me do bad things to him with his penis. It was in the basement. Nobody knew what had happened to me because I was too ashamed to tell them. I was scared of him. He worked at the house as a fireman, keeping the house warm. But, I think Daddy figured it out because, he was a military policeman. Because when I got back from the hospital, the man was gone.

There were always halftracks and trucks running through the dirt roads. Jane, Fontaine and I would play at the bottom of this big Iron Cross, across the road. And Jane would chase us with sheep doo-doo. Mama would play Chopin and other classical music on the piano. Jane and I took piano lessons. But we did not keep on doing it. I am able to play music by ear. But, my parents did not encourage either one of us to continue.

We took a trip to the British Isles: England, Ireland and Scotland. When we were in England, I ate kippered herring, butter was on rationing. Then we flew in a DC-3 to Ireland. We drove all over Ireland. I saw the name Dunn all over Dublin. We went to the Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney Stone. I am afraid of heights and had a hard time going down the old stone stairs and Daddy was very impatient with me. But we made it down.

Then we flew to Scotland in a DC-3 and heard bagpipes on Loch Lumen, I saw Daddy crying when he heard the bagpipes. And I cry now when I hear the pipes. When I hear them, there is something that calls me home. It stayed daylight until 11 at night. We took a train back to England and stayed at the William Shakespeare Hotel at Stratford on the Avon. We then took the train back to Germany.

While we were in Germany, we would see different stars like Vic Damon, and others who would come and perform for the troops. They would hand out candy cigarettes. Lucky Strikes were the going brand back then. Finally I remember going to the PX and getting Double Bubble Gum and sharing with the German boys. They would build sand castles that had marbles coming out in different places.

When we went back to the States, we took a DP (Displaced Person) ship back. Fontaine kept having problems with her ears. I met a skinny man and I told him that I liked his beard and he cried. Then his nephew came to help him. He showed me the tattoo on their arms. He told me to tell the world what I saw. When we reached The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island at New York City, The skinny people danced in a circle and the man with the beard waved to me. He wore a black hat. After that I did not want to eat much.