CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR—BARRACKS DISCIPLINE

   

Eugene, age 12, standing near Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D. C.

     The following year my aunt again asked my mother if John and I could spend two weeks at her home in Arlington, Virginia. I was twelve years old. I could go. However, my brother John had just obtained a senior life saving certificate and at age 17 he was hired to be the life guard at the Cortlandt Lake beach that summer. So my aunt asked her younger brother Bill Melville, who lived near Dover, Delaware, if he and his wife would permit their oldest son Jim to vacation at Arlington. Permission granted.

     Jim was 12 years old too. My aunt picked us up at the airport and we made the Washington, D.C., rounds again. On the following day my aunt drove us along the Blue Ridge Parkway to view the beautiful scenery. I think we went back to Mount Vernon and visited an amusement park across the Potomac river too.

     One incident stands out in my memory during that summer vacation in 1951. It involved Harmon, Katheryn, Jim and myself. One night, around 10 P.M., she told Jim and me to go to bed. The implied meaning, of course, was go to sleep. But it was a typical hot and humid summer night in Arlington, made worse by lack of air conditioning or overhead fan. Jim and I talked about our adventures and discoveries of the day. My aunt came back and again told us to go to sleep. Due to the extreme heat, Jim and I were naked on the bed, and I thought I saw her smile before she closed the door and returned to the living room. Jim and I started to laugh.

     Uncle Harmon was reading a book in the living room. My aunt was trying to read a book too. In less than five minutes my aunt went to our bedroom door a second time with the same worn-out request, and we just laughed again and continued talking after she left. I guess Harmon got riled or he just wanted to scare the hell out of us for the fun of it. Lt. Col. Reardon got up from his chair and came to the door and bellowed: "God damn it, shut up and go to sleep!"

     We were asleep in less than five minutes. He did scare the hell out of us. Many years later my aunt told me that Harmon's face had a broad smile as he returned to his chair and reopened his book. She said that she had smiled too.