Go further back
Last night I got a call. The caller ID said "County, Rutherford" (A county here in North Carolina) and I thought to myself, "It must be for Allie, there's no one in Rutherford County I want to talk to!" I was mistaken. It was a guy named Ronnie Bailey who went through Marine Corps boot camp in Parris Island with me back in 1984! I was shocked. What really surprised me, though, was how well I remembered him and how pleased I was to talk to him.
I asked Allie after the call, "I wonder why it was so 'thrilling' for me to hear from him?" Her response was insightful, and probably should have been obvious to me, though it wasn't. "It's part of your identity, it's part of who you are!" And, she is dead on with that. I've even posted about how that short period of my life from 14 March through 12 June, 1984, so totally changed my life; changed nearly everything about me. He just called me back a few minutes ago because he was at work last night, got busy, and had to hang up. He works at the local sheriff's office. Law enforcement is a more common career path following the Corps, but I'm glad to be where I am.
He misses it more than me, I think. We were in during a lull in world events, between Lebanon and Iraq. Believe it or not, that's always been a regret for me as well, having not "seen action" after training so much for it. But, I've moved on and the wisdom of maturing has shown me that I was better off to miss "action" as it were. I was changed enough; too much, in some ways.
It's amazing and intriguing how you get a phone call like that. Someone lightly waves their fingers through your mind, stirring up memories like so much sediment in a long stagnant pond. I'll be deep in cloudy thoughts for days before they settle again. And it feels good, like the strength I felt after those hard runs and rope climbs. Yeah, I think, I did that!
